Browns YOUNG LBers
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Dqwell, Hall, Wimbley and possibly Bell.....leaves us with AD,Peek,Orr and Leon! to me the last four have been Worthless....Backups anyway! I would love for the Browns to get Eric Barton, a solid ILB, not too expensive but a lunchpail guy. maybe then....? but we have, so far, mediocre LB talent on this team! Jackson has been OK but once O-lineman get to him... he's gone into the abyss! What RB would you take at #5? I love Beanie but dude gets hurt putting on his cleats.
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Aloysius said:
I think that may be a typo on the Browns website. If you replace the 8 with a 3, you have the number he's listed at on ESPN.com. He played at around 230 in college.He's very strong for his size (32 reps of 225), but he has trouble diagnosing plays & has stiff hips. May not be anything more than a special teams guy.
Yeah, I think you are right...I will revise it in the OP.
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We have all been in here talking about what guy we should target...and it seems that the VAST MAJORITY are looking at either Curry or Maoaluga as our top choice. We also seem to be targeting a LB in round two as well in Matthews.
But I have a question for all of you.
What do we REALLY have on our roster in the way of our LBers we picked up LAST YEAR. Don't forget, we had 2 young guys make the team...and one of them actually had significant playing time...and the other was injured. And there is a player or two on the team that many of us may not even know anything about:
Beau Bell: Bell is known as a thumper. He slipped to us in the 4th mainly due to a knee injury, he was projected as a 1st day pick otherwise. He has the speed to go sideline to sideline, is good against the run, but has coverage liability (kind of like some we are looking at). If he is over his injury...he just may be the MLB we are looking for.
Alex Hall: When he finally got into some games, he had an instant impact. He is a lanky OLB with good speed...but was still learning the position (was DE in college). With another year under his belt...and a more attacking type defense to work in...he may be able to make the jump into an effective outside presence. Add in that he will no longer be stuck behind the ancient McGinnest and he may be set for a break-out season...
David Holloway: Listed as a LB. He stands 6'2" and weighs in at 234 lbs and runs a respectable 4.72! (fixed)He played both ILB and OLB in college.
Melila Purcell: Melila is a 6'5" 295 DE out of Hawaii. He has yet to get a shot here...but he may be a target for this team as I believe they will be slimming down on the DE position in order to get a little more side to side mobility.
These 4 guys...and what the coaching staff think of them...is going to go a long way to determining what we do in the draft...especially later in the draft.
I really don't see any of these guys changing what we do at #5, but if the coaches think we have some talent in them...we may be freed up to go after RB/OL/WR with our subsequent picks.
Beau Bell: Bell is known as a thumper. He slipped to us in the 4th mainly due to a knee injury, he was projected as a 1st day pick otherwise. He has the speed to go sideline to sideline, is good against the run, but has coverage liability (kind of like some we are looking at). If he is over his injury...he just may be the MLB we are looking for.
That's a big if. He had another knee surgery at the end of the season. You have to wonder if that knee's just never going to be right - to "sprain" it in January, have surgery in August, then have another one in December. The Browns are said to be mum on the extent of his knee issues.
And if there's one thing the old Browns' FO didn't seem to be good at, it was making sure to cover all the bases on medical evals. We drafted DeMario Minter without knowing he had just had his knee scoped, picked Justin Hamilton even though he had back issues, and now may be dealing with another case in Beau Bell.
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Kris Griffin was injured most of last season & saw some ST time. In preseason, when he got the opportunity to play ILB, he always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. Great tackler from what I remember (and not simply a big hit guy). Good lateral movement & burst through holes.
I think he & bell would be phenomenal back-ups for Curry/DQ.
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Plus we are all leaving out Leon. He probably will never be a starter, but his is big and fast and can deliver hard hits (OMG MAULOOOGA) A few times last year he showed some good plays, even though he always manages to commit pass interference on the TE. Plus it seems that whenever he gets lined up outside he manages to hit the quarterback.
Maybe the Mangina can get through to him.
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it seems to me like leon's a lost soldier in the mangini/rac 3-4 approach. he's dumber than an effing rock, so reading and reacting is the worst thing to ask him to do.
he can be successful if you give him one job to do per play and ask him to consider nothing else. blitz the A gap. cover the TE. but if you ask him to use his mind to do anything, you might as well have asked sloth from the goonies to do it.
he's the exact wrong kind of guy for our scheme: all brawn and no brain.
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Bell was hurt and that is why I think he never got a shot at PT...played well on special teams then got hurt again...I don't think there can be any kind of judgement on Beau especially since RAC never plays rooks unless a gun was put to his head or there were zero other options...like Hall. Glad to see Alex shine the way he did, despite RAC!
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@shepwrite said:
You have to think Alex Hall shows unusually dramatic improvement, coming from a small school program and all that does NOT entail -- like high-end coaching or training. That he was as good as he was is encouraging.Bell is a farging mystery. Was he star crossed or is this really who he is, a lost pick?
Purcell is interesting. Curious to see if he's this year's Bodden or whatever, a guy who hung around long enough to emerge as a useful player.
Good stuff, John. I find these players really fascinating. Harrison didn't get a ton of chances last year, but he did put himself on the map. Sometimes your best additions are on the roster.
Hall is a WSOLB pass rush specialist and that is all. His coverage skills and run support suck. Leon williams has actually played very, very well at WSOLB as a pass rusher and is decent in run support. He is not a good ILB because he's dumber than shit, but that's were RAC kept him because he was so thin there (Bell injury and Griffin injuries). I would love to see him get a shot as an edge rusher. Remember the end of 2007 when they put him out on the edge as a rusher? He did a great job.
You really can't say anything about Bell yet. He was slow picking up the reads at ILB in the 3-4 scheme and didn't have his burst because of the knee. Last word was that he will be 100% for the Browns OTAs and mini camp. He wasn't star crossed, he was injured and that's why he was available in the 4th round for the Browns. The FO knew he probably wouldn't play much as a rookie because of the knee but he was too good of a talent to let slip by. Hey, 4th round isn't a sure thing, it is a crap shoot.
If Purcell is healthy then you don't have to worry about drafting a DE for next year. He was coming on strong until he got hurt. He actually may have pushed Leonard off the roster because he was right in the middle of the DL rotation. The kid is as strong as hell.
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@shepwrite said:
You have to think Alex Hall shows unusually dramatic improvement, coming from a small school program and all that does NOT entail -- like high-end coaching or training. That he was as good as he was is encouraging.Bell is a farging mystery. Was he star crossed or is this really who he is, a lost pick?
Purcell is interesting. Curious to see if he's this year's Bodden or whatever, a guy who hung around long enough to emerge as a useful player.
Good stuff, John. I find these players really fascinating. Harrison didn't get a ton of chances last year, but he did put himself on the map. Sometimes your best additions are on the roster.
Hall is a WSOLB pass rush specialist and that is all. His coverage skills and run support suck. Leon williams has actually played very, very well at WSOLB as a pass rusher and is decent in run support. He is not a good ILB because he's dumber than shit, but that's were RAC kept him because he was so thin there (Bell injury and Griffin injuries). I would love to see him get a shot as an edge rusher. Remember the end of 2007 when they put him out on the edge as a rusher? He did a great job.
You really can't say anything about Bell yet. He was slow picking up the reads at ILB in the 3-4 scheme and didn't have his burst because of the knee. Last word was that he will be 100% for the Browns OTAs and mini camp. He wasn't star crossed, he was injured and that's why he was available in the 4th round for the Browns. The FO knew he probably wouldn't play much as a rookie because of the knee but he was too good of a talent to let slip by. Hey, 4th round isn't a sure thing, it is a crap shoot.
If Purcell is healthy then you don't have to worry about drafting a DE for next year. He was coming on strong until he got hurt. He actually may have pushed Leonard off the roster because he was right in the middle of the DL rotation. The kid is as strong as hell.
Hall is a WSOLB pass rush specialist and that is all. His coverage skills and run support suck. Leon williams has actually played very, very well at WSOLB as a pass rusher and is decent in run support. He is not a good ILB because he's dumber than shit, but that's were RAC kept him because he was so thin there (Bell injury and Griffin injuries). I would love to see him get a shot as an edge rusher. Remember the end of 2007 when they put him out on the edge as a rusher? He did a great job.
You really can't say anything about Bell yet. He was slow picking up the reads at ILB in the 3-4 scheme and didn't have his burst because of the knee. Last word was that he will be 100% for the Browns OTAs and mini camp. He wasn't star crossed, he was injured and that's why he was available in the 4th round for the Browns. The FO knew he probably wouldn't play much as a rookie because of the knee but he was too good of a talent to let slip by. Hey, 4th round isn't a sure thing, it is a crap shoot.
If Purcell is healthy then you don't have to worry about drafting a DE for next year. He was coming on strong until he got hurt. He actually may have pushed Leonard off the roster because he was right in the middle of the DL rotation. The kid is as strong as hell.
Pass rush specialist last year, sure...but a year of weights and full time teaching combined with his ability....and I say he will do very well next year....especially coming from Div 2 st. augustine. He held his own impressively coming from that backround.
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Hall is a WSOLB pass rush specialist and that is all. His coverage skills and run support suck. Leon williams has actually played very, very well at WSOLB as a pass rusher and is decent in run support. He is not a good ILB because he's dumber than shit, but that's were RAC kept him because he was so thin there (Bell injury and Griffin injuries). I would love to see him get a shot as an edge rusher. Remember the end of 2007 when they put him out on the edge as a rusher? He did a great job.
You really can't say anything about Bell yet. He was slow picking up the reads at ILB in the 3-4 scheme and didn't have his burst because of the knee. Last word was that he will be 100% for the Browns OTAs and mini camp. He wasn't star crossed, he was injured and that's why he was available in the 4th round for the Browns. The FO knew he probably wouldn't play much as a rookie because of the knee but he was too good of a talent to let slip by. Hey, 4th round isn't a sure thing, it is a crap shoot.
If Purcell is healthy then you don't have to worry about drafting a DE for next year. He was coming on strong until he got hurt. He actually may have pushed Leonard off the roster because he was right in the middle of the DL rotation. The kid is as strong as hell.
Pass rush specialist last year, sure...but a year of weights and full time teaching combined with his ability....and I say he will do very well next year....especially coming from Div 2 st. augustine. He held his own impressively coming from that backround.
Pass rush specialist last year, sure...but a year of weights and full time teaching combined with his ability....and I say he will do very well next year....especially coming from Div 2 st. augustine. He held his own impressively coming from that backround.
He held his own as a rusher only. There were games that he played only 6 plays because he can't drop into coverage and loses contain against the run. Can he learn to be better at both? Probably yes. But, he isn't a full time OLB and I don't think he can be one. He's an edge rusher and has a lot to learn there. In a few years we will see how he progresses.
For 2009, he will be a part time edge rusher.
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Pass rush specialist last year, sure...but a year of weights and full time teaching combined with his ability....and I say he will do very well next year....especially coming from Div 2 st. augustine. He held his own impressively coming from that backround.
He held his own as a rusher only. There were games that he played only 6 plays because he can't drop into coverage and loses contain against the run. Can he learn to be better at both? Probably yes. But, he isn't a full time OLB and I don't think he can be one. He's an edge rusher and has a lot to learn there. In a few years we will see how he progresses.
For 2009, he will be a part time edge rusher.
He held his own as a rusher only. There were games that he played only 6 plays because he can't drop into coverage and loses contain against the run. Can he learn to be better at both? Probably yes. But, he isn't a full time OLB and I don't think he can be one. He's an edge rusher and has a lot to learn there. In a few years we will see how he progresses.
For 2009, he will be a part time edge rusher.
In your opinion
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Of the guys you mention...I don't know anything about Holloway....didn't even know we had a guy with that name....so to be positive....sure, why not??
Purcell....naa...I think he is too big and slow. he is a back-up DE.
Bell...another question mark even tough he was hurt early, he did get some time late and who knows why he didn't play much. Could be because Romeo was reluctant to make changes late, or he isn't showing much at this point....my guy feeling is the guy is really a 4th round backer who isn't going to be all that great....so I guess this isn't being positive...but I admit the final card on him isn't in, so who knows??
Hall...I think he is going to be a good player. He still has a ways to go but he is already better than Wimbley as a backer, so he is one of the starters unless we get some FA backer of backer in the draft....and he may still be the starter and Wimp loses the job.
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