Had an NFC Personnel executive tell me “He reminds me of J.J. Watt, when Watt was coming out. An explosive and versatile playmaker who has a high motor and can line up at 3,5, or 7. Very strong kid” #NFL#NFLDraftpic.twitter.com/5qM3g6OrMr
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Nah. Mostly he's about a half step slow getting to the QB from what I've seen. In short, he's still learning how to play at NFL speed. He's still thinking instead of just playing, so he's a beat slow yet. He'll be quicker as the season goes on and even more so next season. But even being a step slow, he's racking up a lot of QB pressures and hits, not to mention his solid play vs. the run so far.
I hear this a fair bit and it's just the one thing I don't see. It feels like a lot of the time he's taken out, or more often takes himself out about a million miles from the action on run plays. Watching again I think it's partly an over-eagerness to bring pressure to the QB. He's like a puppy, just a bundle of excited energy, but it means he just isn't reading a lot of these plays that well.
He's a smart kid, I'm sure he'll work it out. But precisely because of this I expected him to be better against the run at this point. [Reply]
This backs up the idea that while Karlaftis is executing Spags stunts well (which is a good thing, to be sure!), he's not winning as much as you'd want 1x1.
They've used him in a multitude of ways and he's been a useful player, but this is similar to what I've seen. https://t.co/E37Io4JQD9
Originally Posted by RunKC:
As someone who wasn’t thrilled with the Bryan Cook pick, I see why they drafted him. It wasn’t just to replace Daniel Sorenson but also to replace some of Juan Thornhill’s role. And I think he can. The guy was a corner for years before he became a safety. He also played a lot of roles in college. He’s probably a TE matchup but he did play in the slot in college too.
Juan is a pretty solid pass defender but he is so bad vs the run. He gets scared and can’t make the tackles needed.
Still need help up front but again Spags wanted the secondary shored up first.
And I had this conversation pre-draft with a few folks who were talking about 1st or 2nd round safeties.
Safety is a position that many teams, Chiefs included, have filled with a day 2 rookie who has contributed immediately. It's just an easier position to plug and play.
So why treat Thornhill's replacement as a dire, pressing need that must be addressed last season? Especially when DL has a longer learning curve?
I just don't see Cook as any kind of 'special' safety prospect that we needed to be a year ahead on. Not when the position is often filled on the fly and certainly not when we had dire needs (and still do) on the defensive line. [Reply]
This backs up the idea that while Karlaftis is executing Spags stunts well (which is a good thing, to be sure!), he's not winning as much as you'd want 1x1.
They've used him in a multitude of ways and he's been a useful player, but this is similar to what I've seen. https://t.co/E37Io4JQD9
Originally Posted by JPH83:
I hear this a fair bit and it's just the one thing I don't see. It feels like a lot of the time he's taken out, or more often takes himself out about a million miles from the action on run plays. Watching again I think it's partly an over-eagerness to bring pressure to the QB. He's like a puppy, just a bundle of excited energy, but it means he just isn't reading a lot of these plays that well.
He's a smart kid, I'm sure he'll work it out. But precisely because of this I expected him to be better against the run at this point.
LOl, he's a rookie. You didn't really expect him to win every snap?
But to say that he has poor recognition is just not the case.
He's making plays in the run game. Not every play, but he's making most of them. And I'm not talking about just making tackles or setting the edge. It's his recognition; this guy aint no Dee Ford. He's way ahead of guys like Dee when it comes to recognizing whether it's a run or a pass after the snap. What you call over-eagerness I think is just George beginning the snap as a pass rusher because that's the play-call, then recognizing that's it's a run, and adjusting on the fly. Basically, exactly what happened in the clip above. Actually, i think there's at least two fo them in that post with the multiple clips in t.
Does he need to work on is skills? Sure. But there's no question that he's a positive player on the DL right now, either making plays on his own or creating opportunities for other players, like that INT vs. SF a couple weeks ago. He didn't get there, but he created the pressure, along with Thornhill, and Jimmy had to try and throw that ball over and around Karlaftis, which forced the bad pass that Watson(?) intercepted.
Imo, Karlaftis is a solid run defender now. Maybe you have some specific examples to look at that show something different, but so far i haven't seen anything that says he's struggling vs. the run. [Reply]
This backs up the idea that while Karlaftis is executing Spags stunts well (which is a good thing, to be sure!), he's not winning as much as you'd want 1x1.
They've used him in a multitude of ways and he's been a useful player, but this is similar to what I've seen. https://t.co/E37Io4JQD9
Originally Posted by staylor26:
So even with stunts and blitzes removed, he's still 2nd best in the class.
How is that a bad thing?
Hes on track for ahh....sack. one sack. Hes everything we hoped he would be out of a 1st round DE. No reason for fans to expect more than 1 sack a year from a 1st round pick defensive end [Reply]
Originally Posted by BWillie:
Hes on track for ahh....sack. one sack. Hes everything we hoped he would be out of a 1st round DE. No reason for fans to expect more than 1 sack a year from a 1st round pick defensive end
Yea because even as a 21 year old rookie that is getting pressure, he willl never get better, and the pressure will never translate into sacks. The book is already written on him!
Originally Posted by BWillie:
Hes on track for ahh....sack. one sack. Hes everything we hoped he would be out of a 1st round DE. No reason for fans to expect more than 1 sack a year from a 1st round pick defensive end
Originally Posted by BWillie:
Hes on track for ahh....sack. one sack. Hes everything we hoped he would be out of a 1st round DE. No reason for fans to expect more than 1 sack a year from a 1st round pick defensive end
Lolz. So when Justin Houston went 0-fer in his first 12 games as a rookie you would've written him off as a bust. 115 sacks to his career now.
