Trade Dunta?

[superbowlbound]

I wanted to stay out of this, but this has clearly gone on too long. If this argument is going to continue, I'm gonna weigh in too. My opinion sits pretty much squarely in the middle between jp and barrett. Are we better with dunta? sure. Is our secondary decimated without him? not by any stretch of the imagination. as JP already said, the biggest reason our secondary looked so bad (apart from reeves' patent refusal to EVER turn his head to look for the ball) was because of our pass rush, which should be markedly improved this year, by both the new scheme (which will hopefully use our dt's strengths, which are primarily in the getting up field department) and the addition of connor barwin and antonio smith. While Bennett was bad last year, he showed improvement down the stretch, and is too talented and committed an individual to go pbust on us. A good front 7 will cover a myriad of secondary issues, and I now think we have one of the better front 7's in the league.

So back on point. Would I like to have dunta as a career texan? absolutely. Is that a likely outcome to this situation? I wouldn't rule it out, but I'm thinking no. I really get the sense that dunta's not so much offended that we f-tagged him, but that we didn't just hand him namdi asomugha's contract with his name on it, despite that horrific injury. Apparently, the fact that he came back early and the texans (with the no. 3 ranked offense in the league) won games after his return cancel out the fact that he allowed a 67% completion percentage to quarterbacks who threw at him. Honestly, I was surprised when I heard mcclain's report that he was offered chris gamble money. The only logic I can fathom is that his stance is "I was drafted higher than him, therefore I deserve more money" which is flawed from the beginning. With or without dunta, we're still a better team than we were last year. And, IMO, the titans, colts, and to a lesser extent the jags, are weaker than they were last year, so I won't cry if dunta doesn't show up into the season. He really oughta know that a holdout until week 1 won't help him in his audition for other teams now that we've got a new dc.

Also, while I personally liked matthews better than cushing, if for no other reason than he ran the same 10 yard split as darius heyward-bay at the combine, slb was a far greater need than wlb. Adibi and Diles can both play, when healthy, and the addition of cato june certainly doesn't hurt that situation. our front 7 is f-ing formidable, and that's a first for our franchise. That will necessarily improve the secondary, with or without dunta.