Quote:
Originally Posted by buddha
He's a sure thing? Sure to do what exactly? You must be very easy to impress if you looked at that video and came up with, "sure thing!"
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Well, let's watch it together:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chiefs=Good
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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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by buddha
Kuechly is servicable...not dominant. If you're taking a LB at this point in the draft, he had better be dominant.
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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.