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Earlier this season people were calling for Cable's head ('cept me of course). Over inflated ego, doesn't have a clue, worst line coach in the league, etc. Starting to look like a genius now that he has the center position figured out. If they pull off a run through the super bowl, people are gonna have a lot of crow to eat.

It would be interesting to understand who had the final say in Nowak starting over Lewis. Was Lewis hurt? The line play over the last few weeks doesn't seem to indicate "fluke" or coincidence that the line has improved by a enormous margin when Lewis began starting. It doesn't seem likely that Britt and Guilliam turned the corner around the time that Nowak was replaced. Someone made the decision to run Nowak out there for 7 weeks. Might be Cable, might be Pete, might be Bevell ~ IDK. But whoever made the call, probably cost the team a W or two.

Hawkstar wrote:It would be interesting to understand who had the final say in Nowak starting over Lewis. Was Lewis hurt? The line play over the last few weeks doesn't seem to indicate "fluke" or coincidence that the line has improved by a enormous margin when Lewis began starting. It doesn't seem likely that Britt and Guilliam turned the corner around the time that Nowak was replaced. Someone made the decision to run Nowak out there for 7 weeks. Might be Cable, might be Pete, might be Bevell ~ IDK. But whoever made the call, probably cost the team a W or two.

Both Pete and Tom answered that question in this interview

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nf ... 82775.html

The OL is coming together nicely, but they have to keep them together if we want a chance to get HFA next year.
We have Okung and Sweezy up for contracts this year, if we lose both, like we lost 2 last year, we will be in the same boat, maybe worse and maybe not make the playoffs.
We might be able to handle losing Sweezy if they can sign Okung, but losing both would be real difficult to overcome as many teams are looking for a good LT.
I'm not hopeful that we can re-sign Okung, but poor LT performance can really impact any Offense so I don't know what we will do if he does go elsewhere.

Both Pete and Tom answered that question in this interview

http://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nf ... 82775.html[/quote]


Thanks! Good read.

They are playing better as a group, but I think some changes still should be made next offseason. At a minimum, I'd like to see Sweezy replaced. I also think Okung will end up getting more money elsewhere, nor would I want the team to pay him top dollar to stay.

Mixed bag for me on Cable. If he were to go (which I doubt happens), it wouldn't upset me in the least.

I still think Sweezey is their biggest success in the D to O-lineman conversion yet. He's the tough guy of the unit since we let Carp go, and every Offensive Line needs one of those.

Okung NEEDS to stay! Sweezy and Okung are the best of the bunch by far! Now that they've added Lewis and 86'd a leak, the others have had time to gel and improve.... Time and experience have helped Britt and Gary. I would LOVE nothing more than to have this 5 together next year.

And while I started to wane, no doubt, I hung in there with Pete and Cable longer than most all y'all. Just sayin'

Crow? What's that? I'll have none in regards to the O-line this year anymore than in the past. Will take time I said, not going to be instant I said, don't overpay for mediocre free agents I said.... Looking good on this end....

pthawk wrote:Earlier this season people were calling for Cable's head ('cept me of course). Over inflated ego, doesn't have a clue, worst line coach in the league, etc. Starting to look like a genius now that he has the center position figured out. If they pull off a run through the super bowl, people are gonna have a lot of crow to eat.

A genius? Cable is the one that thought he could convert Drew Nowak into a starting center. If he was a genius, he wouldn't have put Nowak in that position in the first place. Had he given up on the experiment earlier, he might have saved us several losses.

I'm not going to give someone credit for cleaning up his own mess.

I would like this group to stay together with additional good picks as backups and eventual replacements.
Playing experience as a group is a major key to success, so replacing one or two along the OL might set us back to where we were early this season. It might be slightly mitigated by starting with a Center who knows what he's doing, but replacing Okung would be a big challenge. There's nobody in the draft that could step in and play at the same level as Okung. That would be a few years away and with LT being so important it would probably set us back by a big margin. If he does go in FA, it will force our hand and we'll probably have to go through the growing pains with a rookie.

But please, if they want OL in the draft, select OL who have played at a high level and already understand the basics of OL play. The NFL is no place to learn fundamentals while going against the best DLinemen in the game. As we saw with Nowack, it can be disastrous.

Only a small select group wanted Cables head. Most of us understood he was given Lemons on the OL and told to make a decent unit out of them. I blame PC, period.