Jake wrote:SkinsFreak wrote:I've always liked Khary. Good guy and a good special teamer. But in seven years, he's had a career high of 34 tackles. He's always been a career back-up and I'm wondering why you think this is such a big loss. Just curious. Again, I know he was good on special teams, but...
He has been our best special teams defender the last five years. That's the whole point. He's led the team in special teams tackles most, if not all, of his time here and now the team is replacing him with two unknowns from the draft. Just another example of the team NOT rewarding their own guys. It's very irritating.
He was a special teams captain last year. His whole forte is special teams. He wasn't on the team for actual time at linebacker. He played special teams and played it very well. It was a HUGE mistake to let him go. Just because he's not a big name guy doesn't mean he didn't make big contributions. Just like Demetric Evans. The team shouldn't have let him go either.
Well, that's fair and I understand your point. But with the 53-man roster that teams are forced to abide by, very few players can take up one of those roster spots just to play special teams. Kickers, punters and long snappers, yes, but that's why most teams expect other players to also play special teams. James Thrash did this, as well as Rock Cartwright, and I think both can also be pointed to as top special teamers over the past five years.
I don't think Campbell was released just because he wasn't a big name. I think another primary factor in his release is that the team is trying to move in a direction of youth. Will our ST's suffer without Khary? Perhaps, but that remains to be seen.
As far as Evans is concerned, we drafted Brian Orakpo and Jeramey Jarmon, both young players with very strong potential and both could prove to be significant upgrades. But again, that remains to be seen. So in my opinion, it's not always so cut and dry to conclude the team made a mistake or just wanted bigger name guys. They wanted youth and upgrades, and to this point, none of us can conclude, one way or another, that those decisions were a mistake. We
may have gotten significant upgrades and I can tell you that our draft choices, from this year and last year, are going to be expected to contribute on teams. We always want to "build" through the draft, right? Just saying. It's tough sometimes, especially when we like certain players, but in this game, older players eventually get replaced with younger players. It's just the nature of the game.
It would be far too depressing.)