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Dukes and Skins

By Dukes and Skins
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RemoveSnyder

RemoveSnyder

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That's a little ridiculous.  How many linebackers can cover Randall Cobb one on one?  Of course he got toasted.  Blame needs to be placed elsewhere on that one.  Such as the guy who called the play that put Riley in single coverage with Cobb.

 

We do need better coverage from our ILB's, but let's not ask them to do the impossible.

How is it ridiculous when it's the truth?

 

Riley overran his zone coverage and got beat. Merriweather slipped and couldn't help, thus the open field YAC and TD. Both Haz and Riley are to blame, I guess. But you can't pass the buck and say when someone losses an individual match-up it's OK because he's not supposed to win, to begin with.

 

If that's the case his ass should be on sideline. I understand that's your point, in part, but the player plays and he was beat.

 

Point #2:

Well, I spent a good portion of last year talking about Phillip Steward who was great as a LB in pass coverage vs Spread offenses. He covered Slot receivers all day, albeit C-USA. Yet he was good at it and the point is that if offenses tried to run the ball, he'd be able to take on a lineman or blocker and/or lay out a good hit on a ball carrier.

 

So he was a hybrid, bigger than a DB, small for a traditional LB but gave you help first and foremost in pass coverage and then run support like a SAF. He was sized like a safety, 6'1" and 230 to 235 lbs. He had some amazing hits ... the UCLA tape was the game that got him wide acclaim and recognition. But if you remember I was talking about him prior to the season starting.

 

And even then, he wasn't the most physically gifted LB out there. I mean he went undrafted and we knew that from the get go. I had him in the 7th to undrafted the whole time. Yet the Rams got him undrafted and have kept him around even after he was placed on IR. That says something to me. That when a rookie, undrafted, comes to camp, competes, then gets hurt in preseason but he can still stay with the squad, take up a spot on IR - it means they must see something in him, as I did.

 

But the point is that Houston has those 6 foot 1" inch -or- 2" inch guys who play around 230 lbs and can fly around in pass coverage. What we need is an ILB at 230 lbs or 240 lbs (best of all, 250 lbs) who can play in the modern NFL by way of staying with WRs in pass coverage while simultaneously able to make tackles in the traditional LB way or at least help plug leaks in run support.

 

We need a hybrid. we need a Lavonte David.

 

Kipper was talking about that yesterday, in praise of the Ohio State LB. Per him, specifically, I've only seen him in parts and I'm not really sold on him, yet. (Shazier ... SP?)

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RemoveSnyder

RemoveSnyder

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Oh, AZ:

 

I don't want the message to get lost by, uhm, setting the size of the player. You know two guys can have the same measurements but look totally different.

 

I think the point was find a guy with skillset, that being, instinctual pass coverage abilities. I guess an early season example of an over-performing rookie is Kiko Alonso.

 

Again, I covered the Oregon D a lot last year. I liked Alonso and Michael Clay, both. Alonso I think leads LBs in INTs, if not leading some or all DBs (as of week ago). It's more of a trait of his ability than some quirk, I think. And he has size, so he's not a small hybrid guy. So there are opportunities to improve the ILB pass coverage and not sacrifice size.

 

Shanahan and crew obviously has passed over some of these guys I've been talking about ... David, Alonso, Steward.

They are out there.

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soljaofjesus

soljaofjesus

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I've been paying close attention to Juwann James the RT from Tennessee . Everyone keeps talking about all the other LTs, I think Juwann James can sure up that RT position from day one. Veteran with over 37 starts. Just as big as Antonio "Tiny" Richardson and just as atheltic and quick moving . Always looking to get to the second level. Big Guy who rarely gets mauled.

 

Everyone is looking at Antonio beause he is what caused the Dallas Thomas move to G. This guy is a beast. JuWann James. You have heard it here first.

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Dukes and Skins

Dukes and Skins

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Also if we're gonna do those "you heard it here first" I have two guys, Josh Wells OT from JMU and Ray Taliaferro out of Marshall

 

Josh is a legit NFL OT. He came to JMU as a QB and was moved to OL and is now at 315(I believe) and is a very good run blocker and mobile in the pass game. Has been a damn good RT for JMU since day one

 

Ray Taliaferro is actually a guy who went to HS with me, and was a complete stud. Started at DeMatha and transferred to Briar Woods. Finally getting his chance at Marshall and is starting to make some major noise for them. 4.4 guy at RB who can catch passes out of the backfield and can run the zone read as well as zone stretch plays. 

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Going Commando

Going Commando

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Welp gotta disagree with here bro. When the personnel remains the same but the level of performance/production from that unit drops imho its exactly a coaching problem. Again the production from the offense last year is undeniable and again you know the numbers. There is no way around it. They were a highly productive unit despite major injuries.

 

Part of Griffin's spectular play was scheme driven (like with any QB). But I disagree completely that the offensive concepts from last year won't work though. The concepts were fundamentally sound imo its all about sequence; not which plays but when. And thats all about coaching. Gameplan/playcalling/play design. I'm not sure what you mean schematically 'relying' on Griffin (i.e. running?) but relying on a superstar QB is pretty much how most offenses are built. They rely on their QB/or other star player to be the 'lead dog' so to speak.

 

 

I don't think it's mostly a coaching problem. I think it's a player problem. The players have played like ****. RGIII included, and though that's understandable given his injury, it's the reason the offense has been a complete embarassment.

Plain and simple, we rely far too heavily on RGIII. He's a second year QB coming off a devastating knee injury and we're reaping what we've sown. We look utterly inept now because there is no one else on the offense capable of stepping up and making plays on a regular basis.

We're not just relying on our star QB to be a top tier offense. We're relying on him to be able to avoid going 3 and out every time we get the ball. There is a fundamental lack of talent at most positions around RGIII. You've seen the drops. The struggles to get open. The inability to find room to run and then the inability to capitalize on openings in the ground game when they happen. The inability to get plays blocked for an entire series. The inability for RGIII to get into a basic rhythm, make consistently accurate throws, and move the chains.

It's not the coaches fault that the team has been having regular breakdowns in basic execution.

 

You know I put very little stock into this regimes comments to the media about the team. I wasn't onboard with the Garcon/Morgan because I didn't agree that was the weakness of the team. But that's neither here nor there.

And you know how I feel about 'playmakers'. Playmakers emerge they have to develop organically within your system a 'playmaker' can't be designated.

You can't tell me that you've watched teams like Denver and Green Bay and even Pittsburgh and seen the quality of their WRs and then tell me our WRs are comparable. If you did, I wouldn't believe you. To me it's self evident that we've got below average pass catchers. The guys drop easy passes constantly. They blow plays instead of making them. They struggle to get open unless RGIII runs perfect play fakes and the ground game is rolling. They fumble and pick up penalties, usually at the worst times. They aren't contributing to big chunky running plays. We've gotten what we paid for with our WRs.

 

I know you can't just go out and draft a "playmaker." But what you can do is go out and drop a superior talent--athletically or what have you. If you do that, the guy has a much better chance of emerging as a playmaker than the bunch of low cost jobbers we've got here now.

Finding an elite DE is resource intensive.

Yes, it almost always is. One of the most expensive and rare positions in football. It certainly won't be easy.

Finding good SAF is resource intensive.

All I expected was a passable starting safety, someone about average rather than among the worst in the league. I disagree that it's resource intensive. Safeties are cheap in both draft status and FA dollars relative to almost all the other positions on the field.

Our problem is that we've just made mistakes at the position. Relying on a pair or mid to late round safeties this season was a mistake. Signing Merriweather has been a bad mistake thus far. Relying on Madieu Williams last season was an awful mistake. We just need to stop making personnel mistakes to improve.

Finding a ILB similar to Fletch (would be a luxury not a need imo) is resource intensive.

Yes. Probably require an early draft pick. Not necessarily, but it's going to be tricky finding the right man for the job. It's got to be done though because, as Monk pointed out, ILB is a terribly exploitable weakness of our D currently, mainly in the passing game.

 

I think the build of our 34 is fundamentally flawed. I don't think we're good enough in our base defense to stop the run without building an 8 man box and our base look lacks push/penetration from the DL. Our best DL in that regard is imho playing out of place at NT and his skills only show up sub packages when he's not playing base NT.

I agree actually. I think Cofield is wasted at NT and should be playing a wider technique on all of his snaps. I think our 5 techniques are pretty lousy. And I think the only positive thing our ILBs have shown thus far is that they're nice blitzers.

I think that we can keep the 34 base and fix our problems. Not sure if you're advocating a return to a base 43. I believe we've got the OLBs to run the 34 base which makes the scheme feasible.

We had to repurpose London and Cofield (among others) for the 34 scheme and still haven't gotten proper options. Haven't found a body capable of moving Cofield to 3, 4, and 5 techniques in almost all packages. Bet we could do it this summer if we spent some money.

 

Yeah Haslett sucks and is only winning the Xs and Os battle like 20% of the time by my informal estimation. His replacement doesn't cost draft picks or cap money.

Worth mentioning our secondary play blows and our DBs have often been an embarassment. It's astonishing how often our DBs **** up simple coverages. It's demoralizing how often they just fail to match up with the big fast guys on offense. I think that'll change after last year's draft class, be a little while before we see that return, if ever.

Now compare that to the offensive side of the ball. On offense we're just a little better coordination to be a top offensive unit again.

I disagree. I don't think mere coaching adjustments solves this problem. I think it'll take RGIII playing at his unbelievably good level of play again. And I don't think that's a safe or tenable expectation. I do think some of the plays we killed it on last year will never work the same again. I think teams will figure out RGIII's magnificent ball fakes, figure out the keys and situationas for our misdirection plays which we were totally reliant on. We relied on making DEs play like crap basically, and I think they'll adjust, if they haven't already.

Instead I think it'll take an upgrade of the talent around RGIII to produce an elite offense. He should not be the sole playmaker on offense. Give him some legit guys to throw the ball to or else the passing game is never going to flow comfortably like it does for the elite QBs.

But, for our discussion lets say there is an offensive player and a defensive player with equal grades when we pick, for me-a tie would go to defensive.

I would go DE & WR above everything else, then CB and OT, then ILB, safety, and TE and interior OL.

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Going Commando

Going Commando

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Re: replacing London,

London was never an ideal fit in our 34 base to begin with. We didn't play him in his best way. But he made it work anyway because he is one of the great players of the game.

I don't think it'll take finding another London Fletcher to replace London Fletcher. Not if we find someone that actually fits the scheme naturally, someone that can handle the inherent coverage responsibilities but that can also play the run well enough.

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RemoveSnyder

RemoveSnyder

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My thoughts on Northwestern vs Ohio State:

 

- Shazier is not a blue chipper. I have not been impressed with him after watching the Buffalo game and Wisconsin game & NW game. He does not seem to make an impact to the game at large. Does not seem a force in pass coverage. Kiper is wrong about being an early 1st rounder, let alone top 10. Kiper is wrong about this "hybrid" status, he looked kind-of slow out there last night. I don't see it.

 

- NW got shafted by the TD call at the goalline. #34, Hyde, did not break the plane, the camera angle was offset from the goalline, it was not directly over the goalline. The camera seemed slightly to the left of the goalline and therefore with the angle it gave the impression the ball got there. The ball only appeared for a split second to get to the goalline but ultimately fell a yard or two short.

 

I thought the refs did a horrible job there. They even negated a NW touchdown on the following drive with a ticky-tack holding call. Eventually NW scored but giving Ohio State that TD really shifted the power of the game.

 

- Roby continues to get beat by lesser athletic players, "no-names." Now he does show speed and athletic ability, he chased down that receiver to save the TD, but of course he was the one to allow the receiver open and to scamper for those 70+ yards. That athletic ability however doesn't seem to translate to shut-down pass coverage. I'm sure he'll be drafted fairly early on, but again, I don't see the blue chipper status.

...

Other news, offensive line:

 

I know it's cliche to say that there's good offensive line players in the Big 10 but I've come across two guys who I think are as good as anyone, yet both have an unheralded status. The two play at Iowa. The Center: Austin Blythe #63 - a 3rd year Soph (redshirt Soph) & LG: Conor Boffeli #59 - a RS Senior.

 

Now it was Boffeli who I first noticed. And I noticed him because in watching the Minnesota game he completely shut down Ra'Shede Hageman.

 

At this time I'll give another "stock is falling" report: Hageman is not a 1st rounder, let alone the top d-lineman of this class. Twice now I've watched him and he barely makes an impact. In the Iowa game, both Boffeli and Blythe routed him out of position, turned his body and deflected his rush with ease.

 

Now Boffeli doesn't have much pedigree at all. Reading his Iowa profile it's basically the portrait of a part time player. For the better part of the last three years he's had spot duty, until finally holding down the LG position last year, 2012. Well in a quick wrap-up: he's our typical ZBS sized guy, moves well, can pull and blast a hole, seems tough. He played TE in high school & played basketball to marginal acclaim, good enough for D-1 though. You can see the natural movement skills. I like that he squares guys up and gets good contact.

 

Out of the two, I notice Boffeli more. It could be that he's matured physically to handle the load, just found his stride. Now since he doesn't have big H.S. pedigree, nor any major college awards, you're looking at this guy toward the end of the draft to undrafted range, until further notice.

 

Blythe on the other hand has that H.S. award list. A two time all-state selection and honorable mention all-american & H.S. wrestler of the year (big thing in Iowa). In addition to that, in 2012, Blythe was a First team Freshman All-American. So he seems to be generating a paper-trail about him.

 

As a center he's good, not great ... at least not yet. He likely won't enter the draft, but his is a name to know and watch in the future.
 

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darrelgreenie

darrelgreenie

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I don't think it's mostly a coaching problem. I think it's a player problem. The players have played like ****. RGIII included, and though that's understandable given his injury, it's the reason the offense has been a complete embarassment......

 

-Steve (sorry on the way to the gym)

I will respond in more detail later but in brief I think you are avoiding, passing over, ignoring some key facts about the quality of our offense vs our defense. Even right now our offense is far better then the defense. Our offense is just about middle of the pack according to Football Outsiders a trusted metric that accounts for things like garbage time. Meanwhile our defense is IIRC second to last by their metrics.

 

Did you praise Kyle/Mike for the offense scheme last year? Because if you did its unfair to pass now pass the blame onto the players for lack of execution/play when the players haven't changed in fact the players have been upgraded. The OL, who I often criticized is playing much better. They've added Reed, Helu is healthy Davis is healthy, Garcon is healthy. I could go in more detail about where I think the gameplan/game design/playcalling mistakes could be. But, suffice it to say that our personnel hasn't changed from last year.

 

Mainly, I think you over estimate the difference in talent at this level. The talent level in the NFL is very close across the board. These guys are the best of the best and its the coaching that makes the differnce we see this repeated every year. Look at Payton/Ryan and the Saints. Look at McCoy and Rivers. Pep and Luck etc....I think you are undervaluing the importane of coaching in this league. And in doing so are letting this coaching staff off the hook on offense.

 

You'll see what I mean when the offense starts to click and then suddenly the players won't look so devoid of talent.

 

And to answer your question: Denver-yes; Green Bay only by a little, Steelers-no.

I think our skill position players are above average acorss the board if you factor in the RBs.

Our WRs group don't have large production total because of the rotation of WRs other then the No.1.

But, there are plenty of teams that would love to have Garcon, Moss, Morgan/Hankerson, Aldrick and Fred Davis, Jordan Reed and Logan Paulsen.

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RemoveSnyder

RemoveSnyder

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Would you give a 2nd rounder? I would...

@AdamSchefter: Bills know wisest course of action is to trade franchise S Jairus Byrd and they now are open to dealing him, per sources. Talks ongoing.

I know you mentioned the 2nd rounder since that's the highest selection we've got this upcoming draft, but the way it's presented here, it sounds as if you've posited the 2nd rounder based upon the Bill's asking price.

 

Honestly I don't think the Bills would be asking for just a 2nd rounder to begin with, nor do I think that's all it would take. My guess is the cost is higher. Incidentally, the asking price hasn't been reported yet, just the flash that Byrd is on the market.

 

I would pay to get Byrd here, even use that 2nd rounder.

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Laron Burgundy

Laron Burgundy

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I know you mentioned the 2nd rounder since that's the highest selection we've got this upcoming draft, but the way it's presented here, it sounds as if you've posited the 2nd rounder based upon the Bill's asking price.

 

Honestly I don't think the Bills would be asking for just a 2nd rounder to begin with, nor do I think that's all it would take. My guess is the cost is higher. Incidentally, the asking price hasn't been reported yet, just the flash that Byrd is on the market.

 

I would pay to get Byrd here, even use that 2nd rounder.

Disgruntled injured safety when Bills have a backup plan? He'll get jettisoned for a 2nd rounder or less or the Bills keep him.

We don't have the cap space to sign him though.

Back to Shazier, he hasn't looked as great this year, but last year and his freshman year he looked amazing. If this tape causes him to drop I'm fine with that. Happened to Trent and Amerson as well (though Trent really didn't fall on draft day, but the consensus was that his tape was poor). I would love to double up on ILB in this draft just as we did for safeties last draft.

I agree on Hageman. I liked him when scouting services had him as a 5-7th rounder, but 1st or even 2nd is too rich for my blood. He has too high of a bust factor, relies almost completely on athleticism out there and you can't get away with that in the nfl.

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RemoveSnyder

RemoveSnyder

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My goodness I just looked at the photo of Niklas. Do you folks see the size of him? He's like double the size of the DB. That's the kind-of size you need in the NFL.

 

I mean most everyone calls him 6'7" ... man alive. Let Griff and this dude work on lob passes and alley-oops all day long.

 

Niklas will be selected early for TEs, one of the first ones off the board, if not the first - imo. Yet historically TEs last on draft day and you can still get a good TE in the 2nd.

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Laron Burgundy

Laron Burgundy

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Some of Jean-Baptiste here. Overall you see he runs the routes for the receivers, partially, I'm sure, because he started college playing receiver. Only real negative play was the td reception allowed (though you can't exactly see why he was so far off, not sure what happened), and he missed two tackles and was pretty soft along the sidelines. The pass interference against him was probably more acting than actual interference, so not overly concerned about that.

After the interference you get a good view of just how large he is as a corner. He's massive. At 1:34 you get a good view of how swiftly he moves for a guy his size. Wish he was a better tackler, especially given his size, but the tackles he did miss were cleaned up quickly. In total he got a pick-6, 2 passes broken up, and another break up where the receiver had to commit pass interference in order to prevent another interception. It was just southern miss, but he put on a clinic.



Great pick here. Just incredible hands, most corners don't make that interception.



Another one. Great leaping ability and hands.

I like this guy a lot, but he probably doesn't have elite speed. He reminds me a lot of Amerson, but might not be quite the athlete Amerson is.
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