Hapless Bills Fan Posted May 4, 2012 Posted May 4, 2012 (edited) 1 -- The importance of a Left Tackle is highly exaggerated by fans and media. NFL coaches will often refer to "tackles" being important. Not just the left tackle. It wasn't until the mid 90's that the Left Tackle position became glorified and sought over exclusively. The LT is seen as more important because he protects the majority of QB's blindside, and as a result many of the better defensive athletes start their DE career at RDE (from college up to pro). As far as skill set goes, a good LT is presumed to have good footwork. Their backpedal is smooth, their stance is wide but strong, and they are able to chop their feet and swivel their hips in an arc like motion while maintaining upper body strength and a strong platform with their legs. However, a good RT has much of the same attributes. A large arm span is also a notable attribute, as it is reasonable to assume that the larger your arm span, the longer your arms are. With the long arms and a strong upper body, you can "chuck" and keep the defender further away from your body and therefore further away from your QB. 2 -- Levitre's arm span is 32.5 inches. 3 -- N/A 4 -- OLB's is a 3-4 are glorified DE's. In fact, if you look at an ALL-22 field camera for a majority of 3-4 plays, you will notice that the OLB's are in nearly the same position and stance as a 4-3 DE. 5 -- A good backup player is a player with the skill set and drive to play at a level that is reasonably sufficient to the demands of the team for that particular position. A good backup does not have to play similarly in style or level to the starter. He simply has to play at a level that gives the team a reasonable chance to win a game without the starter in play. Nice post, thanks for contributing. What does N/A means in response to the OP's question "3. why do people see some OLBs on our team (i.e. merriman)successfully moving to DE and other OLBs not(i.e. moats/batten) Edited May 4, 2012 by Hopeful
dogma+ Posted May 5, 2012 Posted May 5, 2012 Nice post, thanks for contributing. What does N/A means in response to the OP's question "3. why do people see some OLBs on our team (i.e. merriman)successfully moving to DE and other OLBs not(i.e. moats/batten) You're welcome. I wrote N/A because I don't want to speculate as to why other people see things the way they do.
BRAWNDO Posted May 5, 2012 Posted May 5, 2012 That's one way to skew reality... Turns out he was doubled EVERY play, which is why at the beginning of the year we DID have a pass rush--one that didn't result in sacks, but was capable of applying enough pressure to force quarterbacks into mistakes (i.e. interceptions, like the four Brady threw last September). When Williams and Merriman went down, so did our picks. Both of them were very, very important to our defense/team's success. Stonewalled? No. Nice observation. Adding Mario to this mix makes for a great defense.
T master Posted May 5, 2012 Posted May 5, 2012 That's one way to skew reality... Turns out he was doubled EVERY play, which is why at the beginning of the year we DID have a pass rush--one that didn't result in sacks, but was capable of applying enough pressure to force quarterbacks into mistakes (i.e. interceptions, like the four Brady threw last September). When Williams and Merriman went down, so did our picks. Both of them were very, very important to our defense/team's success. Stonewalled? No. FINALLY someone that saw what was really happening on our D last year !! I thought i was seeing things especially when all the posts on here were saying that Merriman was washed up !! I for one can't wait to see what he does this year !! Not to mention the fact how many of those nay sayers will be jumping on the Merriman band wagon if he has a good year !!
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