You and I were pretty big proponents of putting 55 in at SAM and moving Josh Hull over to MIKE back in the day because Laurinaitis was a more lateral player while Hull tended to play more downhill. Obviously Hull didn't amount to much, but it was an interesting thought process a few years back. Would have liked to see how that worked out.
In a Gregg Williams/Jeff Fisher/Buddy Ryan 4-3, you want your MIKE to be a gap-to-gap player who can shed and spill. You want your SAM to be almost a hybrid safety athletic freak who can tackle. You want your WIL to be a big strong dude who can maintain and contain, and you want your front 4 to be explosive off the snap and super strong. Safeties are also very important in that they both need to be big hitters and solid tacklers over speedy coverage guys, and your corners are the last thought. All they need to be is solid to reap the benefits of the front 4.
I really don't think they have *everything* they need to make this defense work consistently week in and week out right now.
But it's very close.
Yeah, we were. I think it made more sense at the time.
As well as McLeod played last week, he was terrible this week. Terrible angles, bad tackling, sometimes you need your safety to bail you out, hell, that is how and why they named the position.....safety.
We are close, I believe that, my eyes tell me that, but those final pieces have to fit. I used to explain to my son, when he played backer, that he was like a RB. After you read the guards, if you see a big hole, go fill it, because that is where the RB will go. We never really see JL55 do this, he is more wait and read, like he is the safety. When you wait at that position, you wait to get blocked, IMO.
I really liked Hager this preseason, he showed good instincts, and the ability to make plays sideline to sideline. Lynch played well also. They are better than any of the backups we've had in a long time. They may not be ready.
I'd be OK with
any change, if that is the answer. There were so many mistakes, so many bad plays, and I did notice that JL55 was a big part of not being able to get off his blocks, and make any sort of play. I believe Fisher, when he said it was a combo of a lot of things that went bad, and he/staff took most of the responsibility. Seems like this happens every year, Fisher gives his coaches enough rope to hang themselves, then he reels them in.
I'll say one last thing, I agree on the whole chop blocking bullshit, and players hate that too. Nobody, but especially big guys, like dudes diving at their legs, it's just unnatural, and IMO, pussy football. There has to be a way around it though, an adjustment that we should have made.
