As I mentioned in my follow-up article to the game, I thought Gerald Alexander may have played well enough to wrest the SS spot from Sean Considine with last week's performance. Paul Kuharsky confirms it, saying that Gerald Alexander is listed as the new starting SS, and also mentioning Quentin Groves being demoted to third-string. The Groves demotion is a little baffling to me, as I would've expected him to be a better blitzing LB out of a 3-4, than a DPR from a 4-3. Unless this is a ploy to motivate Groves or to encourage Julius Williams, I don't understand it.
It seems highly unlikely that one of Gene Smith's UDFA's is outperforming one of Shack's 2nd-round selections (the only ones he consistently hit on). Either J-Dub is playing out-of-this-world, or Groves is not improving fast enough. No matter the reason the move seems perplexing, and is worthy of noting and watching this week.
Props to Gene Smith for his thieving ways. He virtually stole Gerald Alexander from the Lions, and Luke McCown from the Bucs, and he literally stole Don Carey from the Browns... I'll take a cold-hearted and deceptive leader any day of the week...
By the way, anyone catch Vic's shout out to my man Marty Schottenheimer in today's column?
-Collin Streetman