Didn't see this posted... sorry if it was...
I hate to knock Whitner, and I hate more to second guess, but Byrne raises some pretty good points in this article. There's a lot of time for Whitner to bring it up to another level, but zero INTs for a DB in 27 games? Ouch!
Considering Whitner hasn't been a big-play defender in his career, one has to wonder how much different the Bills would look had the front office gone in a different direction in '06. For instance, what if Buffalo had chosen ex-Oregon defensive tackle Haloti Ngata -- who went 12th overall to Baltimore -- instead of Whitner? At 340 pounds, Ngata's size makes him less than ideal for the Bills' Tampa 2 defensive scheme, which focuses on smaller, faster players. Still, for someone so massive, Ngata is plenty fast. Further, he's a tremendously disruptive force at the line of scrimmage, evidenced by his 52 tackles and two sacks. Ask the Patriots' offense, a normally superb group that was hassled -- even dominated -- all Monday night by Ngata in a 28-24 victory.
'What-if' scenarios aside, the bottom line is that Whitner, although a solid player overall, hasn't quite lived up to the status of a former top-10 draft choice. He isn't an Ed Reed, a Bob Sanders or a Troy Polamalu. Instead, Whitner is simply a pretty good defender who is helping lead a ragtag group of fellow youngsters; at this stage, he's definitely not an elite game-changer.
'What-if' scenarios aside, the bottom line is that Whitner, although a solid player overall, hasn't quite lived up to the status of a former top-10 draft choice. He isn't an Ed Reed, a Bob Sanders or a Troy Polamalu. Instead, Whitner is simply a pretty good defender who is helping lead a ragtag group of fellow youngsters; at this stage, he's definitely not an elite game-changer.
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