Jarvis Jones

I think they would have drafted any of those three b4 Shazier If they where still on the board.. pesonaly i nver even heard of Shazier when they drafted him,, But i dont keep up with college as much as i used to

 

Yeah that Bills game was really sort of a tease. He comes out like a beast but then we never saw that flash again. There was one play this year where he ALMOST blew one up in the backfield but he hit the guy too high and didn't take him down. It looked like he really lowered the boom on him though. That's the only regular season play from Shazier that sticks in my mind. What's funny is hasn't there been "rookie of the year" talk with the last two LBs we've drafted?

 

I remember the talk after that preseason game with Shazier, but not for Jones. Who did win it that year, was it Kiko Alonso?

 

I don't think it has been announced has it? Aren't they gonna announce all that at the awards show right before the Super Bowl?

 

Ooooh there's a good question. Would you have rather had Beckham or Shazier??? Beckham has looked pretty dang good. If he is what he has looked like can you imagine having him AND AB? The guy seems to be able to find the end zone.

 

I'd rather have Shazier and Martavis Bryant than Beckham and some other 4th round pick that probably wouldn't be half as good as Bryant.

The only guy I was disappointed to see go before we picked was Fuller. I really wish he was available, so we'd at least have had the option to take him.

 

Yeah in retrospect that's the corner I would have liked to have had. He had some good games this year but my buddy is a big Bears fan and he said he was really inconsistent. I'm sure that's to be expected but I'm sure he's got a really high ceiling though. Do you have buyer's remorse on Shazier? I also think Bryant is gonna be really good as well. He seems like more of a threat than Wheaton.

 

Nah, once Fuller was gone, I was fine with Shazier. I was kinda 50-50 between Shazier and Mosley all along, Mosley being the sure thing, Shazier being the bigger risk and reward. I felt like without knowing the intricacies of the defense, I'd have gone with Mosley, because I didn't know if Shazier would be a good fit for us in a 3-4. But I also felt like if the Steelers selected him, that meant he would fit, and I trust them with that, so I wholly backed the selection.

I still think he'll work out. We saw some flashes out of him, and we know how hard it is to pick up that defense. I also think that after he lost his job to injury and didn't return once healthy, that had much more to do with the good play of Spence and Williams than anything negative about Shazier. I'd have made the same decision.

I think this summer there'll be an open battle for the spot, and I think Shazier wins it.

 

Exactly. I wanted Fuller to be the pick something awful, but once he was gone Shazier was a solid pick. I still don't think Dennard was a fit for us schematically.

 

Pfft! Beckham's what, 5'10". Another WR midget. Ben and I both would have been unhappy. I'd rather have drafted Shazier and then kept Derek Moye on the roster.

And what's with the new avatar? TOMLIN ERA 2.0??

 

LOL! Tommy Boy has returned!!!

 

Problem is, he already added 20 pounds of muscle. Probably can't do that forever.

A player not reaching his potential is more of a personal shame than a shame for the team. Everything that applies to Shazier about not reaching his potential because of scheme probably also applied to Timmons, but he's still well worth the 1st round pick we spent on him.

 

Jarvis has 3 sacks in 21 games played (13 starts).

Aldon Smith had 14 sacks his rookie year. Von Miller had 11.5 sacks his rookie year.
Clay Matthews had 9. JPP had only 4.5 but without starts had 21 sacks over his first two years.

Pass rushing isn't complicated. Players can or they can't. Jarvis will probably never have a 10 sack season. Look for a lot more seasons of 7.5 sacks leading the Steelers despite teams throwing 500 times a year.

Jones has a nose for the ball but no pass rush.

 

I agree with all that about Shazier. And I think that's the exact reason they drafted him - an explosive playmaker to zoom around the field, like Troy.

For Timmons, I meant his most suited position could have been OLB in a 4-3, not in a 3-4.

I was also confused when we drafted him, but for a different reason. At the time I really hated Larry Foote. I wanted him out of there badly. And I liked Harrison enough that I was sure he could take over for Porter. JH looked very good replacing Porter when he'd been injured. So when we got Timmons, I was assuming it was to play ILB for Foote. I didn't watch film on college guys in those days, but from the scouting report it sounded like he'd be much better off the line of scrimmage, running sideline to sideline. Then I heard he was going to play OLB, and it just made no sense. We spent a #1 pick to play over James Harrison, when we've got Larry Foote sitting there? Put this guy inside! I'm just relieved they figured it out pretty fast. It's probably for the best Timmons got hurt as a rookie, because that gave James more reps and a chance to explode and shifted Timmons inside faster than if they'd stubbornly tried to keep him outside.

 

elvis, I see it a lot like you do. shazier will be the type of LB that we can have freelancing a lot more. Timmons can concentrate on the run stuffing and short area in the middle but also rush from the middle. that's one of his strengths.

as for shazier he can cover deeper middle help to either side against the run. team up Thomas as a safety which can help some against the run but more as extra coverage in the deep area and fast enough to fly up into the flats.

a guy like Anthony harris from Virginia is an active safety that can also make plays in the passing game but flys around to the ball in some run support.

that's 3 guys that get to the ball from different levels in run and pass support. this allows Timmons to rush, stuff or cover from his spot in closer to the line and to either side of our OLB'ers for support. it also allows our corners to cover closer and our OLB'ers to specifically rush the qb. less run support needed from the corners, less coverage by the OLB'ers. let them rush and set the edge against the run.

let the guys like shazier, Thomas and hopefully harris use their skills and speed to the ball to free up this type of defense. it allows these others to do what they do best and not have to overextend.

 

This is my concern as well. Usually when a pass rusher comes into the league you see some encouraging signs of that ability pretty early on. 888 snaps. 3 sacks. Very troubling.

 

Those numbers don't tell the whole story. Yes, pass rushing is the #1 concern with Jarvis right now. But just averaging out the stats doesn't account for improvement over time. If you're looking for hope (which I'm sure you are, as I am), then consider that he got 1 sack in all of last year (against a RB), but earned 2 (including a game-changing FF) in the first 3 games of this year, before the truly freakish injury. That shows improvement.

It's a shame he got hurt. I hope it doesn't set him back too much. I can see him forever having trouble with the top tier OTs in the league. But I can also see him racking up 8 sacks a year, and more if we switch him over to Worilds' spot so he plays against RTs. That's more than good enough to be a great Robin to somebody's Batman, to steal someone else's analogy. Not what you want ideally out of a 1st round pick, but at this point, if he winds up carrying the value of a 2nd rounder, I'll be pleased. They can't all be home runs. If he turns out to be a stand-up double, that's good.

 

I'll say it again, Shazier is better fitted to be a safety, either free or strong, he's too small to mix it up with lineman, but he's got safety size..........