What about Joe Schobert? Brian Wilson had some thoughts on that, and they were pretty good ones.
Mychal Kendricks is just too good not to play, in every situation, and in almost every set, against almost every offense.
Because Kendricks is "starting out" at middle linebacker, Brian and others infer that this is where he'll end up.
But Joe Schobert made the Pro Bowl in his second season, and his first as a starter at middle linebacker.
As I mentioned, PFF lists him 32nd among all linebackers, which is pretty high in a league which starts over 100 of them, and uses a bunch more.
Meanwhile, Christian Kirksey has been here awhile, but ranks 52nd at 59.6;
Schobert is 77.4; significantly higher. Going further, Joe was 81.6 vs the run, while Chris was 69.7. Schobert was 70.7 in coverage, while Kirksey was 53.3.
You've got to understand this about Gregg Williams: All those exotic defensive looks and personnel groupings he uses are less about matchups than they are about simply keeping his best players, regardless of position, on the field as often as possible.
The Browns best three linebackers are now Kendricks, Collins, and Schobert. What's more, while Kendricks is a veteran who could probably be Gregg's "Field General", Joe Schobert in only his second season did a savant-like job there.
Joe Schobert was drafted here for a 3-4 defense. He'd played outside in college, and was a good passrusher, so they tried him there.
I posted at the time that I felt this was dumb. Schobert could play inside or out in a 4-3, or inside in a 3-4, but not outside in a 3-4.
And I was right. When Schobert found out Gregg Williams had been hired, he started losing weight to get faster, because he knew he'd be getting his first shot ever at being a real linebacker.
The rest is history.
And now, in my opinion, Christian Kirksey is the "weak link" here that Mychal Kendricks will ultimately displace.
Kendricks can absolutely play WIL. He might even be a better MIKE than Schobert is, but why would Gregg Williams demote Schobert instead of Kirksey? Where's the biggest upgrade?
Some guys see that Kirksey was just extended for serious money, and assume that this means he has to start.
Wrong. The best players have to start. Schobert is still two seasons away from his second contract, and at the time Dorsey extended Kirksey, he couldn't have imagined in his wildest dreams landing Mychal Kendricks.
Kendricks is starting out at middle linebacker because in a Gregg Williams defense, that guy has to call the plays (remember? Gregg doesn't call plays. He has his middle linebacker make all those calls for him; it's part of what make his defenses unique).
Kendricks will certainly back that position up, and will need reps there, to get used to making those calls.
Brian Wilson wonders how Joe Schobert will handle his imminant demotion, but he's asking about the wrong guy.
Mychal Kendricks will probably be taking the magical mystery tour of every linebacker position throughout training camp and preseason. He will start somewhere, but also be a primary backup everywhere else.
This gets more complicated too, when you consider that Gregg Williams now has the secondary he wants, including two-deep safetybackers, and he won't be using three real linebackers as often.
I can't get started on that right now, but can remind you that Gregg first and foremost wants his best players on the field in every situation.
Just a few of those could include Garrett/Ogunjobi/Ogbah, and/or...nevermind, but I do see Jamie Collins with his hand in the dirt sometimes, and Peppers at linebacker...all sorts of stuff.
Joe Schobert should be part of this. Chris Kirksey...I don't think so. As I posted earlier, he's probably already on the block.
Now, on that Wilson link, there's a video of a couple guys I don't know talking about NFL team prospects in general.
One of these two guys was more negative about the Steelers than I am, and they went back and forth through the gamut of Ebineezer Bell, Big Ben the drama queen, and a bunch more Soap Opera garbage, but they did hit a few true notes:
The Steelers might well take a step back in 2018. If Antonio Brown misses time, defenses can zero in on Bell. Big Ben is a geezer. Their defense still has holes in it, and the team in general is old.
One guy cited the playoff loss to the "Jagwires", saying there was "no excuse for that", which was extremely ignorant, but still, they did lose, right?
But then they spoil it all by pointing to the Bengals and Ravens, and settling on the Ravens as the team that could take over the AFC North in 2018.
One guy mentioned the Browns: "Well they'll be better because they have to be better, but they won't contend by any means"---
Stop the tape:
In a previous post, I told you how the Browns and Steelers talent in 2018 is comparable, and the coaching might well favor the Browns.
Now, I'll compare the 2018 Browns to the perennially-overrated Ravens, who these two goobers agree could upset them:
Quarterback: Browns. Tyrod Taylor is better than Joe Flacco right now, and Baker Mayfield will eventually eclipse both of them.
Don't argue with me with Flacco's Superbowl season or highlight reels. He's tall, old, and dinged up. His knee might be fine, but his back issues won't go away (they never do), and PFF pegs him where he is; several rungs below Tyrod Taylor.
Running Back: HAAHAHAHA -gasp/weeze- cough-cough not even close.
Tight End: Nick Boyle and Maxx Williams are actually pretty good, and they can block in-line too. Hayden Hurst is underrated, and they got Vincent Mayle now too.
I still like Njoku/DeValve/Fells better, especially since Jarvis Landry will force Haley to run more spreads, and the quarterbacks will mitigate the need for in-line blocking (long story-I'll get around to it though).
I give the Browns tight ends the edge here.
Wide Receiver:
Give Ozzie his due: Micheal Crabtree is the real deal, Breshard Perriman is a quality receiver, and Willie Snead is a top-flight slot guy.
But compare that to Gordon, Landry, Coleman/Callaway etc., and remember Duke Johnson as part of this? The Browns have much better wide receivers than the Ravens, and notably absent from the Ravens roster is a gamebreaking X-receiver as well. It's not even close.
Offensive Line: The Ravens have an okay offensive line, but the Browns' is better.
Wow the perennially-overrated Ravens are laying an egg so far! Every single part of their offense is inferior to the Browns!
But surely, they'll catch up on defense, right?
Wrong: DE/Edge: I can simplify the biggest part of this by comparing the venerable Gramps Suggs to Myles Garrett. I predict that Garrett will be better than the immortal one in 2018, but maybe that's just me and my fixation with common sense.
I stipulate that Suggs will beat Garrett to the Hall of Fame, okay?
The Ravens unique defense makes other comparisons complicated, but Ogbah is better than Smith and Suggs' other backups, and the Browns are loaded with real defensive ends...basicly the Browns DE/Edge guys are superior.
Interior defensive line (again due to scheme differences I have to think extra-hard here):
I think Micheal Pierce at nose tackle is underrated, but talent-for-talent, and as well as I can adapt this to schemes, I still think Ogunjobe is the better player. It's probably close, but I think the Browns have the better interior defensive line too.
At linebacker, CJ Mosely is (per PFF) only a few slots worse than Joe Schobert...ok the Ravens linebackers do as well vs their Browns' counterparts as their alleged running backs did. Not even close.
The Ravens' secondary is actually pretty good, but (gee I'm sorry) they lose too. Eric Weddle might well be better than Randall, and Jimmy Smith is a great tall guy, but the Browns have them beat overall.
The Browns are more talented than the Ravens, from top to bottom. For that matter, the Ravens remain inferior to the Steelers and Bengals overall.
So why are these goobers brushing the Browns off like dandruff, and projecting the least talented team in the AFC North as the biggest threat to the Steelers?
The Cliff Notes answer is because they're Memorex Morons ("Mm's" for the rest of this article)
Mm's assume geezers will be just as good as they were last season, young players will not be any better, back issues and concussions are no more important than other injuries, that six or eight years later a player is just as good, regardless of how bad he sucked in between, and that a team (which I won't name here) which set a record of suckdom for two seasons can't possibly change the script regardless of Dorsey, Taylor, Haley, Randall, Kendricks, Gordon, Gaines, Ward, Carrie...
When John Dorsey was hired here, and said that his goal was to win the AFC North in 2018, I dismissed it as PR.
But since that time, he signed all these top-flight veteran free agents, and put his money where his mouth is.
He retained most of the embryos that Sashi Brown piled up for him, peddled other players for draft picks, and (in my opinion) did a good job with the draft picks he inheritted from Sashi Brown.
Give Dorsey credit for listening to his coaches, and for not "purging" the roster, as many GMs do, simply because those weren't his guys.
John Dorsey clearly fell into a bed of roses here. He immediately recognized the talent he inheritted, decided this was no longer a "rebuilding" team, and hammered the veteran free agent market hard.
Screw 0-16 and 1-31. If you think that, or the years preceding that mean a damn thing in 2018, you are irrational.
The 2018 Browns are now one of the most talented and best-coached teams in the NFL. They're a veteran team now, led by a Pro Bowl top-14 quarterback who is better than Dalton and Flacco.
And by the way, Tyrod Taylor never had a Josh Gordon ("we coulda had Sammy Watkins"). Don't count on him remaining so conservative with the weapons he has now.
Unlike the clowns on that video, I don't expect the Steelers to collapse in 2018.
But compared to the 2018 Browns, the Bengals and the perennially-overrated Ravens are in trouble. I repeat: the Browns should sweep both teams.
The 2018 Browns are more talented overall than the Steelers, too.
I'm not predicting that the 2018 Browns will win the AFC North in 2018. I'm just saying that if you think the Ravens might, and that the Browns have no shot, you are a dumbass.
I look foreward to Ward vs Brown, and Peppers/Kindred vs Bell. I want to see Big Ben shrug Suggs or Garrett off. I want to see the Steelers defense stop Chubb, Gordon, Landry, and Taylor.
...but it's "the Browns", right? Haley and Williams will screw it up again, right?
Un believable.
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