This is certainly a criticism that is coming to the forefront in the last week, and I don’t think it’s totally off-base. Spikes is the perfect example, he’s one of the few players that is truly a master of something, but limited in another. At the opposite end of the spectrum you Patrick Chung, who is okay at a lot of things, but not great at anything.
It comes back to value drafting, and you can understand why having guys who can do a number of things could be valuable, especially in the secondary.
Asante Samuel is a good example too. He’s an elite zone read corner, but tackling, man-to-man, and special teams are certainly not his thing.
So I certainly think the case can be made that the balance has shifted too much to guys who can do it all okay, but nothing great. The reason they’re losing games is because they’re not making plays (on either side of the ball) when the game is on the line, and part of that can be a function of just not having enough elite talent in certain spots.
Still, this is a defense that forces turnovers at an elite level so that has to count for something as well. Really I think it just comes down to finding a back end safety with range and leadership. Those are hard to come by these days, but one player like that could elevate the play of the entire secondary, especially someone like McCourty.