Someone give me an opinion...

[Diesel]

Brookings Vs. Spikes.

Price vs. Matthis.

Just two things I wanted to know about in Football.

[Dukegotgame]

Brooking vs. Spikes

This is very close IMO. I give it slightly to brooking b/c he is normally very good in pass coverage although he a couple of times he looked silly trying to cover people, but noramlly he is excellent.

Price vs. Mathis

Now? Price by 10 miles. In both of their primes? Still price easily. They are different WR's though. Mathis is a possesion guy. Price is the great deep threat we have lacked since Tony Martin. This element to our offense got us to the super bowl. But we didn't have Mike Vick then. Price is also easily better than Martin was in our superbowl run.

[Diesel]

Both Matthis and T Martin had great years our SB year. I think Matthis is underrated because he is a possesion reciever. It's like comparing Rison to Brown (Oakland). I think Brown is a much better player because he will catch anything. But if Price is better than Martin, then that's good. Who's our possession guy?

[DJ_Money]

Mathis was a good player, and key in our Super Bowl run, but he wasn't on the same level as Price is at now. Mathis never could change a game. Price has the ability to break one at any moment. I can't think of many more recievers that would be a better fit than Price.

Finneran will be our #2/possession WR. He will do fine it that role, I think. He just isn't cut out for the #1 role he played last year. Gaylor should be re-signed and split time with McCord as the #3/slot reciever. Crumpler is also a big recieving threat at TE.

[Traceman]

It remains to be seen how Price will handle being the go to guy though. Mathis was a very solid, very dependable receiver but he was never the game breaker that Price has the potential to be. I'd take Price for sure.

As for Brooking versus Spikes, I think Brooking is faster with more range but I think Takeo is a more aggresive hitter and more of a prototypical middle linebacker. If Brookings starts to make plays closer to the line of scrimmage, I think he could become an elite player but right now, he is a notch below Lewis, Urlacher, Brooks, etc. The bottom line is I think Brooking is a LITTLE better overall but certainly not much better.

[Dukegotgame]

It has been rumored that the falcons will select Anquan Bolden out of FSU if he is still aviable in the 2nd round. The Falcons were "thrilled" when he had a bad workout. He could become an elite possesion guy. Sort of like David Boston, but not with the problems.

I don't know if I would feel comfortable selecting him with our defensive needs, but our offense would be set. This isn't too good of a draft for CB's, so I think it would be a great pick considering this. If we can sign a big NT and a veteran corner we would be in great position. Next year we would have to go all out for a great corner though. It would probably be a bigger need than our WR was this year considering big play ray will be older. I hope Bolden and Carpenter can make complete recoveries. If they can't if Ken Hamlin or I think Bethume Mathis? are aviable in the 2nd I would grab them, but I doubt they will be esp. Mathis as his stock has been rising greatly over the past few weeks.

[ATLien_]

I disagree on Brooking and Spikes Traceman. I don't care how much coverage ability Good Ol boy has he is not an impact player. All he does is chase people down from behind. Coverage ability is an secondary characteristic for a 3-4 middle linebacker. Busting peoples heads and blowing up run plays, and causing havoc at the line of scrimmage are first and foremost. IMO there is no comparison on who is better at those things, Spikes. I'm not even sold that Brooking is better in coverage. Brooking is really better suited to play OLB IMO and playing middle linebacker goes away from his strengths.

Brooking is the football equivalent of Reef, He will always get the stats but rarely impact the game.

[Traceman]

Regardless of how he did it, Keith made 30 more solo tackles than Spikes did. That is a HUGE difference. In the case of guys like Lewis and Urlacher, they make just as many tackles as Brooking but they make a lot more plays at or behind the line of scrimmage. That makes them elite. As for Takeo, he is talented but to be mentioned with any of those guys, he has to be a lot more productive in my opinion.

[ATLien_]

Traceman I never said Spikes was as good as Urlacher or Lewis, but I do beileve he is as good as Brooking. If you believe that tackles are the most important stats for linebackers then I can see why you would think Brooking is better, but I don't think that is the most important stat. At the begining of the year Phillips said the defense was designed for Brooking to get the most takles. I think the more telling stat on how Brooking is doing is how many yards we gave up on the ground and let me tell you it wasn't pretty.

The falcons gave up 127.9 rush yards a game Cincinati gave up 125.5 a game. Atlanta's offensive time of possesion average is 32:02 mins a game and they averaged 25.1 pts a game. The Bengals time of possesion average is 28:54 and their O scored 17.4 ppg. So that means that the Bengals D was on the field almost 5 more minutes a game yet they averaged less run yards a game. I think that speaks volumes for spikes since he really doesn't have many good players around him, and their offense is anemic. Granted Spike had an off year, but his team was in absolute termoil the whole year.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that now that spikes is in buffalo he will eclipse brooking in every category. I hope I am wrong because I want our 10 million dollar man to be the best linebacker in the league, but I don't see it happening.

I realize the stats don't tell everything, but I am just trying to show that the talent level around each player is not equal.