Schwartz on LBs: Time to erase the '08 tape
Jim Schwartz addressed a variety of subjects in a lunchtime session with Detroit media here at the NFL owners' meetings. Among them, his evaluation of the roster holdovers at linebacker, starter Ernie Sims and backup Jordon Dizon.
Dizon wouldn't appear to fit into Schwartz's long-range plans, given his size (6-0, 229), but Schwartz, who expects Dizon to stay at OLB, isn't ready to kick him to the curb.
"We really liked Dizon (as a draft prospect) down in Tennessee," he said. "I didn't see enough of him last year to really get a good feel for where he is. It'll be interesting to see. The hardest thing with Jordon is probably gonna be evaluating him before training camp. We're gonna need to see him with pads on, because he is an undersized player. I mean, Zach Thomas was an undersized player, and he probably wasn't very impressive in their OTAs and their rookie camps and stuff like that."
As for Sims, whose production dropped off last season, Schwartz also is taking a wait-and-see approach.
"I think the defense as a whole missed too many tackles," Schwartz said. "Particularly in the secondary, and that's why we had so many big plays last year. but yeah, he was part of that. There's one thing of being in the right spot, and another thing to finishing a play, and that was always a strength of his. You go back to Florida State, his strength was showing up at the ball and finishing those plays. He's not a big guy, but making those big hits -- we need to get him back to that.
"He did have success before that. If this had been a three-year trend, then maybe it would be a greater concern. ... The question we're gonna have to answer is (whether) the out-of-position, the bad angles, the missed tackles, was that a result of last year and was it also a result of 0-16 making it look worse than maybe it was? Maybe if the team was 11-5, those same misses, you would've said, 'Look at him flying around.'"
