Big Blue Huddle

Quote from: Jclayton92 on Today at 01:31:52 PMI'm perfectly happy with the quartet of Singletary, Gray, Miller, and Corbin.

Why are our standards so low? The Dolphins with the #1 running game still found a need to take a day 2 RB. It's maddening.

Quote from: DaveBrown74 on Today at 03:12:33 PMKind of feel like this next pick needs to be a RB.

Why? We have Miller

Kind of feel like this next pick needs to be a RB.

Waldman


Elevator Pitch: Johnson is a fast-riser during the pre-draft cycle because of his workouts. He has elite speed, acceleration, and good
change of direction quickness for a tight end with near-prototypical size. Beyond the physical, Johnson's game has promising facets.
Johnson sets up routes well. He's especially good at manipulating defenders during his stems. There's some snap with his breaks and
there's good weight drop with hard breaks on shallow routes.
Johnson also has a wide catch radius and makes good adjustments to targets arriving from a variety of trajectories. He's not always
as explosive as his workouts, but he's fluid and he's effective at catching targets at the earliest point of its trajectory. The greatest
impediment to his consistency as a pass-catcher is his lapses with clap-attacking with targets above his chest.
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Johnson's fluid athletic ability shows up well post-catch. He alters stride length effectively, precise stop-start movement, and
transitions downhill at the level of a starter.
Johnson has an understanding of when to be patient, decisive, and improvisational as a runner. His pad level, leg strength, and
forearm shiver make him a powerful runner at the point of contact to work through a variety of tackle types. He's not shy about
initiating contact as a finisher with the ball in his hands.
Johnson needs work with his positioning for blocks at the line of scrimmage. In the open field, he can engulf smaller defenders
without as much risk of his positioning biting him.
Although quick enough to move laterally with edge rushers, he's not skilled enough to handle redirects from NFL-caliber edge
defenders. Johnson strikes hard enough that he can regain his footing and follow up with a second hit.
If he misses the initial angle on a defender at the line of scrimmage, he can maintain his hands on the defender. Still, he's not a
great fit for RPOs and screens as a lead blocker right now because he's not playing quick enough to reach linebackers and defensive
backs coming downhill at full speed and their change of direction often proves too formidable.
When he can reach defenders, he can turn them inside or out with the appropriate position on the inside or outside shoulder.
Johnson is at his best as a drive blocker who uppercuts with tight hands and rolls through his hips. If he wasn't forced to overextend
to reach his opponents, he'd have more success against smaller defenders.
The greatest weakness with Johnson's game is translating his athletic ability fully to the field. As explosive as he is for his size,
Johnson looks like a slower, lumbering option against man-to-man coverage, especially against tight coverage. This may have to do
with lacking well-practiced footwork and route strategies for this type of coverage.
If Johnson can develop a similar approach with man-to-man coverage at the line of scrimmage with his athletic ability, look out.
Otherwise, Johnson still has value as a zone/off-coverage option whose speed can earn him vertical targets.
One off-field point worth noting: Johnson earned probation for assault. He punched a fraternity member in the head at a party and
gave the student a concussion.
Where is the player inconsistent? Johnson overextends as a lead blocker or he can't continue to move his feet quickly enough to
remain tight to the defender and it leads to him overextending. As a result, defenders shed him quickly because he's not playing
quick and smaller-quicker athletes can work off his strikes without quickly getting engulfed.
What is the best scheme fit? An inline tight end who is likely to earn free releases and threaten zone coverage with his athletic
ability. This means he'll need to refine his run blocking to reach a starter-level of performance. He's not that far away. With a season
of diligent-intelligent work, he could get there.
What is his ceiling scenario? A productive in-line tight end with big-play potential in the red zone and play-action vertical routes.
What is his floor scenario? A contributor off the bench who can deliver value in offensive sub-packages.
Physical: As much as he brings technical and conceptual elements to his route and receiving game, Johnson requires a lot of space
to build up his speed against man-to-man coverage and it means he doesn't earn separation as easily as one would expect. With
better footwork off the line, Johnson might realize more of his explosion.
Keep in mind that the worst aspect of his physical testing was the short-area change of direction. It's competent in a workout, but he
must graduate beyond thinking about a plan and recognizing the plan and executing it instantaneously so there's no sluggishness
with his footwork.

Quote from: Jclayton92 on Today at 02:24:33 PMLot of great guys left Trotter Jr, Wingo, Jackson, Johnson, and Booker that could come in and help the front 7 immediately

Mekhi Wingo would be my pick. Surprised Michael Pratt is still available.

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on Today at 02:57:06 PMProbably not. They plan on having another Iron Curtain for the next decade. Picking up Payton Wilson will be an exciting player to watch. They are going to fall in love with him

Is there new ownership in Pittsburgh that's communist?

They have sunk how many high picks on OL?? And signed a bunch of guys. And added a new coach. They are addressing it.

Maybe if they had a QB with pocket awareness who could read defenses and run an offense there wouldn't be so many sacks. The OL should be improved, they need help too, not always the other way around.

Quote from: GloryDays on Today at 02:52:09 PMIt comes down to team building philosophy and the ability to assess O line talent.

May be ignoring the line is the wrong word; they certainly have devoted a lot of valuable assets to it, but so far the efforts have had dismal results. Last year they ignored that they made a mistake and Neal is no good.. they ROLLED THE DICE, and they got snake eyes. My question is, are they rolling the dice again?
I brought up Pittsburgh as an example. PFF ranked their O line as the # 12 in the league.
Here is their picks through 4 rounds:

Round 1: No. 20-Troy Fautanu, G, Washington
Round 2: No. 51- Zach Frazier, C, West Virginia
Round 3: No. 84-Roman Wilson, WR, Michigan
Round 3: No. 98 (Compensatory - from PHI)-Payton Wilson, LB, North Carolina State
Round 4: No. 119-Mason McCormick, G, South Dakota State

Are they stupid?!

Of course not, but you can't just pull up one team from one year and look at their draft picks through four rounds and then say because we're not doing what they're doing we're ignoring the line. How many times have they drafted O linemen in the first four rounds over the last six years? How many have we? If we're going to do comparisons we should probably do more than just look at two days of roster management work.

The Giants have done a very poor job at improving their O line over the past decade. Nobody is denying that. I would suggest that the problems run deeper than just continuing to throw as many draft picks at the problem as possible. We have kind of already tried that. Scouting, player development, traiing/medical, and coaching matter too. Maybe we're not looking at the problem holistically enough. I can almost guarantee you the Steelers are much better than us at all those other things I listed.