Quote:
Originally Posted by BossChief
The most important part for Poe is diagnosing the play and that will take time and is where Crennel can help him like no other coach can.
It's also possible this is another gift for this kid that we can't see because of not seeing his games. Maybe when Romeo was asking him (during interviews) why he did certain things and Poe gave the right answers, that impressed us and played a part in us drafting him at 11 instead of moving back and still drafting him.
We thought there was a good chance at losing him and seem in love with him.
I hope it works out.
|
It's diagnosing the play, but it's also learning basic "blocking and tackling." He has to be coached the basics like using leverage and hand technique, especially at this position where he's going to be asked to absorb a bunch of blockers and shed. If he doesn't use leverage, he'll get stood up. If his hand technique is horrible, he's never going to get off his blocks. Especially since he doesn't have long arms. It doesn't matter how strong you are if you have no leverage. Doesn't matter how good you are at diagnosing if you're unable to get off blocks to go where you need to go.
The diagnosing part is interesting and the reason why it was silly to expect Tyson Jackson to be firing on all cylinders right away. The 5-technique does a lot more of that diagnosing than a traditional 4-3 defensive end too. You have to train these players to go from an attack mentality to a little more of a read-and-react. Poe is probably going to make a lot of really bad reads early on. That's the only way he's going to really learn. I hope people are able to be patient enough to let him make those mistakes. They definitely weren't with Dorsey or Jackson.
The good news is, we have in my mind the absolute best in the game at teaching this. I'm not big on RAC as a head coach, but he's the best 2-gap d-line coach in the game. By a mile. He's done it his entire career. My guess is that Pleasant has picked up a thing or two from the old man as well.