I was just gonna say this but you beat me to it. nice smooth and easy transition from DE to SOLB to SAM to MIKE... to Pro Bowl ILB. He's always seemed and played like he has a downhill, thumping, MIKE mentality, but should have some numbers to numbers capability [as opposed to sideline to sideline]. A slightly more athletic, explosive, and stronger version of Rey Maualuga. Respectable 4.75 40 at the combine and for a guy his size excels in both lower body explosion [38" vertical and 10'07 broad, which is why he hits so hard] and movement ability [6.99 3-cone and 4.18 shuttle]. Heck, even for a guy not his size those are good ILB numbers ya know. I don't think the question was ever about whether or not he could develop into an ILB but rather weather or not he fits the scheme you run since he's not a universal fit.
And I think he's better in coverage than ellerbe, everyone's all stressed about the nickel, hell I think he could play all three downs In the middle and provide good movement skills throughout the bloodzone... We do know from the gestures of this front office how unhappy they are with Ellerbe on the inside..he's got to win it for us to have true success on D.. He looks the part, he has very good measurables for the position, he's more athletic than most think as you pointed out, he hits hard, and he's plenty strong to handle the POA, question is the instinctual side and the mental side qb'ing the D... Basically we just won't know squat til we can break down some preseason film.
Strange, I just heard that the jags allowed their media session ota day to be open to the public where they had 6,000 fans attending.
That's my main reservation about this move. I'm not sure I trust - or can trust at least at this point in time - Koa Misi being able to run through multiple checks as Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Peyton Manning are going through their pre-snap reads/calls. I think some of that can be mitigated with scheme and certainly film-study. But it's still the main red flag for me. I'm not worried much about the nickel and other sub packages. Coyle should, and hopefully will, keep those mixed as he did last year. A different points in time we saw so many different players in those packages. Heck, even Cameron Wake was dropped into coverage on occasion (Cleveland, Cincinnati off the top of my head). I'm not worried about that aspect of it, and even so, if Koa Misi doesn't fit that part, you've still got Ellerbe, Wheeler, Jenkins, and Jordan that all had experience dropping, blitzing, or playing man-to-man out of sub packages last year.
The question to me is whether you can justify him in nickel packages. He's barely on the cusp as far as his range goes for coverage in the nickel. I think a team like Miami would prefer one of their nickel linebackers to be good in coverage and the other to potentially be a pass rusher. Misi's blitzing ability never really developed the way Ireland had hoped, I think. I'm not sure I find his overall pass rush compelling. Wheeler is certainly better at it. So that brings you back to coverage and I'm not sure that will ever be his game. He could be like another Brandon Spikes...two down run stopping linebacker. I think that kind of player is so out of favor and so cheap nowadays that there has to be some sort of advantage to finding a way to structure your defensive system from a play calling and communications standpoint such that you can have one of those guys on the field to stop the run in base packages.
Didn't know the jags even had 6,000 fans total. If a team moves to LA, they have to be one of the ones under consideration.
Ellerbe or Misi in coverage? I got Misi, he's faster, more athletic, better change of direction, better deeper down the field as well.
my question is why wasn't ours open to the public. Why can't it be an original franchise, like the texans.?..I really don't see any markets letting their franchise go.
