I finally saw most of the actual Mayfield vs Cowherd fight, and Baker really cleaned his clock! Never raised his voice or made it personal, but he didn't tolerate bullcrap either, and called Colon on it repeatedly.
Any jury would convict Colon of bias and dumbassitude.
But some of the garbage Colon spewed bugged me, like "You're not Russell Wilson".
Well of course he's not. Wilson is a much more dangerous dual threat, and he played in a pro system in college.
But Colon is just fixated on height, so he refelexively compares him to the shortest quarterback in the NFL. Wilson is over two inches SHORTER than Baker Mayfield.
And why couldn't he have said "You're not Drew Brees" instead?
If Colon had a clue about quarterbacks, he would have cited Brees instead of Wilson, because Mayfield looks a lot more like him than he does Wilson.
He is accurate as hell, gets rid of it quickly, and spreads it around.
If Colon could get over his height fixation, he could have said "You're not Rodgers", or "You're not Warner" (unthinkable, I know, since these two are one whole inch taller).
Russell Wilson is a terrific quarterback, but he's different than these other guys (he's much more like Tyrod Taylor, in fact).
Related: Mitchell's big brother, Geoff Schwartze, is "concerned" about reports that Baker Mayfield "isn't ready yet", and that Tyrod Taylor looks a lot better.
If I were Geoff, I'd feel the same way: Sashi Brown screwed up big-time when he withdrew his offer to Mitchell and let him walk. I'd resent the hell out of anybody who did my little bro that way, but Geoff: that was Sashi Brown, and he's gone now, ok?
But Geoff: You're an analyst now, and you can't keep letting your emotions pollute your analysis!
Mayfield played in an Air Raid system, while Taylor is a seasoned vet, and they haven't even started training camp yet, for cryin out loud! I haven't heard you express concern about any other ROOKIE quarterback yet!
Generally speaking, if you are "concerned" about any rookie quarterback screwing up at this point in his rookie OFF season, you just need to take a pill.
And Geoff Schwartze knows it. It's too bad too, because Geoff Schwartze is a ton smarter than Colon Cowherd, and a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Mike Florjancic's article on what Gregg Williams had to say about how Mychal Kendricks fits into his defense was really informative.
Gregg again says that everybody needs to play more than one position, because in his defense, it's not "next position player up" in the event of injury, but "next best athlete up".
I'm getting it now: This is partly why (up until 2017) Gregg ran all sorts of exotic fronts. That's about getting his best players on the field as much as he can, regardless of position.
Specifically in re Kendricks and other guys, he says "They can line up at defensive end, but they're not (defensive ends).
Yeah! Clay Matthews II did that a lot! He was often a "stand-up" defensive end (Clay never put his hand in the dirt). From there, he was almost as likely to cover as to passrush.
(He lined up over the tight end and always jammed him first, regardless of what he did next. A true defensive end can't do this stuff).
Martin McConnell thinks Larry Ogunjobi could emerge as a game-changer in his second season. This was a good article, but Martin should have spelled out that Gregg Williams rotated the defensive tackles heavily in 2017, and Ogunjobi did what he did "working part time".
I agree with Martin. Larry was the best of the bunch per PFF and in production per-snap in 2017, and Coley was a veteran. Ogunjobi exceeded expectations, and Williams sees it.
Last season, the defensive line was his deepest unit, but now that he's got Kendricks and Rodney Averyfield, the linebackers might have at least caught up to them.
Before I go on, here are some things Gregg has to keep in mind:
1: Defensive linemen get tired, and need more rest than linebackers. They're constantly in fistfights with generally bigger offensive linemen, sprinting, changing directions, chasing...it's a tough gig. Linebackers don't need so much oxygen.
2: Every Defensive Coordinator in the NFL knows that "3-4" and "4-3" as base defenses is a fiction. You have to run nickels or dimes vs spread offenses, including many "two tight end" or two-back variations.
Last season, Gregg Williams didn't have a good secondary. He played Peppers at free safety, Kindred was lost for the season...
McCourty did a great job, as did Boddy-Calhoun, but Gregg couldn't run press/man coverage. It was off-man and zone. He was vulnerable underneath, and sometimes (especially late in games) over the top, as Peppers "bit" on double moves, and none of his corners could really run with the speedsters vertically.
He had to run a "tame" conventional defense with a 4-man front so he could have a built-in passrush and stop the run. Then there goes Garrett. Then Ogbah, then Garrett again, so...
Oh I forgot Collins.
2018 is night and day different, and John Dorsey deserves most of the credit for it.
Williams now has press/man corners, a true free safety, and strong safeties (and safetybackers) in-depth.
The TWO new linebackers (Kendricks and A V E R Y dammit) are versatile studs (and I repeat: Kirksey, and not Schobert, is on the spot here).
In 2018, we should see more three-man fronts. That's with Ogunjobi or Meder in the middle.
We will probably see Peppers and Kindred at the same time as well; that's a "Big Nickel" or extra-big dime.
Ignoring Kindred and Peppers, who can do linebacker stuff: for Gregg Williams, the rest isn't too complicated for his front 7/6/5:
His top tier studs are Garrett, Kendricks, and Collins.
His second tier is Schobert, Ogbah, Ogunjobi, and RODNEY AVERYFIELD.
His third tier is Meder, Kirksey, and company.
All this stuff about the defensive ends Dorsey just drafted or signed being able to play inside too is almost funny.
They're depth players, and defensive ends first. Carl Nassib is indeed on the bubble, but I'm not counting him out:
He looks to be over 300 lean pounds now, so he's unique on this roster. Nassib could indeed crap out, but this guy led the NCAA in sacks and clocked a sub-4.8 40 at 6'7".
Gregg Williams will be reluctant to let this specimen go, unless both of the new guys are clearly better than him vs both the pass and the run.
But yeah, Nassib is on the bubble. He's entering his third season. That's one season early to bring the gavel down on a player, but Nassib has played a lot, and this is a very deep roster.
Gregg will know more when they put the pads on, however, and I'm just saying: Don't count Nassib out.
Oh, I hear you: Dorsey didn't draft him, therefore he will keep one of "his" guys instead.
Nah! One thing that's become crystal clear about John Dorsey is that he listens to his coaches. Gregg Williams will make these decisions.
Dorsey is an ex-player himself (a linebacker). As evidenced by his "there aren't enough real football players here" statement in defense of Hue Jackson, he's no politician.
He's a terrible liar. I assume he went straight back to Jimmy Haslam and said "If you ever ask me to do anything like that again, I quit."
Still, Jarvis Landry, Mychal Kendricks, and those other veteran free agents are real football players...
But so are Duke, Bitonio, Njoku, Tretter, Schobert, Kirksey, Boddy-Calhoun, Kindred, McCourty, Zietler, Garrett, Ogunjobi, Ogbah etc so...well no politician except Hillary or Nancy would have tried that.
So I'm on the Dorsey-train now 100%, based on what he has done so far, and I blame his idiotic "real football players" statement on Jimmy Haslam ("You need to defend Hue Jackson.")
But I digress: Okbye
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