These are things that we didn't see from Staley early in the season. Overall Staley has stepped up his schemes and play calls and I have little criticism except how he backed off at the end of the game last Sunday. People tend to be stat driven in their assessments of players, but when you actually break their play down they are oftentimes doing much better than it would appear.
This is why when people question the play of guys like Floyd not being extended I'm shaking my head. He replaced Fowler for a reason, and that being versatility. Fowler is strictly a hand in the dirt 4-3 DE and that's it. Floyd can do it all.
I'm really very pleasantly surprised at the play of Fox. What his emergence shows is that how a player is used really makes a difference on how he plays. Fox is having a breakout year under Staley. Ebukam struggled early but is beginning to come on with his play. As I eluded to in prior posts, his whole career was being developed as a SAM LB in the 3-4 hybrid scheme. Now he's playing as a second JACK LB opposite Floyd. That has taken an adjustment to learn a new position with new techniques. Ebukam is now beginning to show his acclimation to the new position.
It's going to make some hard decisions by the FO on their priorities regarding extensions. Ebukam and Fox among others are showing their value in this system. These are good things, have no doubts. We have seen this is a defense with the talent to dominate in games. If not for the turnovers they would have won last week handily. Again, the Ram's biggest threat this season is themselves. They play a clean game, i.e. no turnovers or key penalties and there is no team they can't beat.
