Defensive Backs. How Good Are They?

Nope, was Brown.

UCLA Football: NFL Draft Profile - LB Jayon Brown

In Jayon Brown’s first two seasons in Westwood, he had primarily been a special teams player, but, when Myles Jack was lost in 2015 due to a knee injury, Jayon was the guy who was asked to step up.

 

I think he's going to be pretty noticeable. I think early Vrabel and Pees will use him in specific situation that will make him stand out. By mid year I think he'll get a fair share of snaps.

 

I'd love if thats the case, we have a lot of guys coming due for new contracts, be nice to save money with our early draft picks stepping up early on in their careers

 

Great.

But are we also going to count the tons of ints that were dropped?

Or the one where Mariota literally threw it directly to the path of 2 Chiefs... and it was luckily batted directly back to him?

For every int you can blame on a receiver- there are 3 more should-be ints that Mariota lucked out on.

 

He had a solid 2016 because they had the 3rd best rushing offense in the league. It's the coaches job to evolve and game plan. In 2017 defenses knew how to stop them, stack the box since they knew there would only usually be 2 to 3 guys running routes. The coaches didn't adjust, got figured out and the whole offense regressed because of it.

Yet when Mariota took over the offense in games, things opened up and they looked like a legit unit. Because they were playing a modern scheme instead of that "exotic smashmouff" BS.

Of course there's mechanics to clean up, which was the main focus during offseason. But to think his *down* 2017 was due to fundamentals and not the coaches' scheme being figured out is ridiculous. Add to that the fact most legit sources actually say Mariota improved in 2017 in terms of actually being a QB. But was saddled with a dinosaur coaching staff. Yet you ignore the facts because it doesn't fit your agenda, shocking....

 

Absolutely. Would be nice for JR to know he only needs 1 OLB extended (or brought in during FA I suppose) and Landry can be a starter next season. Then draft another early next draft and golden.

I just think Landry is the perfect package guy, a chess piece who will get lots of opportunities to make big plays as the extra guy. He's got the speed and talent, and is coming into a great situation where he doesn't have to be THE GUY this year. Come in, learn the defense and NFL, learn on the job while the team already has legit starters. Great situation IMO.

 

They stacked the box in 2016 also.

Difference was- Marcus could actually hit open receivers that year.

 

Or Murray wasn't a shell of his former self....

 

Didn't help that he saw more people in the box due to teams not respecting our QB.

 

Formations dictate that

Run 2 TEs often and guess what, box gets packed