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Keontra to LB! (from Cribby Nuggets)

jeremiah561 said:
He is too small to play LB. Jennings is a way better run defender than Smith, (whatever that means to you). He can't take on blocks, rewind the clemson footage, he was turning his back and gettinng ran out of hole just like this. Brooks is also pretty bad in traditional run fits. Smith, Brooks and Huff are good vs say Oklahoma type teams, not Bama or Wisconsin type teams.
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He is not as bad as Jennings there, Jennings was flat out embarrassing all year and running into the guard head to head repeatedly. He hardly ever filled the right gap
 
jeremiah561 said:
He is too small to play LB. Jennings is a way better run defender than Smith, (whatever that means to you). He can't take on blocks, rewind the clemson footage, he was turning his back and gettinng ran out of hole just like this. Brooks is also pretty bad in traditional run fits. Smith, Brooks and Huff are good vs say Oklahoma type teams, not Bama or Wisconsin type teams.
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Why would you want your LB to “take on a block” by an OL? They’ll lose that battle every time. Jennings would have gotten blocked out of that play with certainty, too. And even if he somehow out leveraged the guy he’s so slow he would have been a non factor with the ball carrier. Look at 53. Would you rather him get locked up like that?

Setting aside the fact I see this as a scheme problem (our DL don’t even bother slowing down the OL trying to get penetration behind the LOS), Smith needs to swim through the OL lead blocker. His issue isn’t turning his back on the lead blocker, it’s not identifying the cut quickly enough to slip through the lead block. A bigger LB would have had even more issues in this instance. That’s my $0.02. Defer to the LB experts.
 
grover said:
Flagg is just too slow for explosive offensives, IMO. He's as smart as Shaq, but a step behind Shaq. And Shaq couldn't handle pass coverage.
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Bruh..when was shaq ever exposed in pass coverage..I need a play a sequence a drive or something..we never asked shaq to drop deep middle in C2 or cover a TE up the seam..
 
Bubbacane10 said:
He is not as bad as Jennings there, Jennings was flat out embarrassing all year and running into the guard head to head repeatedly. He hardly ever filled the right gap
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I’ve said this before, the **** that was going on in front of the LBs had a lot to do with how bad they looked. And the Mike was Replacing a AA level player in shaq...personally idk about smith to WSL with no thumper along side him or space eaters up front.
 
grover said:
Why would you want your LB to “take on a block” by an OL? They’ll lose that battle every time. Jennings would have gotten blocked out of that play with certainty, too. And even if he somehow out leveraged the guy he’s so slow he would have been a non factor with the ball carrier. Look at 53. Would you rather him get locked up like that?

Setting aside the fact I see this as a scheme problem (our DL don’t even bother slowing down the OL trying to get penetration behind the LOS), Smith needs to swim through the OL lead blocker. His issue isn’t turning his back on the lead blocker, it’s not identifying the cut quickly enough to slip through the lead block. A bigger LB would have had even more issues in this instance. That’s my $0.02. Defer to the LB experts.
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That’s not ideal, but you can’t shy away from it when the oline schemes up to the 2nd level. That’s bound to happen. And in manny’s system it happens a lot. Shaq played through a lot of traffic and made plays around and through blocks
 
All I’ll say is it’s not the 80s, 90s or early 2000s any more. Your LBs need to to be instinctual players who can navigate traffic. Offenses more than likely will always have a numbers advantage in the box these days.
 
305to954 said:
Bruh..when was shaq ever exposed in pass coverage..I need a play a sequence a drive or something..we never asked shaq to drop deep middle in C2 or cover a TE up the seam..
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Sorry, my man. Too lazy to go find the multiple times I saw it. My memory may be bad, but I trust it because it's all I got.
 
grover said:
Shaq got washed out a lot. Not blaming him in any way. Manny's system is just brutal on LBs.
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Nah he didn’t get washed out “a lot” majority of the times he made the play. That’s apart of the position at all levels. It’s not gunna be clean. Manny’s system allows guys to be play makers instead of play absorbers. If you play 55 snaps a game along our Dline thers no reason why you shouldn’t have Double digit TFL numbers. Our DTs missed a lot of plays and were undisciplined too many times. It made the average LBs we had look worse. That whole Front 7 needs to be better
 
grover said:
Sorry, my man. Too lazy to go find the multiple times I saw it. My memory may be bad, but I trust it because it's all I got.
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I’m not saying he didn’t get beat but if surely wasn’t a reoccurring theme. It wasn’t a liability is all I’m saying. Running fast doesn’t make u a better LB in coverage
 
305to954 said:
All I’ll say is it’s not the 80s, 90s or early 2000s any more. Your LBs need to to be instinctual players who can navigate traffic. Offenses more than likely will always have a numbers advantage in the box these days.
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And all this time I thought our LBs in the 80s, 90s and 00s were instinctual players who could navigate blocks. What is it that Ray Lewis, Dan Morgan, Vilma, Barrow, and all them others did? Just run into them? Through them?
 
Liberty City El said:
All jokes aside, I agree with OP though, Keontra to LB is a breath of fresh air.

MLB - Corey Flagg Jr/ Tirek Austin-Cave
WLB - Keontra Smith/ Sam Brooks/ Avery Huff

More speed in the 2 deep will benefit the Defense overall.
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Most accurate look at the depth chart. Flagg will be the starting Mike most likely
 
KingB02 said:
How am I hating?
we see all the time guys down here look like they can kill a bih and do nothing lol. All I’m saying is that bruh is saying cave better just cause he has the measurables when Flagg has the intangibles. It’s easier to get guys bigger, stronger and faster in a real college weight program than it is to get the light to come on. And btw Flagg had nearly double Cave’s tackles in HS.
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Totally disagree. Easier to get faster? NO. What have you seen to be calling Cave a Jane? Nothing!!! So you made some generalized comment with no basis which is just HATING pure and simple. Flagg was in a more advanced HS program which has made his transition to CF easier. It doesn't mean anyone else is less intelligent.

Lastly, you have no basis to be making any comments about on the field play as nobody has seen any practices.
 
Ethnicsands said:
And all this time I thought our LBs in the 80s, 90s and 00s were instinctual players who could navigate blocks. What is it that Ray Lewis, Dan Morgan, Vilma, Barrow, and all them others did? Just run into them? Through them?
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I wasn’t tryna say that wasn’t the case with those all time greats. I’m saying that’s even more of the case now given how multiple offensive schemes are with the ability to threaten all levels of the field at all time. Add in tempo, RPOs, read options and all the other aspects of College offenses that make it tougher on Defenses. Offenses have a numbers advantage every single play with most Os we see today.

I believe it’s harder to play ILB today. There’s a reason the last MLBs we’ve seen go in the top half of the NFL draft was dwhite, bush most recently. Tre Edmounds, the guy for the cowgirls, and smith. Then more than a couple years befor that it was CJ mosely and Ryan Shazier. If a LB is gunna get that value it’s most likely gonna be a edge rusher in today’s game. Back in the day there was a couple of those guys taken high every cycle. There’s no question it’s harder to play 2 positions on Defense today, that’s ILB and safety

There was only so much a offense could do in a 22/21Personnel from underneath center 90% of the time. Then when u needed a pass play, first indicator was Shotgun. Today that’s not the case, majority of these O operate Everything with spread out with numbers in the box
 
grover said:
Why would you want your LB to “take on a block” by an OL? They’ll lose that battle every time. Jennings would have gotten blocked out of that play with certainty, too. And even if he somehow out leveraged the guy he’s so slow he would have been a non factor with the ball carrier. Look at 53. Would you rather him get locked up like that?

Setting aside the fact I see this as a scheme problem (our DL don’t even bother slowing down the OL trying to get penetration behind the LOS), Smith needs to swim through the OL lead blocker. His issue isn’t turning his back on the lead blocker, it’s not identifying the cut quickly enough to slip through the lead block. A bigger LB would have had even more issues in this instance. That’s my $0.02. Defer to the LB experts.
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Depends on the scheme, and defensive philosophy. Some schemes require an lb to wrong shoulder a pulling guard or a lead fullback on a duo play. Especially in a 1 gap scheme where our dline is just focused on getting up field and not concerned with “grabbing cloth” to hold the oline up. That’s where you suppose to trust the players around you to be where they are suppose to be. How many times have we seen an LB undershoot a gap trying to make a play only to run themselves out of the play?

With that said, I don’t think a coach would complain if you can beat a blocker to the point of attack, slip the block, and make the play. That’s the difference between a 1st-2nd rd pick and a 5th rd pick
 
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jeremiah561 said:
He is too small to play LB. Jennings is a way better run defender than Smith, (whatever that means to you). He can't take on blocks, rewind the clemson footage, he was turning his back and gettinng ran out of hole just like this. Brooks is also pretty bad in traditional run fits. Smith, Brooks and Huff are good vs say Oklahoma type teams, not Bama or Wisconsin type teams.
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This is counter trey to him. 53 is the C gap defender and Key is in the B gap. He's filling against a 300lb left tackle. The issue is probably more timing and whoever the DT is that is getting washed right now.
 
Liberty City El said:
All jokes aside, I agree with OP though, Keontra to LB is a breath of fresh air.

MLB - Corey Flagg Jr/ Tirek Austin-Cave
WLB - Keontra Smith/ Sam Brooks/ Avery Huff

More speed in the 2 deep will benefit the Defense overall.
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I haven't been up on spring updates...Is T-A-C getting reps in the middle?
 
My only thing is how does he handle the added weight? If he can't handle it that will ruin him because he had good closing speed at striker.
 
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