A guy I am pretty intrigued by is Safety James Williams out of Miami. The guy is 6-4 230 pounds. I am always have questions on big safeties, they just never seem to become great dudes in the secondary. Why I am intrigued is that apparently he has some skill with man coverage. He has the size and athleticism to run with big TEs. He should also have more of impact in the run game, and can be added to the pressure packages as well.
yeah, he's a guy I've made mention of here previously. I keep seeing him pop up in my mocks in the 3rd round.Originally Posted by Deputy Nutz
Jaylen Wright, RB, Tennessee
He would be a great addition to the backfield.
But Rodgers leads the league in frumpy expressions and negative body language on the sideline, which makes him, like Josh Allen, a unique double threat.
-Tim Harmston
That feller there is a linebacker. A big boy at that. Aaron Rouse was about that size too IIRC. Hopefully this dude can ball!
Yeah, Williams was a safety who is bulking up to play LB. Haven't watched him much but I get Day 3 vibes from him.
I like him.
I would also consider spending the Packers second 2nd round pick or if possible a 3rd round pick on Bucky Irvin from Oregon. He does remind me of an Aaron Jones type back, not real big but good vision and can make the cut and get down hill with authority. I think Irvin has more talent than Jones in making guys miss and catching the ball out of the backfield
What do you guys think of safety Cole Bishop. After watching his tape, I'm not sure about him as a pure safety, but with a little added weight he might be a useful addition at LB.
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I just don't see him getting big enough to play LB. Packers need more than one safety. If Packers draft him (3rd round probably), I would think strong safety is probably his best position.
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Forget your perfect offering
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Haven't watched him much, first impressions are he's a box safety and probably a Day 3 guy. You can do a lot worse but IDK if he moves the needle a lot. Who knows, maybe he's Reed Blankenship 2.0
On first watch I thought he was a concussion waiting to happen. YouTube shows him both giving and receiving some hard shots, but he's got a lot of talent and potential. I'm starting to come around on him. In a stable with Jones and another RB he could be something. He runs violent and has very good speed.
in other news: Dane Brugler is reporting that Cooper DeJean will not test at the Combine, as he's still recovering from a late season leg injury. Probably helps him slide down into the 20's; my guess is Quinyon Mitchell and the 2 Alabama corners leapfrog him.
I heard some draft guy interviewed the other day speaking very highly of Quinyon Mitchell, but the scouting reports I've read say his strength is playing off coverage. Better fit for a zone scheme, where he can watch the route develop in front of him. Hopefully we've seen enough of that crap here for one lifetime.
If people are thinking the Packers are going to be playing press man all the time, they're mistaken. Everybody plays zone. You can play zone in a much more aggressive way than we saw with Joe Barry.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in - Leonard Cohen
Nothing wrong with that style if you are put in a position to succeed. That is exactly the kind of safety we need to be honest. A guy who is smart and can watch it unfold, then accelerate and make a play. I still like DeJean in that role, but just like everyone here says "why make tom a guard when he is a good tackle", DeJean can be a good CB so I'm not sure anyone wants to make him a safety.
I don't hold Grudges. It's counterproductive.
Exactly, and I hope they do play that more aggressive style of zone a LOT - because our best D games last season were when we played a lot of umbrella zone, and also because I don't have much confidence in Jaire to get back to being a shutdown Corner.
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True, but press is going to be Hafley's bread and butter. It's his religion. I've googled some seminars he's given over the last few years on defensive backs, and saw a Youtube video of him talking to his players at Ohio State. He sounded like George C. Scott in the opening speech in "Patton" - "attack, attack, attack!" His defense is centered on harrassing, frustrating, and interfering with every single thing the recievers try to do; punch him at the line, keep your hands on him, block his path, fight him every single step of his route so that he can't run his planned route, make it so that only a perfect pass can beat the coverage, and the QB has to choose between throwing a risky pass he doesn't want to throw or not throwing the ball at all.
Obviously we won't see that on every play, but it's what he's going to keep going back to on the majority of pass plays. If you're taking a CB in the first round, when there are still a lot of players to choose from, it seems smarter to take one whose strengths fit the coverage you're going to be using the most often.
But that's just my opinion. I don't have a lot invested in it.
Actually just watched footage of Cole Bishop. I think he moves really well. I don't think he as instinctive as a Hunter Woehler from the Badgers, but he has a real fluid back pedal and understands positioning as a deep safety whether that's in the post or playing Cover 2. He is a good effort guy, chases stuff down and has a burst doing it. Its all a real crap shoot until after the combine on some of these guys. I like the safety class this year. One guy I keep coming back to is Calen Bullock of USC. He has some range as a deep safety. His tackling isn't top notch, but he can get over the top in a hurry.
Press man can turn into Cover 2 and Cover 2 can look a lot like press man. Ohio State used to love sitting in cover 1 tempting teams to beat them with better athletes outside. It rarely happened until the College Playoffs because Ohio St has had some phenom type corners in the college ranks. College is so much different than the NFL. You can't breath on a receiver in the NFL after 5 yards. It really limits how aggressive you can get with the outside receivers. You can't live in one type of coverage in the NFL, the receivers and QBs are too good and will pick it apart. It's not even so much about multiple coverages its disguise and changing who has what zones.
This sort of a relief to me. Press man coverage is great if you have shutdown Corners and/or adequate Safety coverage. Press man with a single high Safety, even a good one, is a disaster waiting to happen.
What could be more GOOD and NORMAL and AMERICAN than Packer Football?
I heard Mitchell did very well at the Senior Bowl and might be CB1. Sounded like he held up in man coverage against those receivers just fine.
Agree with Joe that Hafley won't be in press man all the time, but we'll definitely see it more than with Barry.
As others have mentioned, every team plays zone, usually the majority of coverage is some kind of zone. It will be interesting to see how much zone Hafley calls, what kinds of zone he calls, and how it's disguised. (Execution is another question) I didn't get a sense that Barry disguised his coverages a lot, there were times it felt like it was varying degrees of prevent defense.
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