Nink is a "huge loss?" He was putrid last year, this is addition by subtraction.
Look at the depth of the position. It is a big loss. He wasn't what he used to be but he came up with a few big plays last year in big spots. This will most likely force younger players to play bigger roles.
Younger players are a better bet than Nink is right now. He likely wouldn't be retiring if that was the case, unless maybe he failed another drug test. Either way, whatever few big plays he had (I don't recall many?) didn't make up for his overall play. He was really, really bad.
I think there's little chance they'd announce before a season and have all the extra questions all year long.
Repealed actually. It was 50 to 50, but Mike Pence was thrilled to jump in and cast the deciding vote.
Yup. Not as physically talented as Vrabel but very similar instincts. Have to wonder which player on some other team's training camp roster is going to continue the legacy. Obviously has to be a white OLB/DE hybrid from the Big 10 to qualify.
They're still on the hook for his 900,000 prorated portion of his signing bonus, but they save a 300,000 roster bonus and of course don't have to pay his 1,000,000 salary. He'll be replaced by a lower cost player, so they will save a few bucks had he made the team.
Holy shit, when was that play where it was like a 40-yard sack, at 2:03 on the video?
The great thing about the SoSH game thread/Ninkovich relationship wasn't just that he was underappreciated, it was more about the timing of the negative comments. More than any other player I can remember, Nink would get utterly eviscerated in the game threads early on in games, maybe because of a missed assignment or a missed tackle, and the game threaders would pile on as the game went on to the point where you'd think everyone wants Nink to get released at halftime. Then, at the height of the madness, Nink would have a ridiculous, game-saving play and everyone would forget about the first three quarters... and every time, someone would post, "Nink says 'Fuck you, SoSH'".
Nink and Brady are the only two Pats jerseys I own. He's up there in my book.
I think the reason for this gap is that Ninkovich (at least late in his career - earlier he was more of an off-ball linebacker) was an edge rusher who was mediocre at edge rushing, but was excellent at everything else - setting the edge, dropping into coverage, knowing his assignments, tackling, keeping gap discipline, etc. If you're Jim Schwartz and you run a wide-9 4-3 and want your DEs to scream off the edge every play - or for those fans who expect that out of their DE - Ninkovich isn't going to be your guy. Obviously the versatility, consistency, and dependability (only one missed game, back in 2009, other than last year's suspension) worked for Belichick and Patricia.
Agreed, and as you noted in the past Chandler Jones is pretty much the opposite---great at pure pash rushing, but not spectacular at a lot of other things.
I think some of the criticism of Jones' run D is overblown - he's pretty solid at the point of attack - but he's definitely more of a traditional 4-3 DE who doesn't give you the kind of flexibility a guy like Ninkovich does.
It's hard to get more Classic-Belichick than that.
To be clear: he's not remotely in the same category as those other guys, who all had well over 100 career sacks.
@seanspicer