Nobody thinks he's Ryan Kerrigan. Not many people are. But saying that Chickilo struggled to hold-contain means very little. He's not a hold-contain player and that's the argument people are making.
I hope he doesn't go to the Ravens either. He wouldn't thrive in that system either. Put him on the Texans/Rams and he can be productive.
So, if he can't hold-contain AND can't 2-gap, what can he do?
When you 2-gap, you are holding and containing. You just stated the action and result of the scheme.
As evidenced by his recent draft stock improvement, he shows that he can get up the field and makes plays in the backfield. At the very least he can be consistently disruptive in the right setting and he can disturb the edge and corner line settings. That's one activity he can do.
ok, my point is that even in a 4-3, he still would be responsible for containing the edge. There are many different ways to run 3-4 and 4-3. Just because a player is asked to be disruptive and get up field doesn't mean he can forget about containing the edge. Again there are many different ways to 3/4,4/3, one gap, two gap, hybrid, .......
You said he isn't a hold contain player. My point is......that's the defensive ends primary responsibility....in almost all schemes.
I fundamentally disagree with portions of your response.
"Containing the edge," is a much more broad term that I think you're making it out to be. You can contain it by running hard into the tackle, coming to a dead stop, and trying to read and make a play from there. Or, and this example goes for Chickilo, you can attack the edge, get a tackle off balance or having to be reactionary, and shrink the edge entirely by attacking with speed.
He isn't a hold-contain player. That much is obvious. I'll classify him as an attack and contain player if that definition suits you better. "Contain," is a broad term. "Hold," is not.
You pretty much agreed with me and made my case for me but with a difference on the need to hold versus contain definitions.
