Perry...Wothy...JS...McGinn....Needs Improvement

[Fritz]

Is Draheim a rookie? What does anyone know about him?

[smuggler]

I'm pretty sure he was a UDFA or maybe he was on another team's PS last year.

[Joemailman]

Is Draheim a rookie? What does anyone know about him?

UDFA http://www.packers.com/team/roster/T...5-98ef930bc3bd

[RashanGary]

JS had some quotes from Capers today. Said Perry's best asset is his power. Said he can walk guys backwards. Capers said that's his starting point, and all of the other moves will come off of that. If a guy is gearing up for a bull rush, it's that much easier to go around him slip inside him.

I didn't expect that out of Perry. His sacks at USC came going around the edge. Since in GB, it's his power that is impressive. Bulaga is a damn good OT and Perry has knocked him right off his feet, left him laying there on the ground.

That's a good starting point. He's young, but like Matthews (of course different skill-sets - Power VS Agility) he is supremely gifted. Perry is going to be a monster.


Capers also said he is powerful setting the edge. You know what, fuck it. If he's not quite ready to be a full fledged OLB, dropping into coverage a lot, let him play up front a little more. Take a DL off the field and give Perry more of a DE/OLB hybrid type role where he's more of a run player and pass rusher and a little less coverage.

I didn't read anywhere that OLB's have to drop into coverage an equal amount of time. If you take a DL off the field, there will be another player behind him picking up that zone.

[Joemailman]

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/166323246.html

“To me that’s where it starts,” Capers said. “So many guys in college football now, they all want to get out there and run around. They’re 10 yards up the field running around the quarterback.

“If you can get a guy to take a guy and walk him back, it’s a starting point. He’ll learn the moves off of that. Once he gets the guy going back, now is when he makes the move. But so many of these guys come in and they want to use their athletic ability to run around it and they never threaten with power. You have to threaten with power and turn it into speed.”

[HarveyWallbangers]

I rewatched the last game, and Perry came around the corner A LOT. One of the few plays he didn't was the sack. He did flush the QB up into the pocket a lot though, so I'm hoping they'll have Matthews come inside to clean it up. He does have power, but he also has speed. He lacks agility though. He gets around the corner easily, but he seems to lack the agility to take full advantage. He gets around the edge and the stutter steps his way around.

[RashanGary]

His edge rush is going to be a counter move to his bull rush, so it will play a little faster than it actually is.

For now his pure explosiveness and power are going to give him a bull rush right out of the gate, and an edge rush. Agreed that he gets a little too deep on a lot of his edge rushs and needs to lumber a little bit coming back to the QB. He's a bigger guy. He needs to get a quick first step and leverage his way under the OT to take a shorter, and less rounded route to the QB. That leveraging is a technique thing. That's something he can bet better at over the next few weeks and into the season.

The play he got held on was a good edge rush. He pried his way under the shoulder of the OT from what I recall, took an efficient, short route to the QB (not too deep) and the OT had to grab onto him to keep him from putting a lick on Rivers. There was no lumbering back toward teh QB on that play. He came out of the corner squared straight up to lump Rivers in the torso.

I think he has both moves right now. They'll both continue to get better week by week. His explosiveness/power/speed combo are going to make him hard to block. And who's to say he can't develop another go-to inside shed move throughout the season. He's a 2 trick pony now, could be a 3 trick pony pretty easily. On his sack, if he had a better shed move, he wouldn't have had to back that OT up twice before he disengaged. He knocked that guy back a couple yards on his first punch (filthy power by the way, against a good RT.) There's no reason, with a guy that off balance, he can't shed inside and put a quicker lick on the QB. It was a nice sack, but he has the talent to get in that QB's lap instantly on that type of rush.

[pbmax]

Both Perry and Matthews come off the edge very well. Clay is the complete package though. Perry is a bit more of a one trick pony. He does have some power, but he mostly comes off the edge. He lacks Clay's agility, but it will help him a lot when he develops a couple of secondary moves. I see Perry coming off the edge a lot and Clay doing a lot of stunting inside. When Perry forces the QB to step up in the pocket (which he did quite a bit in the San Diego game), Clay will hopefully be there to clean it up.

One trick pony might explain him now. But I have also read that he seems more reluctant to string moves together than Matthews. That also plays into the motor question.

But as KYPack put it somewhere, if he can bull rush and then either take the corner or counter and get inside, good luck stopping him. he's huge and a load.

[HarveyWallbangers]

One trick pony might explain him now. But I have also read that he seems more reluctant to string moves together than Matthews. That also plays into the motor question.

But as KYPack put it somewhere, if he can bull rush and then either take the corner or counter and get inside, good luck stopping him. he's huge and a load.

I'd call him a two trick pony--which isn't bad at this point. He can get around the corner (although he lacks the agility to take maximum advantage) and he can bull rush. He needs to learn to use his hands better and needs to develop some type of spin move. If he can develop those two things, he's going to be a beast. He's about halfway there.

[KYPack]

I'd call him a two trick pony--which isn't bad at this point. He can get around the corner (although he lacks the agility to take maximum advantage) and he can bull rush. He needs to learn to use his hands better and needs to develop some type of spin move. If he can develop those two things, he's going to be a beast. He's about halfway there.

Two trick is about right, Harve.

He can pass rush, but needs to add a few more clubs to his bag to be a complete rusher.

In cover, he is real green. In Capers D, LB's have two types of coverage, pattern and match. Match is man to man. You get on your man and cover him. Pattern is covering a piece of turf, like you defend a zone in a zone D in basketball. Perry is learning pattern cover. When his assignment is cover, he peels back to his landmark and covers his area. He might be a good hand in match-up, but I can't say, I've never seen him do it.

He is trying to get with the program, but he is so green, it will be a real trip for awhile. This kid has a ton of potential, but he has a couple tons of learning ahead of him.

[Smidgeon]

I read an article way back when (might've been SI or ESPN) about how many tricks a sack pony needed to have to be successful. I think they looked at something like the top ten sack artists in NFL history, then dissected their individual bags of tricks.

A couple of them were successful because they knew and used every trick and technique and tool in the book. They knew how to string together moves and counters in unpredictable ways. Real technicians.

The next tier used three moves that they had perfected. They mastered them and switched up among them because they were so successful among the three.

The next tier used two moves. And those in the two move category were the exceptional talents. They used two moves to such utter effectiveness that in tandem they simply couldn't be stopped. These were the sack masters. And they were rare.

The final tier was one man. The Club. 'Nough Said.

But the point being, if Perry is going to be successful, he's most likely going to need more than two tricks in his back. He's going to need an arsenal. And he's going to need to be willing to string them together.

It remains to be seen if he can. I'm not saying he can or can't or will or won't. Just that to be successful, there are necessary elements to that.

[pbmax]

I read an article way back when (might've been SI or ESPN) about how many tricks a sack pony needed to have to be successful. I think they looked at something like the top ten sack artists in NFL history, then dissected their individual bags of tricks.

A couple of them were successful because they knew and used every trick and technique and tool in the book. They knew how to string together moves and counters in unpredictable ways. Real technicians.

The next tier used three moves that they had perfected. They mastered them and switched up among them because they were so successful among the three.

The next tier used two moves. And those in the two move category were the exceptional talents. They used two moves to such utter effectiveness that in tandem they simply couldn't be stopped. These were the sack masters. And they were rare.

The final tier was one man. The Club. 'Nough Said.

But the point being, if Perry is going to be successful, he's most likely going to need more than two tricks in his back. He's going to need an arsenal. And he's going to need to be willing to string them together.

It remains to be seen if he can. I'm not saying he can or can't or will or won't. Just that to be successful, there are necessary elements to that.

Any change you could get Google to cough up a link?

[Smidgeon]

Any change you could get Google to cough up a link?

Well, I finally found it after a couple hours of searching...but it was behind ESPN's pay wall. Luckily, ESPN mobile has it posted in its entirety (and viewable on a computer).

Other articles I found while searching:

http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci_16159985

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1020060/index.htm

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ycn-7738874

[Smidgeon]

Also, this bit from the ESPN article caught my eye and made me appreciate Kevin Greene as the OLB coach:

"On the other hand, today's 3-4 rush linebackers aren't quite as polished as their predecessors. Current defensive coaches would be wise to place a high emphasis on teaching these pass-rushers how to better utilize the many pass-rushing moves at their disposal."

[Lurker64]

I agree that Datko's struggles can be attributed to going from LT to RT, and of course he's a rookie

Datko's real struggles are the fact that his shoulder injury in college kept him out of the weight room. The kid really needs to get stronger in a big way. But he's got a mammoth frame, and he's got left tackle movement skills, and the technique is workable. A year in an NFL S&C program is going to help him more than most. That is, of course, assuming that the shoulder is 100%.