4. EDGE
What I said:
“Preferable a player that plays ROLB or RE because they seem to like the Derrick Morgan/Kevin Dodd combo on the other side, but they need someone to bring the heat behind Orakpo.
The Tennessee Titans had 21.5 sacks from their outside linebackers, 19.5 of those came from Orakpo and Morgan. So if one of those guys goes down you are essentially losing half of your pass rush. That can’t happen.”
What Robinson did:
If you had asked me a few days ago, I would have just had to say “uh…” and give this a “D”, now we have a new player at the EDGE to discuss: Erik Walden.
Is Walden the savior of this team? No, (well…actually…nevermind we will get into that after the preseason) but he does give the Titans an stand up pass rusher with NFL experience who is coming off of a 10 sack season.
Aaron Wallace and Josh Carraway can have a spirited battle to be the 5th EDGE/ST player in camp, but now neither should have to play heavy snaps on defense which is REALLY important.
Both of those guys can be alright, but they aren’t guys you want to lean on at this point in their young careers.
Now I will say, this is the position that I think is still upgraded the least out of these 7 needs. However, with Orakpo, Morgan, Walden, and Dodd I think you can have a pretty decent 4-deep at EDGE that has top-end star power and some upside.
Grade: C+