ESPN.com: Redskins could start a rookie at safety

[authentic]

REALLY Good Read ... click here for article

 

When sixth-round draft pick Bacarri Rambo first looked at the Washington Redskins' defensive playbook this spring, he was surprised how familiar it looked to him. The Redskins' rookie safety saw a lot of similarities between the Redskins' defense and the defense in which he played at the University of Georgia. 

"A lot similar," Rambo said after one of the Redskins' practices Friday. "We run the same 3-4, a lot of the blitz patterns and the coverages are the same, and also we had a linebackers coach from here that was at Georgia the last couple of years I was there, and he taught me a lot." 

[Hunter_R]

It doesn't feel this way in the article, but I think this is more an indictment against our veteran safeties than how good the rookies are. I hope Rambo tears it up, but he is a sixth round rookie. Expect mistakes.

[Bacon]

Nothing would make me happier than to see one of those rookies stroll in and far surpass what we saw last year from Williams. Honestly, the bar isn't very high.

[authentic]

indictment or not... any improvement on the back end will serve as a plus. keeping Reed away from having to cover in space is a good thing. Also i've always felt that Rambo would be one of the steals of the draft. I just hope he could keep himself on the straight & narrow. 

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Lets wait until live action games before we start getting excited on the rooks development.

Hail.

[SeanTaylor5907]

It doesn't feel this way in the article, but I think this is more an indictment against our veteran safeties than how good the rookies are. I hope Rambo tears it up, but he is a sixth round rookie. Expect mistakes.

Before the draft we had people wanting to draft him in the 3rd and as early as the 2nd round. This draft was the deepest safety class i can remember, so Rambo is not your typical 6th round draft pick. Honestly i was shocked that we were able to get Thomas and Rambo at the spots we got them. He is still a rookie so i also expect mistakes, but assuming he will struggle because he was a sixth round pick is a tad unfair IMO.

[RemoveSnyder]

Rambo's on-field football talent exceeded his draft placement. 

 

There's a complex series of variables that go into final draft placement and Bill Polian spoke to that end during the draft itself. Among the insights were how two organizations can have two very different thoughts on one specific player. We often hear how these teams can have very different draft boards, but Polian shed more light on that. And it doesn't just apply to two separate organizations, he also noted that within an organization itself, the divisions can be just as wide.

 

It's how someone like Mathieu can be pinpointed as a "3rd round" talent, even as a Slot CB, yet according to Polian would have been a player "completely removed" from his draft board.

 

- What's for the wide range of variable?

- How could Polian in his right mind say that TM was an undraftable player yet he actually went in the 3rd?

- Does that mean Polian is an unqualified talent evaluator?

- Does that mean the GM who selected Mathieu in the 3rd was too overexuberant or wrong, himself?

 

Huge range of opinion can exist on one player. Polian valued certain criteria in addition to raw talent to make his final decisions on player acquisition. He basically hinted at character. He was not shy in his remarks on Mathieu.

 

And to that end Polian made many other insights. For example the term "favorite son," was a phrase he referred to often. He explained how many times the scouts had an insight, had developed a rapport with a certain player, had a "gut feeling" or in other words had a "favorite son," one who despite his flaws had other attributes that outweighed the negatives. Polian explained that he narrowed the field to allow one favorite son from each of his staff or maybe it was just from his scouts alone. He said they would fight for and argue for the specific player to be a part of the organization. This all occurred prior to draft day. He said that by draft day the "decisions had already been made" and that the conversations that day were calm and controlled, no radical movement.

 

And Polian noted that some of the best players he acquired were from the "favorite sons" method. He alluded to the fact that "revelations" became apparent during this exercise.

 

We understood the negatives about Rambo before the draft and much of it centered around things that don't apply during the course of a football game. Between the stripes was fairly well spoken for, to paraphrase: [Rambo had] instincts and timing despite little to no superlative physical ability.

 

Yet one of the most glaring revelations of this last draft, at least to me, was simply how the NFL decision makers are still predominately in love with "measurables." It was quite clear, time after time, that GMs across the league were enamored with size and speed, arm length or vert despite their protestations that "game film" is always the overriding factor. And we all know that the other factors to Rambo's case aside from the off-field, was a less than stellar pro-day with less than stellar measurables. The off-field factors would take a decent amount of backstory and detail ... more of a lengthy write-up.

 

And to wrap this up in a somewhat timely fashion, not to open up too many avenues, despite the clear indications that this last class had very few pure Cover 1/3 Free Safeties, while having a large supply of Cover 2 & Curl/Flat Strong Safeties, it didn't persuade folks to move Rambo up or make them jump any sooner than the 6th.

 

Say what you will about Rambo's drawbacks or his eventual draft placement ... but someone or someones within the Redskins organization must have pushed hard for Rambo. And the only reasonable explanation to that end must be that Rambo was a "favorite son," or something similar to that idea. And further, the only reason Rambo was a favorite son to this person or persons was because they saw the game film which showed an incredible playmaker, an instinctual deep-middle cover safety, a natural talent for jumping passes and making the INT, as well as a heady tackler who understands the game of stripping the ball to cause a turnover.

 

Of all those things combined, eventually Shanahan saw those attributes as well, despite the drawbacks, because obviously, Rambo was drafted.    

[Larry]

Yet one of the most glaring revelations of this last draft, at least to me, was simply how the NFL decision makers are still predominately in love with "measurables." It was quite clear, time after time, that GMs across the league were enamored with size and speed, arm length or vert despite their protestations that "game film" is always the overriding factor.

Had an employer once relate to me, his theory as to why personnel men (in private industry) put such a high stock on things like college degrees (for careers where a degree isn't absolutely required.)

He said that, when you're in the business of picking people to be hired, you're constantly aware that a certain percentage of those people are simply going to stink. And that, for every X people you hire, you're gonna get called on the carpet and some Big Boss is gonna demand to know why you hired that blankety-blank.

And that, therefore, when you're looking at people, one thought that's running through your mind is "How will I defend myself, if this guy is a bust?"

And, boss said, that's why personnel departments put such a high value on college degrees: It makes defending themselves easier. "Well, the guy had a degree. I assumed that meant he wasn't an idiot."

----------

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there isn't some of that in the NFL. "Well, his measurables were better than (that other guy)"

[RemoveSnyder]

I also recall a segment this last draft where Polian was speaking about a player (can't remember who exactly) who was being selected in the 5th round or maybe it was the 6th, anyway, Polian made some quick soundbites about the player's attributes and then added something really important, that stuck with me.

 

He said basically (paraphrase): "Here's a player that Coach Dungy would have been pounding the table for and urging me to draft. He is Coach Dungy's type of player. He (Dungy) would have been pushing for him in the 3rd round ... and every round thereafter to get this guy. Eventually, by the 5th or 6th round, I couldn't hide anymore and would be forced to get him or not."

 

It was the kind of thing that makes so much sense to me after spending enough time in the Comprehensive looking at collegiate players and evaluating and guessing about the draft in terms of talent and need and everything else. And it often relates to how team's prioratize their boards, which often have to balance the team needs vs the talent, albeit their perceived evaluation of a player's talents.

 

The revelation was that Dungy, a qualified coach and Super Bowl winning coach, actually pounded the table for a certain player - in the 3rd round, no less - who eventually was selected in the 5th or 6th round.

 

It says to me that talented and smart "talent evaluators" and coaches often can see exactly what they want and need in a player who might otherwise be overlooked. And sometimes they "nail it," in so much as they see the talent in a player which exceeds his final selection spot.

 

Polian added at the end of his statement that this certain player (of last year's draft) reminded him of a former Colt, one he selected in the latter rounds some year's ago. Polian added that the former Colt was a player who exceeded his draft selection and ended up proving Coach Dungy's feelings correct. 

[RemoveSnyder]

All that being said, there's no guarantee to anything, especially football players - that includes Rambo 

 

But I'm Pro-Rambo, if you couldn't tell. 

[Burgold]

I may be reading too much into it, but I want a rookie's head to be spinning when he says a pro-playbook.  I don't want him saying that it's the same coverage, style, and plan that I had in college.  Is Haslett's scheme to simple?

[AlvinWaltonIsMyBoy]

Great points M4Hall.  And awesome pic...Bill Duke is the man.

 

I am a firm believer in grabbing an overachiever type guy than one who has all the tools but always underperforms.  There's so much more to football than just measurables, and I think intangibles don't get enough play.  Simply put...some guys just make plays.

 

I think Rambo starts  for us, and I hope he shows out.  The young man has been through some difficult times (ones that I can't begin to fathom), and I hope he finds a long term home in DC.  Give 'em hell Rambo.

[SkinsHokieFan]

I may be reading too much into it, but I want a rookie's head to be spinning when he says a pro-playbook.  I don't want him saying that it's the same coverage, style, and plan that I had in college.  Is Haslett's scheme to simple?

 

Defensive concepts in college, especially the SEC, have become incredibly complex

 

Every year I go to "chalk talk" that Virginia Tech d-cord Bud Foster hosts up here. Make no mistake, it is a complex, varied scheme that is run in the secondary with the amount of coverages teams run now

[RemoveSnyder]

I may be reading too much into it, but I want a rookie's head to be spinning when he says a pro-playbook.  I don't want him saying that it's the same coverage, style, and plan that I had in college.  Is Haslett's scheme to simple?

 

Well, not addressing that but in the shadows to that narrative, people often discredit a player for playing on a team with decent to good or great talent all around. That's something I read which may or may not have applied to Rambo. It was a point that many brought up concerning Mathieu, but to what extent that affected each is unknown.

 

That Georgia D, seemingly, was fairly straightforward as a 3-4 defense, a good amount of base D but they did have wrinkles and lots of package units. Both Georgia but especially Bama base out and allow their considerable talent advantage to win individual match-ups as opposed to "out scheming" folks. It applied more to Bama, they basically are base every play. Bama uses the "more talented player" scheme.

 

Georgia did have some nice wrinkles on blitzes, showing one guy but holding him and bringing the pressure elsewhere. Often times they had some interesting stunts with the d-linemen, even dropping them in coverage. And I remember that they sometimes flexed into something like a 4-3 Over defense, trying to overload a certain side with the d-linemen, allowing them to showcase J. Jones as the single rusher.

 

That Georgia D is something that I would call an NFL defense based on scheme. I think I would say that it's more about Georgia's advanced system, akin to the NFL, as opposed to Haz's less than stellar scheme.

 

Sometimes the best defense is to allow instinctual players to play in base assignments and just let them hunt. However, Georgia was anything from simple, they moved guys around a lot and had lots of different little package groups. They were constantly subbing guys in and out, moving guys in coverage and trying to overload on timely blitzes.

 

However, I think what Aliotti did with his amoeba fronts was innovative from a scheme standpoint, despite not having near the talent that Georgia does, across the board, for the 3-4. Same goes for Rocky Long's schemes from the 3-3-5 and it's variants. So yeah, I do think there are some examples of more innovative or "complex" scheme's out there.

 

I don't know if I'm subscribing to the narrative that Haz has a simple scheme, but Georgia has smart coaches and good schemes that you'll see each week in the NFL. What's more, they usually have the talent. 

[HeluCopter29]

We might start two rookie safety's ESPN

[Mr. Sinister]

We might start two rookie safety's ESPN

 

I think Meriweather's a lock if he's healthy.

[HeluCopter29]

We might start two rookie safety's ESPN

 

I think Meriweather's a lock if he's healthy.

 

I would agree.  But the key word there is "if"

[cphil006]

All that being said, there's no guarantee to anything, especially football players - that includes Rambo 

 

But I'm Pro-Rambo, if you couldn't tell. 

A rookie starting at safety wouldn't surprise me considering last years starters weren't even worthy enough to be on other teams benches

Injury bug and lack of assessing our talent and addressing our needs last year hurt us big time. I think the coaches didn't think we'd be contenders and decided to let safety situAtion work itself out

[CRobi21]

I may be reading too much into it, but I want a rookie's head to be spinning when he says a pro-playbook. I don't want him saying that it's the same coverage, style, and plan that I had in college. Is Haslett's scheme to simple?

Id say its more UGAs defense being that expansive.

Looks like M4tH laid it out very nicely.