Altered role has Brockers playing nose tackle/PD

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RamBill

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Altered roll has Brockers playing nose tackle
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_5080a0d1-67be-5022-a56e-484dcb042cbe.html

By the numbers, this isn’t a season to remember for Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers. In fact, if the season ended today Brockers would have career lows in tackles (54) and sacks (two).

But a lot of that has to do with a role change for Brockers — one made to maximize the talents of rookie Aaron Donald.

Since Jeff Fisher came in as head coach in 2012, the Rams have played a left defensive tackle/right defensive tackle system, with Kendall Langford on the left and Brockers on the right.

“We’ve been established as a left and right defensive tackle scheme,” defensive line coach Mike Waufle said.

But with Donald emerging, the Rams switched Brockers to nose tackle, meaning he usually lines up over the center and takes on double-teams.

Meanwhile, Donald began playing the “three technique” — technically the gap between the offensive guard and offensive tackle — where he can make the most of his quickness and pass-rush skills.

“I knew the best thing for Aaron was to be in that three technique, like Warren Sapp, like John Randle,” Waufle said.

That’s two Hall of Famers, by the way, in Sapp and Randle.

“So we went through a hair-triggering transition there,” Waufle said. “Because those guys (Brockers and Langford) had been locked into playing left and right, and now they had to do something different. And the thing I really appreciate is that (defensive coordinator) Gregg Williams let me do it. Allowed me to make these changes — he just let me have free rein with it because I knew it was the right thing to do for Aaron.

“And the thing I take my hat off is that Brockers and Langford have been so unselfish, and they’ve accepted” Donald.

Combine the change in how the Rams aligned with the transition from an injured Chris Long to William Hayes at left end, and it explains to a degree the Rams’ slow start up front this season. (See: one sack in five games.)

Hayes was rusty early in the season after missing all of the June workouts and almost all of training camp and the preseason coming off multiple surgeries.

Brockers, who had career highs in tackles (75) and sacks (5½) last season, has taken his new role in stride.

“It’s a very humbling position,” Brockers said. “And for me, my attitude was great going into it. Because I’m a team guy. I’d do anything for this team. I’ll take on those double teams, and it’s been great. Our defense has been doing better with it like this, so let’s just keep it going.”

Brockers must be settling into the role because he has been playing better down the stretch. Even so, he realizes playing the nose isn’t the best way to get noticed in what he hoped would be a breakout year for him.

“I’ve been focusing on not expecting to get more sacks,” he said. “Or not focusing on any, you know, stat individually. I’ve just been trying to either get to the ball, try to make a play, get some good push. And do what I have to do.

“Because like you said, this position isn’t a very big stat position. But you need somebody to be in there, taking up some double-teams. When you’ve got three great pass-rushers in Aaron, Chris and Rob (Quinn), these guys need those one-on-ones to win.”

Usually, the nose tackle is the heaviest defensive lineman on a team. The extra girth comes in handy when taking on two blockers.

Brockers reported to camp in the best shape of his life, about 10 pounds lighter than his playing weight in 2013. He’s playing at about 315 pounds this year.

Even though Brockers is likely to find himself playing nose tackle again next season, he doesn’t think he has to bulk up for 2015.

“I feel great where I’m at,” Brockers said. “I think I’m very powerful for my size.”

And at the lighter weight, Brockers feels he has more stamina, or staying power if you will, during the course of a game.

“I can play a bunch of plays,” he said. “That’s the most important thing about losing weight, that you can just keep going.”

With the transition period over for Brockers and the defensive line as a whole, coupled with improved play in the secondary, Williams’ unit has been one of the league’s best since late October.

Over their past eight games the Rams have collected 32 sacks, the highest in the NFL over that span. They’ve also allowed the second-fewest points (15.1), third-fewest rushing yards (79.4), and second-fewest touchdown passes (four) during that period.

And their current string of 12 consecutive quarters without allowing a touchdown ties the franchise record, last set in 1939 when the team was based in Cleveland.

“We’re coming along very well,” Brockers said. “We can be better, which is crazy.”

Similarly, Fisher thinks Brockers — still only 24 and just six months older than Donald — is coming along well in his still-young NFL career.

“He’s dealt with some ankle injuries over the past couple years,” Fisher said. “He stayed healthy and his hands and upper-body strength has improved. I think he’s learning to anticipate things — blocking combinations and those things. He’s had a good, solid year.”
 

Memento

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And that's why Brockers is my favorite player on this defense. I hope we keep extend his contract.
 

Boffo97

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Yeah, I don't know if Brockers will ever dominate stats, but he's an important part of this defense.
 

RamFan503

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Interesting. I knew Brockers was having an off year stat wise but I really didn't think too much about why.
 

SteveBrown

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To me, he is the foundation...not the most important. Also, playing nose will keep his market value down when we renegotiate.....Fletcher Cox is great, but Brockers has his role!!
 

Boffo97

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I was going to just let this go if it was a poster's mistake, but it's not. It's in the original article. So I say... wake up morons! You're supposed to be a professional newspaper with editors and stuff and not just relying on spell check!

If Brockers has an altered roll, then he needs to look for the dude who's messing with the training table. Instead, I'm glad he has an altered role.

Of course, I may just be bitter that literally apparently doesn't mean literally anymore...
 

blue4

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I was going to just let this go if it was a poster's mistake, but it's not. It's in the original article. So I say... wake up morons! You're supposed to be a professional newspaper with editors and stuff and not just relying on spell check!

If Brockers has an altered roll, then he needs to look for the dude who's messing with the training table. Instead, I'm glad he has an altered role.

Of course, I may just be bitter that literally apparently doesn't mean literally anymore...

It's pretty sloppy for a professional journalist. It sounds like a sushi fusion roll. Brockers had the Altered Roll at Sushi A I today for lunch.
 

Mackeyser

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Glad Brockers is a team guy.

I've noticed how well he was drawing the double even with Donald being a focus. That takes talent. If Brockers couldn't demand the double, Donald would be getting it much more than he does...
 

jjab360

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I was going to just let this go if it was a poster's mistake, but it's not. It's in the original article. So I say... wake up morons! You're supposed to be a professional newspaper with editors and stuff and not just relying on spell check!

If Brockers has an altered roll, then he needs to look for the dude who's messing with the training table. Instead, I'm glad he has an altered role.

Of course, I may just be bitter that literally apparently doesn't mean literally anymore...
Was just coming in here to say that lol, pretty surprising typo for a professional journalist.
 

Noregar

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It's pretty sloppy for a professional journalist. It sounds like a sushi fusion roll. Brockers had the Altered Roll at Sushi A I today for lunch.

Altered Roll translates to something fishy for sure.

Going to the link, the article is titled "Brockers pitches in by moving" Maybe the PD fixed it or maybe it got altered in the translation. Content of the article is good and it does seem to offer an explanation to one of the components involved in the defensive struggles the Rams had at the beginning of the season.
 

rhinobean

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Now we know why Brockers hasn't got the stats we thought he should! He's doing his job well so it's up to his teammates to do theirs! I wonder if Brockers likes lobster rolls?
 

Boffo97

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Altered Roll translates to something fishy for sure.

Going to the link, the article is titled "Brockers pitches in by moving" Maybe the PD fixed it or maybe it got altered in the translation. Content of the article is good and it does seem to offer an explanation to one of the components involved in the defensive struggles the Rams had at the beginning of the season.
Yeah, it was changed. You'll notice that "altered roll" is still in the URL of the article though.
 

Blue and Gold

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From last year

http://www.si.com/nfl/audibles/2013/10/19/all-22-michael-brockers-jeff-fisher-rams#

The All-22: Michael Brockers becomes Jeff Fisher's latest War Daddy


BY DOUG FARRAR
Twitter Email
Posted: Sat Oct. 19, 2013


michaelbrockersgettyid181580454.jpg
Michael Brockers is living up to his potential as the Rams' first-round pick in 2012. (MCT via Getty Images)


In a typically brilliant dissertation on New England Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork before Super Bowl XLVI, Chris Brown of Smart Football and Grantland labeled Wilfork a "War Daddy," estimating correctly that Wilfork's value to New England's defense was supreme because he could play just about any gap along the line and dominate. That task is harder than it sounds, and it's an increasingly important attribute as defenses become more multiple every season (hell, everyweek), and it's the multi-gap/position guys who earn their money in ways more traditional and static linemen will not.

Through his long career as an NFL head coach, Jeff Fisher has always thrived when he had War Daddies to place along his fronts. His most famous to date is Albert Haynesworth, the defensive tackle from Tennessee selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2002 draft. Fisher and his defensive staff played the 6-foot-6, 320-pound (at first) Haynesworth everywhere, from straight-over-center nose tackle to defensive end, often flipping him with base end Kyle Vanden Bosch to frighten and confuse enemy quarterbacks. These tackle/end stunts and flips are commonplace now, but slightly less so in the NFL from 2002 through '08, when Haynesworth excelled with them. His $100 million contract with the Washington Redskins and subsequent shameful exit from the league notwithstanding, Haynesworth was the perfect prototype for the Jeff Fisher defensive tackle -- tall, ridiculously strong, shockingly fast, and able to disrupt from many positions.

Now, the coach has another War Daddy in Michael Brockers, the second-year man from LSU who was the first-ever draft pick of the Fisher-led Rams. He was taken 14th overall after the Rams traded down from the sixth pick with the Cowboys, who moved up to take cornerback Morris Claiborne, Brockers' college teammate. Fisher knew which LSU defender he wanted, and he knew precisely why -- at 6-foot-5 and 322 pounds, Brockers perfectly fit a crucial archetype in his new coach's defense.

As LSU head coach Les Miles had noted, Brockers became "a bear to handle inside" from the nose, one-tech, three-tech, and defensive end positions in the Tigers' multiple fronts. After a relatively slow redshirt freshman season in 2010, Brockers went completely bananas in 2011, registering two sacks and 10 tackles for loss on the season, and looking fairly dominant in the SEC championship game against Georgia and the BCS championship against Alabama.



brockers250ap13080813433.jpg
In his second NFL season, Rams tackle Michael Brockers has become one of the best at his position. (David Richard/AP)


"Michael, he's a big man," Fisher said in April, 2012, on the day Brockers was selected. "At 322 pounds he's explosive, he's very instinctive. For not having played, for not being a four-year starter, he's very, very instinctive. He can play across the face of blocks, he pushes the pocket, he can collapse, he can get on an edge, he plays with effort.

"He's NFL-ready. He's not what you refer to as a project that's going to take a couple years to get on the field and make a play here and there. He's going to play. He's a good football player."

Brockers certainly was that in his rookie year, despite a high ankle sprain he suffered in the preseason finale. He played in 13 games and started 12, racking up 20 solo tackles, four sacks, and a forced fumble.

Coming into the 2013 season, Fisher wanted more -- and so did Brockers, who had slimmed down to 315 pounds, but bulked up to 325 without losing much speed in preparation for his second season. And as it turned out, his 1.5-sack games against the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers were accurate preludes for what was to come.

"Mike did a great job coming back off the high ankle and really finished up strong toward the second half of the season," Fisher said on Jul. 31. "He's worked very hard. He's changed his body and we think he can be a dominating player in the front. ... He's gained some weight, but it's good weight. He's gained a tremendous amount of strength."

You can surely see it on the field. Through the Rams' first six games, Brockers has been one of the NFL's most versatile and productive tackles. His 13 run stops ranks behind only Buffalo's Marcel Dareus, and he has not missed a single tackle in 124 snaps against the run. He already has 3.5 sacks this season, and they've all come in the last three games. His hits and hurries show up as impact plays on tape; they might as well be sacks, because when Brockers gets even close to the quarterbacks, bad things happen for opposing offenses.

Brockers' best NFL game may have come last Sunday in a 38-13 win against the Houston Texans, when he registered two sacks and six solo tackles. Most impressively, all of the tackles were stops -- not one play he ended gained positive yardage.

“This particular game, yes, was his best game to date as a Ram," Fisher said during his Monday press conference. "He was very, very good. Very productive -- run game, pass game, effort, pressure. He was clearly the best tackle on the field yesterday.”

Brockers' two sacks revealed some very impressive attributes. Let's take a look.

Stack-and-Shed

The first sack came with 5:52 left in the first quarter. Houston had first-and-10 on its own 12-yard line, and Brockers was lined up as a head-up nose tackle over centerChris Myers in an under front with linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar giving a blitz look from the strong side. This sack was pure power -- Brockers just walked Myers back to quarterback Matt Schaub, disengaged as Schaub tried to run forward, and had a quarterback takedown for a one-yard loss. Brockers' ability to engage with root strength and then cut loose from blockers is a key to his disruption -- where some interior defensive linemen just wrestle, Brockers is always looking to bust through.

brockerstexansfirstsack.jpg


Coverage ability

On the very next play, Brockers unleashed a hidden skill -- he can drop and cover at the short and intermediate levels. The Texans went four-wide with Andre Johnson in the left slot, and Brockers dropped from his one-tech shade position in a zone blitz as rookie linebacker Alec Ogletree rushed from the defensive left side. Schaub was able to complete a 22-yard play to DeAndre Hopkins on that side, but Brockers' quickness against one of the league's best receivers certainly was intriguing. He disrupted what looked to be a drag route by Johnson and forced Schaub to look elsewhere.

brockerscoveragefinal.jpg


Forward momentum

Brockers' second sack of the game came with 1:47 left in the third quarter. The Texans had first-and-10 at the St. Louis 19-yard line, and Brockers lined up as a three-tech tackle, between left guard Wade Smith and left tackle Duane Brown. At the snap, Brockers nailed Smith with two violent hand-strikes, pushing Smith back a good eight yards. He then broke off and took Schaub down for a three-yard loss.

brockerstexanssecondsackfinal.jpg


Stopping the run

Tackles who terrorize quarterbacks get the headlines, but the best at the position also know how to stop the run on a consistent basis. Against the Texans, Brockers was the primary defender on four run plays. Three went for no gain, and one resulted in a one-yard loss. Brockers is able to stop power at the line because he doesn't just meet force with force -- he's also learned to move with zone blocking and slide protection, disengage, and times his tackles well, as seen in the play below, which left Houston running back Arian Foster with nowhere to go.

brockerstexansrunfinal.jpg


Brockers, who was born in Houston, certainly enjoyed playing in front of his home crowd.

"I think it just happened like that," Brockers said of his sacks against Schaub. "I did my job, I was pushing the pocket and he stepped up and all of a sudden I was right there. It wasn’t anything special. I just think I’m a soldier in this unit. I just did my job.

“When you don’t have nagging injuries, you’re going to be able to play a little bit better. I’m not as tentative this year as I was last year. I’m not afraid of getting cut and stuff like that. Being able to turn the corner on that ankle, and have no bone spur, no high ankle [sprain], it’s been 1,000 percent better.”

A soldier? Perhaps in that sense, but with some serious War Daddy tendencies. Michael Brockers is one to watch.
 

dieterbrock

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Key on Brockers while watching a game and he's in on every stop. Love watching him play.
Then look at the stats sheet and you wont see him much.