Odie wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2017 9:09 am
I agree, Blitz- on most counts.
I would also add Benson as a priority. Long snappers are really under appreciated and critical aspects of the team. Good ones are hard to find and rarely noticed... bad ones, well, you see them pretty fast. Benson is a very good long snapper and gets downfield in coverage fast. He’s fast, strong, tough and talented. His loss would be felt very quickly.
Husband is a huge signing priority as well- he’s become a very good national centre.
I think we used Williams wrong, but he’s the one cog I don’t think our offence misses- shaq Johnson, on the other hand, is a nationa speedster who is only getting better. I want to see what he can do and would be terrified of him in another uniform. Nick Moore is also an important part- he may not be as fast as Williams, but the lions are just plain better when he is on the field. And Manny is manny- not many like thy dude in many respects and I’d be sad to see him go.
On D, I hope we can retain purifoy- Lee has played well in stretches as well. I wouldn’t break the bank, however. Not sure about Yell- not even sure he wants to be back. He’s good, but I thought teams went after him and Lee a bit in the later stretches of the season. But I don’t watch tape, so my opinion may be out to lunch.
I like the look of our lb corps- especially with Awe and Davis (and maybe Herdman) in the wings.
D line is our Achilles heel. I don’t know what Brooks contract looks like, but that might be a salary to look at moving out- forde and menard are quality nationals who are hard to find... I hope we can retain them. I also think Roh is worth re signing. He’s pretty good when he has a bookend on the other side we have been desperately missing. Bazzie can play, but I’m dumbfounded as to why we drop him into pss coverage when we need a rush specialist. Thought we had something special in Evans, but not sure about his injury status. There are some interesting d linemen who might be available and we need a couple studs if we are going to turn this ship around.
And, to add controversy- I like Jennings and Lulay, but if Trevor Harris is available for any reason, I’d love to see our lions take a run at him.... also, I’m very curious what mitchel gale can do with a training camp... I like what he brings, but need to see him play...
My 2 cents... for what it’s worth
Enjoyed reading your post Odie. I agree the long snapper position is an important one and Benson is a good one. I also agree that teams went after Yell and Lee a little bit more later in the season and with some success but Yell and Lee, overall, were good this season.
I like Purifoy too but I wish we had kept him at nickel and used Fenner at wideside halfback. But I like both at either position.
The personnel we had at wideside corner were criticized this season but the problem is much more than a personnel issue. We started the season with Thompson at wideside corner, then used Purifoy there for a game, then moved Gaitor outside, then released him and used Buddy Jackson and finally ended the season with Kendall James playing there.
Kenyan Parker, who got some playing time there in 2016 and played so well with his opportunity and who was penciled in as the starter for 2017 prior to the season never got a sniff.
However, the way we play zone defense, the wide side corner is always subject to criticism. Often he is responsible for the deep flat but when we get burned behind on the deep 1/3 of the wide side of the field, our wideside corner is the scapegoat. The problem is that we have had way too much confusion for a number of seasons now with our wide side. Usually its assignment breakdowns because we don't know who to cover in zone.
You can't ask a corner to cover both the deep flat and the deep wide side of the field and opposing teams make sure they send receivers into both areas as well as the short flat because our linebackers are zone covering inside.
The reason that we dropped Bazzie off at times is because we were zone blitzing. Its not uncommon in a zone blitz to send a linebacker on the blitz and to drop off a defensive lineman to cover the linebacker's pass zone area. We began zone blitzing more often towards the end of the season.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)