xen

Fyi Ingram will be active this game. A little surprising and doubt he gets but a few plays, but still nice to see. So watched the game again and starting to see some improvement, outside of the obviously worse opponent, that bodes well for future improvement. One is, and I know some hear don't want to hear this, but Clark has been playing really really well the last few games. We need more of that. Two is, if Hitch steals time from Gay that will be criminal. I could see him stealing some snaps from Bolton but I don't like that either. Bolton getting a little better in zone as he's been getting more snaps. Seems to be a really fast learner. But his work in base at MLB has been 10x better than he was in base before Hitch when down. Makes sense as he's gotten a lot more snaps + playing his natural position. Seth just put up a nice breakdown of Gay and Bolton. I concur with his conclusions. Those 2 young guys are starting to transform the D. They must stay in. Bolton here. Only LB on the roster that can do this. Dude arrives with ill intent always. We need that. Another good example from seth. Bolton highlighted but watch 50 Gay to the left. That is 2 young studs working the goalline package. Outstanding work. Watch Gay work it here. Pulls off the fake quickly to bracket the outlet then turns it on after the QB commits to the outside boot. Love this play. Niemann and Hitch let that turn into a cheap 11 vs the short gain this ends up being. We have no other LBs capable of this. I get you may have some issues calling plays with Gay in Dime, but man you can't teach coverage instincts like Gay has. I mean you can get better at it with a lot of reps but dude just gets it. Bolton needs to get better in zone but he'll need reps to get there. Let the young uns play. They are the future.

Sorry haven't been on the board much lately due to RL stuff. I'll go looksee

Don't think anyone's ever been angry about your posts. I think you may also read tone or intention that may not be there. But you can't say some of the stuff you put out there and not expect people to respond, then hide behind the "hey what do I know" response. I mean you can, but I'ma call you out on it cause you know, I'm the Royal Lord High Jerkwad.

Smith destroying people amd getting there in pass pro. Creed highest graded center in league and 4th highest graded OL overall. Interior OL is on lock.

Thornhill is already starting at free safety. Y'all want him to play 3rd safety too? I mean I guess we could clone him. 🤷‍♂️

AFCWest: says something dumb Someone responds AFCWest: how dare you respond to my dumb comment!

ALREADY A THREAD 😃

I actually enjoyed the manningcast. Better than the mnf announcers. Game was kinda crap anyway.

No I was agreeing. Just saying that's basically where he was when he was effective. 3rd safety but in effect he was playing as a dime backer.

Kind of what he used to do as the third safety which spags was using. He played a lot down low. Was effective there. Get back to that and he's OK. We know what he looks like with extended play and Drake does NOT approve.

Jury is still out on if Gay can stay healthy but he was already a difference maker last week in first game back. Kid has the goods. Bolton needs to learn zone coverage better but he sure is a heat seeking missile. Solid start.

Honestly if we don't resign HB I think they'll be forced to go safety earlier if no FAs fit for a reasonable price (unlikely). That position is so important in this defense. Hard to find a SS that has coverage chops and can play the run + smart. You're definitely not gonna find one as versatile as HB. I think they just need to find a couple good solid pass rushers wherever. The way we're going we may pick high enough to get one that fits this D in the first. Veach can find another somewhere. Still think we need another receiver. I like Gordon but have a hard time putting all my eggs in that basket. I am not as down on the roster as some here. We have a lot of pieces just need to be smart in acquiring some key players. You are absolutely right that pass rush will be the key.

Oh look it's hands' alter ego. Thought we banned you.

The Jones to end experiment has not worked out like the wanted for sure. Not sure if it will but this time off isn't helping. He needed reps there to have any shot at getting good.

Someone will eat his salary if we trade him. Us.

Well I think they may have to start a 3rd or 4th round strong safety, as they may not be able to afford HB, so it may be a moot point. I'm not convinced you need super speed at every position in this defense but you need speed at free safety and linebacker, plus at least some of your good corners to back up a good pass rush. With the pattern matching we do at corner, good feet, COD, intelligence in zone, and ability to press is more important. Speed helps (see Sneed, L'Jarius) but we've also seen slower corners do well by having the 4 things I mentioned, which is why I'm happen Fenton is getting snaps now cause he's slow but has all 4 of those traits and seems to always show well because of it.

I'm with Moons here. Speed is a greater complement to what we do on offense which should be the primary driver of our defensive strategy. With today's defenders you can have one or the other without using Super high draft picks and an outsize effect on your cap. Sure it would be nice but not realistic from a standpoint of keeping the offense stacked at the same time. We have shown at this point that when the offense is operating how we know they can, heavy rushing attack is not an effective strategy against us. We need to plan around pass defense; so pass rush and backend with fast linebackers. This is not to say they should have attitude but you can learn techniques to get off blocks or just be too quick to block in space.

43 OLB and 34 OLB are different skillsets. Not saying he couldn't do it but if staying at LB for us he would be only a SLB which is about 20% of snaps. Signing a guy like that and getting value out of his snaps would necessitate a position change to DE which would be different techniques, which is I think the driver of the trade request as that is the switch he made in Houston this year. As u say he wants to maximize future contract value so staying at 34 OLB makes the most sense for him. What he should have said was "I want to play for a contender that runs the 34".

He would have to be a DE here. 34 OLB his entire career.

That guy sucks anyway 😃

Grey was blocking really well in preseason so hopefully that carries over. He's more of a move blocker so belldozer would still be first in line in 2 te sets. He actually was blocking much better than I gave him credit for in college.

I would think it has more to do with route adjustments. Andy's receivers are expected to adjust routes based on coverage and technique being used. There are a wide range of adjustments they have to make and that takes a lot longer than just learning the plays. I also assume they only have him in certain packages. being so new, so game flow would dictate what packages they use.