Ian Wild

He has been lighting camp up playing Safety ,LB or whatever. By all reports he makes plays from any position they put him in. I don't think he will be cut just from what I have been reading .I wonder if the Team will thin out the LB or the safety spot ?

I have been worried about the Safety spot and I am thrilled to hear we have a guy with instincts,awareness and outstanding Football IQ .

 

akeeper

 

he and darby are making a statement for the future.

 

I really like Wild; he was one of my favorites up here in the CFL. I was selfishly hoping he would make his way back north, but I'm happy he's performing well with the Steelers. Dude is just a good football player.

 

How has he looked on ST's? I didn't see the last game nor do I recall hearing of him in the HOF game

 

Guess you could say he's kind of a "Wild" card for us

 

The way our safeties have played, I'd consider putting Landry Jones back there.

 

Haven't heard much on the ST aspect. Darby was taking up back reps I believe. Ian might be an emergency long snapper neither were good at gunning from some of what I've heard on podcasts.

EDIT: Apparently, Ian Wild took the back-up ST upback reps ahead of Darby.

 

i would like to keep darby wild lt walton cikillo and holliman in some way .. i'm tired to see promising players goes to other teams just to keep drat picks failures

 

As sad as it is that's just how it goes . If a guy is picked in the top 4 rounds he will be afforded more time to develop. We are very weak at the Safety spot ,we need to keep any and all potential talent . Maybe it's time to be bold and trade a Shamarko for a 5th. or 6th. round pick and keep the young guys . Not going to happen , but it probably should.

 

Obviously they're kept on because of what's been seen in them to make them get picked that early. I don't expect a huge amount from Bud Dupree this year, but obviously his potential made him a first round pick. Chickillo wasn't expected to do as nearly as good as he's done so far, but ironically low round picks have to be far more ready to play than their higher round contemporaries. Although I don't think we've been too slow to trade 4th rounders in the past.

In terms of safeties... Just my theory, but I think one of the problems with the safety position is simply Troy's legacy. For ten-odd years, the safety position was dominated by how he played. The rest of the secondary was shaped around what he could do. Now he's not here, it's almost as if Lake and Butler have to redefine what they want the safety to do, and this is why (I think) a journeyman, solid but unspectacular guy like Will Allen keeps looking better - for now - than a less balanced but potentially more explosive guy like Shamarko.

 

Shamarko lacks Instincts . The Safety is like the QB , he must read ,study,diagnose, even predict plays . Shamarko is a checker player from all that I can see. One move at a time and O'S are getting better and better at being multiple moves ahead . You are spot on about Troy even with his great skill set and his Football IQ Teams still found ways to expose him. Shamarko is having trouble just playing Safe let's not even think of having him play out of position like Troy did....

 

it takes time. clark took a few years of playing full time to get better. most of our safeties took time over the years. will allen is not the answer. we can't keep yanking shark out of the lineup for will allen. he's going to have to have some on the job training. i see the trouble as being two safeties are new. we don't have a veteran safety to help the new guy on the field as they are both fairly new to playing in the defense and together. allen can help some but it's not like he was an ex- starter either, with years on the field. WA is a compliment to, not the answer. i hope they do keep darby or wild and get them some playing time as we move forward, just so we have someone in the pipeline for down the road. golden isn't the answer either, so that may be the place to get a younger guy reps and the odd man out.

 

shark is not nfl material , maybe only special team ..

 

Exactly.

People were down on Cam Heyward for not doing anything (even though I think he blocked a FG on one of his only times on the field in his first year). We've yet to see Shamarko in full flight - although he's dished out some impressive hits on ST. I'm still optimistic about him.

Mitchell, less so.

 

hope you are right .. to me is too undersized to survive in the nfl

 

Me too, although he was invisible against the jags except for blowing an assignment and giving up a TD. Hopefully that will improve over time. With how improved our CB situation looks, we are basically Dupree panning out and a safety away from having a legit defense. If the safeties don't hack it this year look for an early round draft pick next year at the position. It doesn't look like a strong class, but it's too early to tell.

 

Man I hope shark pans out... I've been wanting to see him for awhile... I guess upside on paper gets you excited. Time to stay healthy and gel. I was also excited about getting Mitchell... Not so much anymore, but hopefully like with Clark, time in the system will get him going.