ChiefsPlanet - View Single Post - Chiefs Jovan Belcher, a gem found in the rough ?

DJ's left nut · 02-11-2011, 10:23 AM

No way would I give up on Belcher yet. He's come way too far in a short two seasons for me to believe he can't take one more step in his 3rd season (usually a young player's biggest step forward comes in the third year).

More critically, Belcher has the perfect attitude for an ILB. He's aggressive, he's fearless and he genuinely seems to enjoy doing to grunt work underneath.

If he had a legitimate NT that could keep him from having to fight off Guards on every single running play, he'd hold up even better. It wasn't that he never fought off blockers, it was that he was asked to do so virtually every play and eventually it wore him out. If you get a real NT in there to cut the number of times he has to go head up against a guard in half, I'd suggest that he'd be far more effective at shedding blockers when he's asked to do so.

He's athletic, he's quite strong for his size, he plays with passion and he plays with very good leverage (something that some guys never learn). He's a ballplayer. And yeah, would we be better if we had someone better than him to force him to special teams? Sure, but the Ravens would be better if they could clone Ray Nitschke and push Ray Lewis to lead gunner as well. That's a meaningless statement.

We have finite resources in terms of draft picks, cap space and outright cash that Clark may be willing to spend on signing bonuses. Putting those resources into a position that already has a young player that could very well be capable of playing it at a high level is shortsighted and impatient. Give him this season - if he hasn't improved, make a move. It's not like we don't have pressing needs at OLB, NT, WR, RT, C, G, and RB2. We can dedicate our offseason to filling those holes and still likely exhaust our available resources before they're all covered.

Give Belcher another season, ideally behind a real NT, and I think this conversation will be seen as very very silly the following year.

02-11-2011, 10:23 AM	#88
DJ's left nut Sauntering Vaguely Downwards Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Columbia, Mo Casino cash: $-940901	No way would I give up on Belcher yet. He's come way too far in a short two seasons for me to believe he can't take one more step in his 3rd season (usually a young player's biggest step forward comes in the third year). More critically, Belcher has the perfect attitude for an ILB. He's aggressive, he's fearless and he genuinely seems to enjoy doing to grunt work underneath. If he had a legitimate NT that could keep him from having to fight off Guards on every single running play, he'd hold up even better. It wasn't that he never fought off blockers, it was that he was asked to do so virtually every play and eventually it wore him out. If you get a real NT in there to cut the number of times he has to go head up against a guard in half, I'd suggest that he'd be far more effective at shedding blockers when he's asked to do so. He's athletic, he's quite strong for his size, he plays with passion and he plays with very good leverage (something that some guys never learn). He's a ballplayer. And yeah, would we be better if we had someone better than him to force him to special teams? Sure, but the Ravens would be better if they could clone Ray Nitschke and push Ray Lewis to lead gunner as well. That's a meaningless statement. We have finite resources in terms of draft picks, cap space and outright cash that Clark may be willing to spend on signing bonuses. Putting those resources into a position that already has a young player that could very well be capable of playing it at a high level is shortsighted and impatient. Give him this season - if he hasn't improved, make a move. It's not like we don't have pressing needs at OLB, NT, WR, RT, C, G, and RB2. We can dedicate our offseason to filling those holes and still likely exhaust our available resources before they're all covered. Give Belcher another season, ideally behind a real NT, and I think this conversation will be seen as very very silly the following year. __________________ "If there's a god, he's laughing at us.....and our football team..." "When you look at something through rose colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags."
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