Got to hammer the Mychal Kendricks thing some more, as Dan Labbe slapped me awake with a terrific article about what Doctor Williamstein might do with his suddenly revamped defense.
I'd been dumbly expecting more of the same from last season (three linebackers), but Dan reminded me that that's not Gregg Williams' historical MO.
Last season, Gregg was missing press/man cornerbacks, and had Peppers at free safety. Then Derrick Kindred bit the dust, too.
In 2018, he's added TJ Carrie, Denzel Ward, EJ Gaines, Simeon Thomas (don't sleep on this kid), and Howard Wilson returns from his 2017 injury sabbadical (don't sleep on him either).
Last but not least, free safety frontrunner Damarius Randall upgrades depth at strong safety and safetybacker by moving Peppers closer to the line.
Skipping the linebackers to the defensive line, Dorsey added two defensive ends who can "move inside", and even drafted yet another "3-technique" penetrating defensive tackle.
He traded Danny Shelton (but so far retains Jamie Meder).
Back to linebacker: He drafted Avery, signed Kendricks, and released Tank Carder. Hue Jackson now says that Kendricks will "start out" at middle linebacker.
Thanks to Dan Labbe, who knows more about Gregg Williams, I now forsee a much different Browns' defense in 2018:
While we hope Damarius Randall will be a stud free safety, everything else is covered in-depth now, and Gregg can do everything his insideously diabolical imagination can concieve.
Indeed, he has too much talent to work with, in every position group. He might never have had this much talent and depth to work with before.
Dan Labbe touched on a few possibilities, but I have to pick up his baton and delve deeper:
1: Forget about any conventional 3-4's. Dorsey dumped Shelton, and skipped over every nose-tackle type in the draft and free agency. Instead, he signed and drafted one one-gap defensive tackle, and two defensive ends who could "play inside".
If he fields a 3-man defensive line on any given down, Meder or Ogunjobi will be in the middle, Garrett and Ogbah (or other passrushers) will flank him. Meder or Ogunjobi might play two-gap and force a double-team, but this Gregg Williams 3-man front will feature at least two passrushers.
They won't be edge-rushers, but between guards and tackles, they're too quick/fast for big uglies to manage.
2: Two (real) linebackers (vs 3) is a tough call. Kendricks is the 9th-best linebacker (inside or outside) in the NFL in 2017 ( my bad; I just renewed my PFF subscription and was fulla beans underselling him in my last post).
Joe Schobert (ranked 32nd by PFF) made the Pro Bowl last season, and as I've mentioned was Gregg's "field general", but Kendicks (ranked ninth) is an experienced veteran, and too good not to displace him situationally.
Per PFF, Kendricks beats Schobert in every measurable category, by significant margins.
Any two (real) linebacker set probably has Kendricks and Collins (and not Schobert).
As Dan Labbe points out, Jamie Collins can line up with his hand in the dirt as an edge-rusher...
Dan rightfully expects more real nickles and dimes in 2018, now that Williams has an industrial strength secondary.
3-2, 4-2, 3-3, 4-1 etc: but Dan forgot about Gregg's safetybacker.
Bullcrap aside, are you aware that Derrick Kindred scored 75.6 in coverage per PFF in 2017? Where tf is this "he can't cover" crap coming from?
Anyway, Gregg Williams is overloaded with too much talent here. Sad for him. He has to screw a bunch of stud players out of playing time.
Isn't that terrible?
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