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Playing without Mathis


bap1331

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I like to think positive but I feel like him being away has given a chance for the defense to find an identity as a whole, rather than just waiting for Mathis to make that big play to turn the game around. The D depended too much on him.

 

Its crazy to think what this team will be like when Mathis comes back next year. He might have 1 or 2 years left but yea.

 

Just wanted to hear your thoughts.

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They certainly haven't found their identity so far this season.

Some games they've been great, other days a complete mess. Some days they've generated a pass rush, other days they haven't. They've also been inconsistent in stopping the run.

We don't know what we're going to get from the defense week-to-week and it concerns me.

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Got your point, we're learning if others have the talent. And it's forcing our D to be creative.

Mathis, at least in the past, has allowed us to keep that extra blitzer in coverage. So it's obviously better to have him.

How he'll be next year in that roll? Anyone's guess. He is a workout warrior, so I wouldn't bet against him. But as we all know, age is undefeated.

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I like to think positive but I feel like him being away has given a chance for the defense to find an identity as a whole, rather than just waiting for Mathis to make that big play to turn the game around. The D depended too much on him.

 

Its crazy to think what this team will be like when Mathis comes back next year. He might have 1 or 2 years left but yea.

 

Just wanted to hear your thoughts.

It hurts not having him out there with us each week but look at it this way. With him being out were able to give some of the other guys more snaps which will help their growing process. I'm not really concerned with our pass rush as I was earlier this year .. I think we will be okay.

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What do you even mean by identity? Football is pretty simple: get to the QB and cover the receivers. Since we can't get to the QB with out blitzing, we blitz more. Since we cant successfully blitz top tier QB's, we lose. And that's why we probably won't be winning a Superbowl this year.

So no, Mathis being out is not a fortuitous circumstance in anyway.

Can you imagine if he was playing? We might have definitely beaten the Broncos and Pittsburgh with the number 1 seed in hand. The outcome of those games could be a lot different with a few strip sacks!

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To get hyped up over "our defense is good now, add Mathis and we'll be great" is jumping the gun, in my opinion.  By the time the season starts next year, he'll be 34 years old and coming off a major injury.  Mathis' game is all about explosion; we don't know what he'll be playing like coming off that Achilles injury.

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For the Colts long term future, which means Luck's health, I would trade Mathis and his huge salary to a team who thinks they can win it all with "that one last piece."  In return, I want "the stud offensive lineman and a 4th round draft choice," or "a very, very good offensive lineman and a 2nd round draft choice."  Then we can use our first round pick on D and any choices we trade for to load up on D the rest of the way, cherry picking on the offensive line as options become available.  This presumes no free agency acquisitions, although I hope we get some help through FA.

 

Mathis has been a great Colt and I thank him for it.  But I believe it is in the best interest of the Colts/Luck to make the separation now, maybe even trading before this season is over.

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We've been blitzing much more this year in order to create some type of pass rush.    But all that blitzing has both helped us -- and it's also hurt us.   We've been burned by it as well.    So, it cuts both ways.

 

It will be interesting to see how much blitzing we do next year once Mathis returns (hopefully somewhere close to his all-pro form)

 

And much may depend on how much quality defense we can bring in in free agency and the draft.    Hopefully, a lot!

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For the Colts long term future, which means Luck's health, I would trade Mathis and his huge salary to a team who thinks they can win it all with "that one last piece."  In return, I want "the stud offensive lineman and a 4th round draft choice," or "a very, very good offensive lineman and a 2nd round draft choice."  Then we can use our first round pick on D and any choices we trade for to load up on D the rest of the way, cherry picking on the offensive line as options become available.  This presumes no free agency acquisitions, although I hope we get some help through FA.

 

Mathis has been a great Colt and I thank him for it.  But I believe it is in the best interest of the Colts/Luck to make the separation now, maybe even trading before this season is over.

A 33 year old player coming off a major injury is not worth much to another team. No one will want his contract under those circumstances.

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A 33 year old player coming off a major injury is not worth much to another team. No one will want his contract under those circumstances.

 

agreed. Theyll give a 4th rounder at most and definitely not worth giving him away...

 

if he does get released, the Patriots will be first in line and i would hate that...

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Mathis is getting old in NFL terms, and he's coming off an injury and PED suspension. He most likely won't be the same caliber of player that he was. The Colts have to plan/draft for the future. Hopefully, they have someone on the staff that can do that in regards to quality O-line and D-line players...but this has yet to be seen.

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For the Colts long term future, which means Luck's health, I would trade Mathis and his huge salary to a team who thinks they can win it all with "that one last piece." In return, I want "the stud offensive lineman and a 4th round draft choice," or "a very, very good offensive lineman and a 2nd round draft choice." Then we can use our first round pick on D and any choices we trade for to load up on D the rest of the way, cherry picking on the offensive line as options become available. This presumes no free agency acquisitions, although I hope we get some help through FA.

Mathis has been a great Colt and I thank him for it. But I believe it is in the best interest of the Colts/Luck to make the separation now, maybe even trading before this season is over.

The most we would get for him is a 3rd round
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They certainly haven't found their identity so far this season.

Some games they've been great, other days a complete mess. Some days they've generated a pass rush, other days they haven't. They've also been inconsistent in stopping the run.

We don't know what we're going to get from the defense week-to-week and it concerns me.

I think they've struggled against elite offensive lines, and tight ends. That seems to be the theme as far as I can tell.

 

In a perfect world, a Mathis-Newsome combination will give them what they had with Mathis-Freeney... next year.

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