could rivera be bringing stephen cooper with him?

[rayzor]

i've heard from some in san diego that rivera is wanting stephen cooper to come out here with him. cooper is a FA so this could happen. what i heard, mind you this is from people keeping up with the chargers, is that rivera would make beason the WLB in 4-3 formations and cooper would be the Mike, but in 3-4 formations beason would be the Mike and cooper would be the TED.

just in case you aren't familiar with the 3-4, the TED is the ILB that lines up on the strongside and clears thigns out for the playmaker MIKE (think 49ers cooper = takeo spikes and beason = willis). the TED is a lot of the time the QB of the defense. considering that cooper has more time in the league (well, a little more) and has a lot more familiarity with rivera and a 3-4 D, this might make sense.

i think beason would be a much better Mike b/c cooper really doesn't have the speed to be a 4-3 Mike and he has spent most of his time in a 3-4. a lot depends on how well davis recoups this offseason. if he's ready to go, it makes sense to keep the anderson-beason-davis combo, but cooper might be an upgrade at the SAM. i guess that would be up in the air.

i feel good with beason at Mike in the 4-3 and he is the leader of that defense, but i'm in favor of what makes the defense better overall. adding cooper sure won't make the LB corps worse. i'd be pretty pumped about this actually if it happens.

i just don't know what effect all this would have on beason, having someone else come in to take orders from the DC. also, this would make us really crowded in the middle.

have any of you heard anything?

[chknwing]

so you were over under and under was over done?

[Jackofalltrades]

Beason belongs at Mike, he's earned it and that's where he's best.

I don't think we need any LB's if we can keep who we have now.

[Peppers90 NC]

davis appears to be excited and on track to be back, if thats the case i hope he is brought back. i dont see the need to tamper with our 4-3 lb's with davis, beas and ja. it would make sense for cooper to help out in the 3-4 but connor is a very similar player. I wont argue with depth tho.

[rayzor]

yeah, the depth issue is huge for me and after so many years of dan morgan getting hurt and last years injuries at LB, i just feel better about the idea of having so much talent there. most likely we'll be adding someone familiar with a 3-4 anyways so we might as well get someone that has performed at a high level in it.

just seems like to good of a thing overall to pass up.

[Jackofalltrades]

More talent at LB means less at other positions.

[Dpantherman]

First off, the panthers #1 priority will be to extend OUR guys long term. This applys to all of the Lets sign ____"" folks.

Second, no. (well he COULD, he could alot of things, no)

[rayzor]

More talent at LB means less at other positions.

i wouldn't worry too much about that aspect of it. we'd be going in with 6 LBs anyways, esp. with us using the 3-4 more.

beason, anderson, davis, connor, cooper, norwood, and either senn or nic harris.

that wouldn't be too bad at all.

[HSCBandit07]

He could also be our starting QB judging by what we already have on the roster

and he likes the juice

[pantherfan49]

smh at all of the people counting on the healthy return of Thomas Davis.

[SorthNarolina]

smh at all of the people counting on the healthy return of Thomas Davis.

he tore his acl twice so that's mucho bad. But he also has been in rehab for a very long time and he never came out of rehab mode.

He came back too quickly. Even when it was first reported on how well he was doing many posters were voicing concerns it was too fast.

[rayzor]

smh at all of the people counting on the healthy return of Thomas Davis.

he might bea ble to come back, but is no sure thing. thats one of the reasons that bringing cooper in would be a good idea, still don' tlike the idea of beason at WLB. maybe anderson at WLB, beason at Mike and cooper at Sam but even at that cooper may be as out of position as beason is at the Will.

[CatMan72]

I'd rather leave Beason at MLB and find another OLB as Thomas Davis insurance.

[CatMan72]

...but on another level, this makes sense from the standpoint that Cooper understand's Rivera's defensive scheme and can coach the other players on it.

Just hate to think about Beason being moved to OLB for the majority of the snaps, he's a playmaker and it reduces his playmaking ability to some extent.