I'm starting to not even see a reason why he would be entertained as a possibility for our pick. Hes a 4-3 linebacker. I don't see where he fits into our scheme at all, whereas hightower is a 34 lb who can rush on passing downs

Hightower fits Romeo's scheme better.

I agree. I think he fits the 4-3 better. He might be considered for DJ's spot, but we already have DJ.

Well, let's watch it together:

0:07: Play isn't even run to his side, so whatever. Eludes a block, stays on his feet.
0:14: Anticipates the slant, and fronts it well.
0:21: Stays with the slot and fronts it well.
0:30: He's mostly negated by a blocker, but appears to be spinning into the play should it continue.
0:35: Playing the 9-tech off the RT, and play isn't run to him. Darts into backfield to get in on the tackle.
0:43: Drops into shallow zone, doesn't get any safety help whatsoever, not remotely his fault -- two corners let him go.

(A theme you'll notice is that all of Kuechly's teammates suck.)

0:55: Plays to a draw with lineman... gets in on tackle.
1:02: Never bites on the misdirection, makes tackle.
1:12: Clowns a blocker and ends a broken play.
1:18: In the Mike backer position, holds up blocker and makes the play while being facemasked.

(Another theme you'll notice is that Kuechly slips or holds blockers very well.)

1:36: Bites on a trickplay. Otherwise, not his play to defend.
1:43: Plays the hot route but has plenty of juice to get outside and get in on the tackle.
1:51: Safeties caught sleeping. And the corner plays the short route rather than the long route.
2:01: Just basic zone defense here.
2:07: Plays the Urlacher role in coverage, then gets in on the tackle.
2:26: Does a good job shedding the pulling guard, but RB runs away from the block for some reason.
2:31: Reads the draw immediately, but his own teammate gets in his way.

I could go on and on and on.

Basically: a lot of perfect positioning, playing within himself, doing as much of a job as he can.

But no big hits. No sexy highlights.

Bah.

Football is an emotional sport to watch, but you can't build your team emotionally. If you want a player to give you an erection from some decapitation on SportsCenter, then you're not keeping your eyes out for all the other people who make plays like that work.

Kuechly is not a sexy pick, much like Mayo wasn't. He does his job perfectly, but because that job doesn't employ bone-crunching hits or tons of sacks, people dismiss it.

Building a football team is a smart man's job, and I think Kuechly's a smart pick.

If we take Kuechly, our linebackers will be dominant.

Hali-Kuechly-Johnson-Houston

What each person does in this corps enables the others to do their jobs even better.

Hali's abilities make Houston's job easier. Johnson's job makes Hali's job easier. Kuechly makes Johnson's job easier.

That's the whole point -- that's what the Right 53 is.

It's not necessarily getting the best players with the best highlights.

It's about getting the players that fit and make everybody else's job exponentially easier.

It could be said that with Kuechly and Chapman, along with some depth on the back end, the defense is set for 5 or 6 years potentially.


Thats pretty cool.

The guy is NEVER out of position. He is everything you look for in a prospect. Smart, great leader, etc. He is not your ideal "thumper" but Romeo is a genius, and can adjust.. like he did with Justin Houston.

And as for the people defending Belcher, I do like the guy. Got more then we could of asked for as an UDFA, but outside of NT he is the weak link on this defense. We have gotten to the point where we are improving players who have gotten it done for us in the past. This isn't 2010 anymore.

Here is Belchers job:

Get lined up where you can best perform your duties pre snap depending on the offensive formation

Read the "keys" of the offensive formation/motion to try and narrow down what will happen the moment the ball is snapped. This is done by reading the guards, usually. It is also where film study of your opponent pays dividends.

Diagnose run or pass as soon as possible and move accordingly..." false steps usually yeild big plays"

If it is run, immediately identify the pulling guard or where the full back is going and immediately attack that player with every ounce of your being. Making the tackle isn't the primary responsibility, it's "scraping" which is blowing up the lead block...this allows your teammates (most of the time DJ is next up and is expected to make the tackle) to make a play to make the tackle and do a better job of locating the ball to try and force a turnover. Once you "scrape" you try to shed the block and make the tackle.

That is where Belcher absolutely excells. The fact that DJ lead the team in tackles and Belcher was second is a direct result of a lot of really hard work.

I'd love to see a video of all of Belchers tackles because every one of them was the result of big time effort. Maybe even mores than any other player on defense.

If it is pass, identify your responsibilities and get good depth in your drop. Most of the time, this is where Belcher struggles a bit...he is still learning and misdiagnosed play action against well rounded teams and therefore didn't get sufficient depth on his drop and that left a pocket for quarterbacks to drop the ball into. I firmly believe this is coachable and that he has shown improvement from year to year.

Kuechly is a flier and a sound, form tackler that works well in space.

He isn't experienced in taking on pulling guards and lead blocks as his main responsibility.

Kuechly is a guy that can diagnose run or pass well, but "plays on his heels" and that's why even though he had almost 200 tackles, not very many of them were for loss and he forced 0 fumbles...but also didn't miss many tackles.

It essentially gives us two DJ type players at inside backer and nobody that is used to doing the dirty work while taking a guy COMPLETELY off the field that excels at those things at the NFL level.

In my opinion, he would make the least impact of any guy in the conversation for the 11 pick.

I see another Aaron Curry a lot more than I see the next Urlacher or RayRay.

IMO the best pick for us if we stay at 11 is Mark Barron.

He is a "dual threat" defender that has elite potential and how better to combat the increasing usage of the passing game than another elite prospect that would upgrade all packages on defense in both coverage and run support.

With our pass rush, ability to stop the run and force more passing situations and adding a guy like Barron to an already very good secondary...we could probably have a long run of games without a 300 yard passer while being one of the leading teams in terms of sacks and interceptions.

It would also be a great counter move to Denver adding Manning and SD having Rivers.

Simply put, if we aren't moving up for Tannehill Mark Barron should be the pick.

Not sure why you're so sold on Barron. It's not even a given that Barron would start for us.
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Keep in mind that as our offense improves our D will regress because teams will have to score(so the D was probably not as good as the stats indicate.)

Decastro.

Trade back and get hightower.

Brockers if we grade him out as a potential 3rd down pass rusher.

Belcher's tackles aren't the only place his impact is felt. More often then not he's blowing up the fullback or lead blocker to free up somebody else to make the play.

Agreed.

He doesn't diagnose well, he's damn near peerless at it.

His style of play in the two-gap 3-4 as a mike backer would be different than the Urlacher role Boston College asked him to play. So a bunch of the "playing on his heels" stuff will fade after a year of him adjusting to our system. And he'll adjust very quickly.

All the tape of him taking on blockers shows him as adept at shedding blocks as any linebacker on the Chiefs roster.

He did nothing but dirty work for Boston College. He had to be the whole defense and cover the entire middle of the field. It was a sucky gig, and he did it with aplomb.

I don't disagree -- though I'd say Brockers would be the lowest impact. (Excepting Poe.)

I see neither -- I see a Jerrod Mayo clone.

Barron won't be the pick at 11.

He might be the pick if we trade down 12 spots though, and he's still on the board.

lol @ Brockers being any kind of passrusher

Hightower makes absolutely zero sense -- he's the exact same player as Belcher.

looks like it would be a great pick I am sure he score higher than 4 on his scores as well-llol

He'd be our Levon Kirkland, and Dont'a's talent dwarfs Belcher's in aces.

All that much more reason not to move up for a questionable talent.

No it doesn't.

Belcher is ascending and is a very solid middle linebacker for this defense. Hightower doesn't bring anything that Belcher already offers.

I can understand Kuechly due to his athleticism and instincts. Having two DJ's isn't a bad thing, especially considering that we are playing Manning and Rivers twice a season.

However, picking a guy like Hightower doesn't give you anything over what Jovan Belcher is currently giving you, minus the two years of NFL experience in this system.

Belcher is a very solid middle linebacker. He brings the lumber on the run and has the experience in the NFL to play the pass effectively.

Hightower would be a monumental waste for this team.

and Hightower could be an all-pro at the very same position opposite DJ, instead of being "solid"