*****The Nick Bolton Thread*****

[Dante84]

More to come!

Bolton played in all 13 games as a true freshman (22 tackles, one sack) after earning Dallas Morning News first-team all-state honors at Lone Star High School (130 tackles, 16 for loss, five interceptions). He went from promising youngster to SEC star in 2019, earning first-team all-conference honors after leading the league with 8.9 tackles per game (107 total, 7.5 for loss), intercepting two passes and breaking up eight others in 12 starts. He was named second-team Associated Press All-American, first-team All-SEC and a Butkus Award finalist in 2020, leading his defense with 95 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss (including two sacks), while breaking up five passes in 10 starts. Bolton's father, Carlos, played football at Louisiana Tech. -- by Chad Reuter

Overview
When you think about strong, forceful inside linebackers, Bolton is the type of player you might be envisioning. He's going to fall below typical NFL starter standards from a size standpoint, but his rugged frame and forceful demeanor help make up for it. Play recognition and pursuit instincts help carry him to the football and he's a message-sending striker when he gets the runner squared up. He has functional short-area burst between the tackles but will struggle to run down the outside run if he's not close enough to the action. He will need to lean heavier on his instincts to help speed him up because of size and speed limitations. Bolton plays with good field recognition when dropping into zone and has a history of making plays on the football in coverage. He's a three-down linebacker who can make an immediate contribution on special teams and has the potential to become a future starter.
Strengths

• Very tough with a physical edge.
• Plays with demeanor teams look for in the middle.
• Field-savvy with instincts to diagnose misdirection.
• Identifies and communicates.
• Heavy hands with good pop to take on blocks.
• Pursues ball-carrier with patience and leverage.
• Fluid alterations to his pursuit angles.
• Excellent feel for attack timing downhill.
• Meets runners with violent collisions in the hole.
• Strikes like he's trying to send a message.
• Great awareness and ballhawking as spot dropper.
• Has enough man-cover talent to play on all three downs.
• Thrived on kick- and punt-cover teams early in his career.

Weaknesses

• Average lateral quickness traps him behind climbing blocks.
• Inconsistent to strike and separate from blockers.
• Needs to improve angles to elude box traffic.
• Might need to take a few more chances as a pro.
• Top-end speed appears below average.
• Loses ground when pursuit flows wide.
• Below-average lateral agility as open-field tackler.
• Will have to play quicker to deal with NFL slashers.

.@_nickbolton2 gets the call from One Arrowhead Drive �� pic.twitter.com/1XgaCeBy8R

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) May 1, 2021

[Kiimo]

Well he certainly isn't going to win the starting job until the pads come on at the earliest

[Coochie liquor]

Originally Posted by PattyFlakes

He’s not an all pro yet?........ Bust!

Exit the ship??

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by AdolfOliverBush

I have faith in the coaches, I'm just hopeful that Bolton will get ahead of the curve and earn a spot in the lineup sooner than we think. I enjoy watching quality LB play, and Niemann doesn't provide that.

I don’t think they are going to have him wait as long we think.

Willie Gay started playing significant snaps in games at the end of October and he didn’t have much experience starting in college and also had to deal with a pandemic forcing him to miss in person practice his first OTA’s.

Nick Bolton was drafted in per bc he was very experienced and smart. He’s not calling the defense so there’s not a ton of responsibility there and he is here like a normal offseason.

JMO but I think we see him start playing at least 50% of the snaps by early to mid October

[OKchiefs]

It’s a given Bolton will take a while to get more snaps, I’m just hopeful that by the end of the season we don’t have to see another snap played by Niemann barring injury.

I’m more interested early on in seeing if Gay can hit the ground running early on in the season. I don’t think he really showed the growth through last year I had hoped for, he still seemed lost at times late in the year, and the injury prior to the playoffs certainly didn’t help. This off-season is going to be huge for his future here.

I’ll continue to harp on the sentiment that with the cap constraints we’ll usually be under year to year our high draft picks need to heavily contribute and/or become starters sooner rather than later. Thornhill was clearly on that path prior to his injury. Hardman contributed heavily early on but has settled more into a gadget/role player type since then. I’m hopeful Gay and eventually Bolton can have relatively quick progression, waiting for year 3 or 4 for high draft picks to hit their stride isn’t sustainable in my opinion.

[staylor26]

Originally Posted by OKchiefs

It’s a given Bolton will take a while to get more snaps, I’m just hopeful that by the end of the season we don’t have to see another snap played by Niemann barring injury.

I’m more interested early on in seeing if Gay can hit the ground running early on in the season. I don’t think he really showed the growth through last year I had hoped for, he still seemed lost at times late in the year, and the injury prior to the playoffs certainly didn’t help. This off-season is going to be huge for his future here.

I’ll continue to harp on the sentiment that with the cap constraints we’ll usually be under year to year our high draft picks need to heavily contribute and/or become starters sooner rather than later. Thornhill was clearly on that path prior to his injury. Hardman contributed heavily early on but has settled more into a gadget/role player type since then. I’m hopeful Gay and eventually Bolton can have relatively quick progression, waiting for year 3 or 4 for high draft picks to hit their stride isn’t sustainable in my opinion.

Clyde, Danna, and Sneed all had an immediate impact last year. Nnadi did as well his rookie year. Hell, Fenton did to an extent too.

Humphrey is already lining up as the starting C.

Not every draft pick is going to contribute immediately. The only issue here is that you’re focusing on the ones that don’t, and ignoring the ones that do.

Our last 2 draft have been fantastic, and if this one is anything like last years or how it looks on paper, it will absolutely be “sustainable”.

[PattyFlakes]

IIRC Spags was making similar comments about Sneed going into last season. He turned out OK.

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo on rookie LB Nick Bolton: "We're going to try to find ways to get him on the field. It may take a little while.''— Adam Teicher (@adamteicher) June 3, 2021

Sounds like a motivational quote to get Bolton in the right frame of mind.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by staylor26

Clyde, Danna, and Sneed all had an immediate impact last year. Nnadi did as well his rookie year. Hell, Fenton did to an extent too.

Humphrey is already lining up as the starting C.

Not every draft pick is going to contribute immediately. The only issue here is that you’re focusing on the ones that don’t, and ignoring the ones that do.

Our last 2 draft have been fantastic, and if this one is anything like last years or how it looks on paper, it will absolutely be “sustainable”.

Bolton needs to be one of the ones who do. He has 2 years as the leader of a defense in the SEC. He’s also very smart per the scouting reports/Chiefs assessment.

It was understandable that Willie Gay took time. He didn’t start much in college, wasnt the smartest player, wasn’t the leader of the defense and got screwed by the pandemic forcing him to miss valuable practice time.

I don’t think it will be long before Bolton gets significant snaps

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Bolton needs to be one of the ones who do. He has 2 years as the leader of a defense in the SEC. He’s also very smart per the scouting reports/Chiefs assessment.

It was understandable that Willie Gay took time. He didn’t start much in college, wasnt the smartest player, wasn’t the leader of the defense and got screwed by the pandemic forcing him to miss valuable practice time.

I don’t think it will be long before Bolton gets significant snaps

Absolutely, two different players with very different experience levels coming into the bigs

[RunKC]

Saw this interesting nugget on Willie Gay today:

“It was tough,” Gay admitted told reporters. “To only see the playbook for the first time during training camp, it was hard. To get that head start right now in OTAs, it’s definitely helping a lot. I’m catching on to the things that I didn’t catch on to last year.

So this guy had to deal with no OTA’s, not starting many games or leading his defense in college and only looking at his playbook starting in camp....and he played about 25% of the snaps in week 4 and then about 50% in week 7.

I don’t buy this “they’re gonna bring Bolton along slowly” stuff. Compared to Willie he’s in a way better situation this year. I think he gets 50+% of the snaps by early October at the latest

[AdolfOliverBush]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Saw this interesting nugget on Willie Gay today:



So this guy had to deal with no OTA’s, not starting many games or leading his defense in college and only looking at his playbook starting in camp....and he played about 25% of the snaps in week 4 and then about 50% in week 7.

I don’t buy this “they’re gonna bring Bolton along slowly” stuff. Compared to Willie he’s in a way better situation this year. I think he gets 50+% of the snaps by early October at the latest

I think Bolton gets 50% of the week 1 snaps. Niemann is so awful that you could literally put a blind reerun out there and not be that much worse at LB.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by AdolfOliverBush

I think Bolton gets 50% of the week 1 snaps. Niemann is so awful that you could literally put a blind reerun out there and not be that much worse at LB.

What about a blind AND deaf one?

[AdolfOliverBush]

Originally Posted by TEX

What about a blind AND deaf one?

Hell, you could put a dead reerun out there and not notice much difference.

[Dunerdr]

Jesus Christmas.

[BossChief]

Gay and Bolton are going to be demons in the middle of the field of our defense.

Our front 7 is going to be fun to watch in the near future.