Knee jerk reactions after 2 preseason games

With Ju Ju it might be more obvious as the Dback is left flailing on the ground.

 

Hilton cannot be left in man-to-man coverage. He is good blitzing off the edge, so-so in zone coverage, but not so good when he has to cover a speed guy.

 

A confident fan

 

Holding call on AV was bullsheet
OPI on DJ18 was bullsheet
I'm glad Conner is RB1 because Samuels/Snell have been so-so imo, (untouched TD doesn't wow me for JS38). Samuels does look way better athletically though.
James Washington is really coming on strong
I hope UG3 makes the 53
Spencer looked quick as heck, he will be a tough cut
Zach Banner is still huge, but OT limited I think, so between him and Chuks??? Another tough call on cut down day, do they keep 8 or 9 OL?

Couple battles for those depth spots still raging on.

 

I don't mind Charlie. or Edmund for that matter. But can somebody stick a sock in "The Pomp's" mouth please?

 

Dupree looked like he wants a starter contract last game.

 

He does have a good feel with Rudolph.
I would like to see more of his & Ben's chemistry before calling him the #2. Moncrief is still in the running, he has the talent.

 

I had tickets but haven't gone to either game.... I just can't get into the pre-season, actually, I've been super down since missing the playoffs last year that I'm fearing this season. First time I've not been excited come August for football. Maybe next week when we see the real team

 

he said knee jerk right? lol

 

My biggest takeaways: Defense looks strong and James Washington looks like a different player.

 

washington looks like a legit #2

add in monqueef and dionte and we are solid.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that our secondary (especially our CB) could be good this year if they are healthy?

 

I think so

 

We like to rag on Butler and Dupree a lot here, sometimes for good reason. Dupree's showing this last game is what a lot of people have been waiting to see from him. Maybe this is a result of Butler? Maybe Porter was an even bigger problem than we realized? I'm interested to see the development of some of the other LBers and see if this is an anomaly or not.

 

I'm curious about that as well. I wrote into asked and answered a month ago asking if Labs could talk about how much input Butler had into the position groups. Porter always seemed to gravitate more towards Tomlin and given the reports of his attempts to foster a defense vs offense mentality in the locker room if he ignored what Butler told him to do and did his own thing figuring he had Tomlin's silent approval

 

IDK, Butler & Tomlin have a longer history than Porter & Tomlin.

 

These are supposed to be knee jerk reactions soo.....

Washington should start over Moncrief game 1

Rudolph should be #2, Hodges should be #3, and Dobbs cut

DJ and Snell will not contribute this year. DJ looks way too undersized, and looks like a player that needs to bulk up, and then grow into his body before he fully explodes into a great player. The talent is there. I just don't think he will be ready physically until next season. Snell looks like a shell of his college self to me. He is an explosive player who may be reacting too much right now. Better days are ahead, but they may be down the road. Right now I think Edmunds is better.

Like I said knee jerk reactions after 2 meaningless pre-season games. Not sure if any of that will be the case going forward.

 

True but we know that Tomlin has been less hands off with the defense lately. We also know Joey has some strong opinions and isn't shy about sharing them. I'm really curious if everything was unicorns and rainbows in the coaches offices. Butler has never struck me as a guy who would flip out like a Buddy Ryan/Mike Ditka type thing. If Porter did his own thing and Butler questioned him and was told talk to Tomlin, I can see Butler just letting it go.

 

I thought Dupree had a bad shoulder for most of last season. Maybe he is healthy now. Being able to use both arms would make a big difference in his pass rush.

 

My opinion has always been that when he switched for DE to OLB in college and didn't have a position coach he started to collect advice and every year since he was drafted he got more and more even Von Miller showing him informally at his house. The problem was he wasn't sure about the advice and was trying everything or thinking about trying everything and would freeze and just bullrush. I think he has laid all that aside and is just bullrushing and getting to the QB. NOt overthinking it.

 

I got the impression they might use Johnson on punt returns, so he could make an impact there, but Spencer is clearly better in that area. I'm just not sure how all the pieces fit at receiver.

I agree that Snell isn't ready to contribute much at running back, though I like him on special teams. I'm guessing whatever carries don't go to Conner will go to Samuels.

 

I think Samuels and Conner are going to do a lot of damage in the passing game. Especially if used in tandum. This is going to create mismatches and also take some heat off of the wrs. If they have to use a safety to help cover it pulls coverage off the wides. If they use linebackers they can beat them.

UG3 has been used to split out and cover and does it quite effectively. Big difference in when they tried this with vince. I think red is every bit as good as vince and maybe better. We are stuck with vince because of his contract. Red because of special teams. I think fort would have been a better keep with barron, Bush and UG3 and then red.

I like our dbs overall but against these small fast slot receivers we may struggle. Our over the top help is good for bigger receivers but slow to react to the quicker small fast guys. Hilton does many things well and sutton has come on at times but we still need some better speed in the slots. I touched on this in the offseason. Our 4.5 corners in the slot must have quicker help from the safeties. Hilton at safety made those quicker reads. This may be something to watch going forward.

If and this is a big if, we use 3 safeties hilton, davis, edmunds, we could go with haden, Nelson jumping to the slot and if layne or sutton could jump outside it could clear up some things in coverage. We could also do some of this with bush, Barron and UG3, depending on who we are playing and covering. The chess game will be interesting to watch this year. It's about matchups. Could make an extra fs expendable. Possibly open a spot up for another smaller quicker corner to help the slot when cuts come. It would also take a Marcus allen off the field.

Just the one change with hilton able to move and the speed of these linebackers and the ability of Nelson to move inside and another slot corner added could lessen the need for dangerfield, allen and kam. Then Vince down the road. A lot depending on layne and sutton on the outside to make this work but they are coming along. Keith make this happen. Become that mad scientist. The speed has been added so use it and add one.

 

Also, my not-so-knee-jerk reaction: I think I'm going to really like this team. This group seems like a core of solid guys who like each other. It'll be nice to see for a chance.

 

I'll have my jerk (no knee) reaction.

Trying to read anything into pre-season football is a fool's game. We've all seen it. The camp superstar who ends up out of the league by Week 9. The feel-good stories by the beat reporters about <fill in the name> being in the best shape of his life and poised to have a breakout year. My favorite was 2008 pre-season game #1 when after a Limas Sweed catch Edmund Nelson pronouncing "Tall wide receiver paying off dividends already."

Hell, it'll take four weeks of real football for us to start getting a feel for this team.

 

Dupree certainly looked like he was finally using his physical skills to effective use.

Obviously, though, only one game. But it’s preseason, so time to be optimistic.