Young Players & New Arrivals Really Paying Off...

Flugel

During our 1st 2 games and the very exciting win last Thursday, I couldn't help but take inventory of all the new arrivals (inclusive of young vets) via draft, trade and free agency that we're counting on for significant roles. Here's a list of what I'm talking about starting with some 2018 draftees and 2nd year players:

Baker Mayfield, QB - Rookie
Desmond Harrison, LT - Rookie
Antonio Callaway, WR - Rookie
Nick Chubb, RB/ST - Rookie
Denzel Ward, CB - Rookie
Genard Avery, LB/DE - Rookie
Greg Joseph, K - Rookie
David Njoku, TE - 2nd year
Myles Garrett, DE - 2nd year
Larry Ogunjobi, DT - 2nd year
Trevon Coley, DT - 2nd year
Jabrill Peppers, SS - 2nd year
James Burgess, LB - 2nd year

Now here's some young veterans we added this year via trade or free agency that have played:

Jarvis Landy, WR - 5th year (25 years old - Nick Saban prolly has red shirt seniors older than that)
Carlos Hyde, RB - 5th year
Chris Hubbard, RT - 5th year
Darren Fells, TE - 5th year
Tyrod Taylor, QB - 8th year (Not a huge fan favorite but preheated the oven for the Baker)
Damarious Randall, FS - 4th year
Terrance Mitchell, CB - 5th year
T.J. Carrie, CB - 4th year
Chris Smith, DL - 5th year

That's quite a group to add to the nucleus of Joel Bitonio, Kevin Zeitler, JC Tretter, Duke Johnson, Joe Schobert, Christian Kirksey, Emmanuel Ogbah, Jamie Collins, and... Britton Colquitt - he's pinning the Jets deep again as we speak...

I think we can conclude Sashi set Dorsey up with a great opportunity; and Dorsey did a nice job with all the ingredients. Then we got to watch Baker heat it all up... I could almost hear Bill Parcells saying "this is why you post all them posts." This fan base deserves more football and positive energy like we witnessed after Baker got in the game.

Tour2ma

Lots of pieces there. I did not know Smith is in his 5th season. Even for a role player he looks too good to be a "journeyman".

Two biggest Dorsey adds I see? Landry and Randall... I think in them he added vet leaders there to both sides of the ball that we dearly needed.

Only non-essential player I see listed is Joseph. There are lots of Kickers teams can shuffle thru if need be.

Also have to look at the staff. What they are doing with the cumulative talent is pretty impressive.

Williams and his crew are the most obvious example, but they also have the most talent and the "established system".

Haley and his guys are working with less and are in year 0.2. Wiley's work with a very limited OL stands out to me. I know Baker helped them a lot in the 2nd half of game 3, but they were gelling week by week in advance of his entry.

Orion

@flugel said:

Tyrod Taylor, QB - 8th year (Not a huge fan favorite but preheated the oven for the Baker)

'preheated the oven' - that's a good one.

gumby73

Nice Flug..Add CB-EJ Gaines that we may see this week? Not on injury report..After week 3 let's take a look at the Rookie Trifecta..D. Ward Rookie of the Week, Week 1..The Baker ROTW, week 3..Let's also take a look at what Bradley Chubb has done at NC State Denver's improved D Front..B.Chubb has had 54-47-50 game snaps.Totaling for 8 combined tackles with 1.5 sacks(5T-3A)..Genard Avery who leads all rookies in PFF scores at position, has had 43-21-36 game snaps with a stat line of 6 combined tackles with 1 sack.(5T--1A)..It's Bakers time to make Cab Callaway a star in week 4.. ? ?

Tour2ma

@gumby73 said:

It's Bakers time to make Cab Callaway a star in week 4.

Hi De Hi De Hi De Ho!

Flugel

@tour2ma said:

Lots of pieces there. I did not know Smith is in his 5th season. Even for a role player he looks too good to be a "journeyman".

Two biggest Dorsey adds I see? Landry and Randall... I think in them he added vet leaders there to both sides of the ball that we dearly needed.

Only non-essential player I see listed is Joseph. There are lots of Kickers teams can shuffle thru if need be.

Also have to look at the staff. What they are doing with the cumulative talent is pretty impressive.

Williams and his crew are the most obvious example, but they also have the most talent and the "established system".

Haley and his guys are working with less and are in year 0.2. Wiley's work with a very limited OL stands out to me. I know Baker helped them a lot in the 2nd half of game 3, but they were gelling week by week in advance of his entry.

Well said Tour!

A few piggybacks here. The next 2 biggest adds to Landry and Randall are Hyde and Mitchell. As Hard Knocks showed us - when you can frustrate Landry into lost composure/fisticuffs you're probably competing at a very high level. Mitchell had a big INT for us Thursday. And Hyde gives us underrated receiving skills to go with the ability to pound out 23 carries for 98 yards and 2 TDs against a good defense. The irony and karma was Hyde really heated up after Crow wiped his fanny with the football to remind us all why the upgrade was necessary.

Wiley looks like he has done a nice job - especially with our raw prospect at LT in particular. He's come a long way since his problem with false starts and inexperience in the opener. There's still a learning curve but I think our fans are much more comfortable with him today than we were a week or 2 before the opener. And Baker's quick and decisive processing also helps our line. The last time we saw such a difference was back when we went from Charlie Frye in a blowout loss in the opener to DA. DA got the ball out way quicker and the line looked better.

That's true about the kicker and it could change at any time. The reason I added the kicker is because it has been the difference between winning and losing/tying games we were in positions to win if that part of our game was up to par. Part of me feels like if we had a better STs coach , whatever was going wrong with the forma Lou Groza Award Winner (Gonzalez) may have been corrected. It seemed like he was improving last year. Maybe that's what I get for being one of Tabor's biggest critics in a world of be careful what you wish for.

Now that Hue is finally in the capacity he was hired to be - he's a much improved HC relying on empowerment of 2 very experienced Coordinators and QB Coach. It's not that I'm a Hue-ge fan per say. But if some of our fans get their wishes of him getting canned - it now puts either Gregg Williams or Todd Haley back in a HC capacity where they would probably keep their Coordinator duty while also trying to be a better HC than they were very short term elsewhere. Even worse, it could also mean new Offensive and Defensive Coordinators once the interim HC thing ends with a new HC hand selected by Jimmy Haslam. Consequently, the change in schemes also changes the compatibility of guys that may be productive today. Does anything alley oop be careful what you wish for as much as that? When surrounded by the right players and coaches in Cincy - Hue was able to guide that offense to 12-4 football. No reason the same things can't unfold for him in his current capacity here IMO.

Flugel

@gumby73 said:

Nice Flug..Add CB-EJ Gaines that we may see this week? Not on injury report..After week 3 let's take a look at the Rookie Trifecta..D. Ward Rookie of the Week, Week 1..The Baker ROTW, week 3..Let's also take a look at what Bradley Chubb has done at NC State Denver's improved D Front..B.Chubb has had 54-47-50 game snaps.Totaling for 8 combined tackles with 1.5 sacks(5T-3A)..Genard Avery who leads all rookies in PFF scores at position, has had 43-21-36 game snaps with a stat line of 6 combined tackles with 1 sack.(5T--1A)..It's Bakers time to make Cab Callaway a star in week 4.. ? ?

Thanks Gumbs! The reason I didn't list Gaines just yet is because I don't know where he stands in who's our 3rd corner off the bench due to his lingering/nagging injuries thus far.

That's very interesting about the PFF scores. When it comes to edge rushers, I keep going back to what Gregg Williams brought up during the off season. He counted 28 plays where Myles Garrett was within 1-1.5 steps from sacking the QB in 2017, which translates to hundredths to tenths of a second that better coverage from corners can help a lot. Let's bring this thought to the Denver edge rush you alluded to. The last time Denver won the Superbowl on a HUGE game from Von Miller - they had 2 Pro Bowl Corners (Chris Harris and Aqib Talib) that weren't allowing the QB to get rid of the ball quickly enough. And then there's Sacksonville where both of their corners made the Pro Bowl last year as did DEs Calais Camobell and Yannick Ngakoue.

The additions of Denzel Ward, Terrence Mitchell and FS Damarious Randall have really impacted how well our pass rush is getting to the QBs. Quietly in the process, Jabrill Peppers has really improved at a position he's much better suited to play at.

The last time we had a great first round in terms of nailing both picks - it was 1978 with Ozzie Newsome and Clay Matthews. It was more than a coincidence that these 2 long time studs led us to more post seasons in the 80s than we've seen since the 40s and 50s. Before I can even say that 2018 gives us a same chance to get both picks right in round 1 again - it's conceivable we can end up very happy with at least 2 of the 3 picks we landed in round 1 from 2017. That wouldn't suck!