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Also worth noting that Summers was playing ahead of Martin
Yeah I thought that was a BIG story.
I had the suspicion that people were overestimating Martin's potential role far too much.
Yes he has power on his hits. But that dude played terrible last year. Some of the worst LB we have seen and that is saying a lot. He can't find the ball or the right hole to save his life. And when he did, he still didn't close.
He absolutely has potential. But the dude was so off last year.
Also worth noting that Summers was playing ahead of Martin
Yeah I thought that was a BIG story.
I had the suspicion that people were overestimating Martin's potential role far too much.
Yes he has power on his hits. But that dude played terrible last year. Some of the worst LB we have seen and that is saying a lot. He can't find the ball or the right hole to save his life. And when he did, he still didn't close.
He absolutely has potential. But the dude was so off last year.
Yeah, and for what it's worth, Ty Summers is an absolutely outstanding player aside from the fact that he cannot finish a tackle to save his life, which just happens to be the most important part of his job.
But every time he's on the field, he winds up in the right spot to make plays. He just whiffs. So if the tackling can be improved (which seems like the sort of skill that should be improvable) then maybe he puts it together and becomes not-a-liability. But getting the reps now, in the non-tackle period, won't tell anyone much.
In Los Angeles, Jalen (Ramsey) part-timed it in there depending on the game plan and expect it to be the same here. It's really vital, but we have a lot of guys we're going to rep in there.
Gray does a great job of teaching the philosophy, so that'll help players prepare to slide in for that unique position by knowing exactly what's asked of them.
Up front you have a rotation; you can't have enough pass rushers. All three are exciting. We'll have 2 on the field, all 3 on the field; we'll move them around. All 3 are in a great place; look great, have been working their butts off out of the building; great to have them here
Also mentioned they'll see who emerges as the 4th.
Asked about 3-DL, 1 LB schemes last year:
Have to see who your personnel is, but we will implement as many different personnel groups as they can. League has become a personnel-driven league; offenses have really done that and there are no rules that defense can't do the same thing.
asked about ILBs Krys and Kamaal in terms of rookie minicamps and getting on-field time, immediately added that Summers, too, though not a rookie, would have really benefitted from the second-year time on the field.
Summers is officially now my offseason player to watch for unexpected improvement
Says each ILB is being asked to focus on one or two areas of improvement, specifically; focus on learning the defense and on one or two things they've pointed out. Once they get there, then they'll work on improving other things. But trying to do it all at once won't get it done.
“All right, here’s the issue with defenses in the league: Between quarterback runs and play-action passes, they’re getting shredded. You’ve even had teams that can’t run the ball have a lot of success with play-action passes. To combat it, some defenses have brought an extra guy in the box and gone with smaller linebackers who can run.
But I think it’s going to go the other way now. You’re going to see more big people up front—300-plus pounders—to stop the run. It will be as if teams will say, ‘Prove to us that you can run against our front four before we bring down an extra guy.’ Tampa did it last year. Look at what the Chiefs are doing now. They got Jaran Reed this offseason and they’re going to play him and [Derrick] Nnadi at defensive tackle. Both of them are 325, 330ish. And Chris Jones at 315 is going to play defensive end. This is why Baltimore and Pittsburgh are always good. Same approach. And those bigs up front will allow flexibility in the back seven to stop whatever it is the defense has to stop. Quarterback runs. Speed sweeps. Play-action passes. It’s going to allow more versatility in defensive game plans. Big teams will have more versatility and the small, fast defenses won’t have the same luxury."
“All right, here’s the issue with defenses in the league: Between quarterback runs and play-action passes, they’re getting shredded. You’ve even had teams that can’t run the ball have a lot of success with play-action passes. To combat it, some defenses have brought an extra guy in the box and gone with smaller linebackers who can run.
But I think it’s going to go the other way now. You’re going to see more big people up front—300-plus pounders—to stop the run. It will be as if teams will say, ‘Prove to us that you can run against our front four before we bring down an extra guy.’ Tampa did it last year. Look at what the Chiefs are doing now. They got Jaran Reed this offseason and they’re going to play him and [Derrick] Nnadi at defensive tackle. Both of them are 325, 330ish. And Chris Jones at 315 is going to play defensive end. This is why Baltimore and Pittsburgh are always good. Same approach. And those bigs up front will allow flexibility in the back seven to stop whatever it is the defense has to stop. Quarterback runs. Speed sweeps. Play-action passes. It’s going to allow more versatility in defensive game plans. Big teams will have more versatility and the small, fast defenses won’t have the same luxury."
Ok, worth noting here though that the Steelers routinely field 3-4 DEs in the 280 range, which we often consider undersized for iDL
But yes, I like the idea of big players up front rather than extra players up front.
1. PITTSBURGH STEELERS
The Steelers are coming off one of the best pass-rushing seasons we’ve seen since 2006, generating pressure on a whopping 45.1% of their pass-rushing snaps over the regular season.
It was a well-rounded effort, with Defensive Player of the Year hopeful T.J. Watt leading the way with 73 total pressures (third in the NFL) and both Stephon Tuitt (71 pressures) and Cameron Heyward (62 pressures) not far behind that mark. Having three of the top 10 pressure producers on the same defense is a remarkable feat, particularly considering Pittsburgh lost starting edge defender Bud Dupree midway through the season.
I brought this a while back when we talked about getting pressure inside versus just from the edge, imo when ya get pressure inside it also helps edge rushers, as I'am sure it did with TJ WAtt, and also with Z Smith 2 year4s ago with us, Clark forces offenses to double him which leaves Z singled up, he was the pressure champ that season, we need Keke or one of the other to take the next step.
Joe Barry had some big DL in front of his LBs in LA too - Brockers was listed at 322, Robinson at 304, Aaron Donald the lightweight at 285
The interesting thing to me is the idea of actually playing more often with 3 DL instead of just 2. GB finished last year with about 2100 snaps on the DL where you'd be closer to 3000 snaps if you played 3 DL all the time. By comparison, the Rams played 2600 snaps at DL in 2020
Joe Barry had some big DL in front of his LBs in LA too - Brockers was listed at 322, Robinson at 304, Aaron Donald the lightweight at 285
The interesting thing to me is the idea of actually playing more often with 3 DL instead of just 2. GB finished last year with about 2100 snaps on the DL where you'd be closer to 3000 snaps if you played 3 DL all the time. By comparison, the Rams played 2600 snaps at DL in 2020
Yes, this is what I want. 3 DL much much more often. The 2 DL nickel package bums me out.
