Woodley and Worilds are getting nearly all the snaps with the 1st team and they've got their positions locked down. Both look good. Jarvis is a future star. He's quick off the snap. He's aggressive always trying to take the ball away from people. Even in position drills he looks quicker/smoother in everything he does than all the other OLBs.
Carter and Robinson both have looked good too. I like Robinson better, but he's behind Worilds and Jarvis on the right while Carter's been taking 2nd team snaps behind Woodley. Maybe we can keep all 5. But we'll probably go with 4. Carter looks like the logical choice because he's the LOLB backup. But I'd keep Robinson because I think he's got a special talent for getting after the QB. And if Woodley got hurt, I'd have Worilds as his backup
There's some really good ILBs on this team, so I don't know if we keep someone extra at that position. That makes it even harder to justify a 5th OLB. But maybe we only carry 5 CBs because Thomas and Golden are both showing they can cover the slot.
ST play is also going to have an impact on these backup players and the final roster. The last cuts are gonna be really tough. Heck they're already tough with a guy like Hrapmann going so early when his kicks were looking good.
I think we're gonna have to judge these guys in the preseason games. It's hard to tell what these guys are doing without full pads. In Hoods defense, he does look quick and decisive. I saw him make a few nice plays when they were in pads where I thought he might be taking that next step toward being a solid contributor. He did have a great final month last season. I think he's gonna be good and much improved.
Keisel also looks as good as he has the last few years. Even though he's getting older, he's not yet losing a step. I know we need to get Heyward into the lineup sooner than later, but I think it would also be smart to keep Keisel beyond this year just because he still looks as good as ever.
Couple more things I remember:
1. Landry Jones got a lot more decisive as the week went on. He's still missing a lot of throws, but I'm not questioning his arm strength any more. He's got good velocity. His issue is completely mental at this point. Maybe some accuracy too. He still looks bad, but better.
2. Wheaton and Howling look like they're getting more consideration as returners. Gilreath is done. Dunn likely too. Although Dunn is one fast dude. He caught a pass in practice and blazed by 5 guys like they were all stuck in quick sand. If we didn't have Howling, I'd want to see if Dunn could catch some balls out of the backfield, but we've got no need. For him it's probably a numbers game and someone else should pick him up because he's got some crazy speed.
3. I've walked past Cortez Allen and Heath Miller so many times this week and noticed no limp whatsoever. They look completely healthy and like they should be ready to go very soon. Heck Ben now seems to have an almost constant limp in his walk when he's not playing which makes me wonder why aren't these guys good to go already? There's quite a few guys that don't look 100% when walking and they're out playing.
Thanks again Flip
Molon labe
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?We're not going to apologize for winning.?
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Awesome, Awesome stuff Flip. Great observations and perspective with nice flow keeping the positions apart by paragraph.
If there was such a thing as a post of the month that would be found on a home page landing page this should be it!
I would insert a not worthy smiley if I knew how.
Just because Lake can coach up a DB doesn't mean he can run an effective D. Butler has been around and learning from LeBeau for years. I know he can run this D.
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