Rookie Watch Thread (`12-`13 Season)

[Rcee]

Derek wolfe is our starting left end, kicking him inside in nickle packages. Looked good week 1 against the steelers. Stout vs. the run, recorded a sack as well. Someone to keep an eye out for tonight.

I'd like to go on about the rest of our rookie class but thats litrally the only contribution thus far. wru ronnie hillman :'(

[San Diego Chicken]

Reyes is beasting. Looks bad for Corey Liuget that Reyes is a far better player at this point. Both Reyes and Ingram were perfect fits for Pagano's scheme. Mike Harris seemed to struggle a little bit more than he did last week, but did an serviceable job. Ladarius Green had a nice 31 yard catch and run although it should have been called back due to an illegal screen from Eddie Royal. Still haven't seen much from Brandon Taylor since Atari Bigby seems to be doing well at SS.

[Complex]

Titans rookies = bust. The whole team sucks.

[themaninblack]

Thought Zeit had another good game. It irks me when they bring out Geno to put in Still but he's got some good qualities. Seems like he needs work on gap integrity and fully understanding his assignments but other than that he looked fine. Thompson played a bit again and looked pretty solid. Marvin Jones even saw some PT, and although he didn't make any catches, he did draw a pretty nice PI call late in the game. Wish they'd give him some more chances as he seems like he can really go deep when need be. Burfict had a limited workload and there was some good and bad but it was his first game at OLB so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

[killxswitch]

Originally Posted by K Train

saw fleener was targeted a few time in the endzone and on 3rd downs

He had what I think would've been a TD hit him in both hands and bounce away.

[georgiafan]

Originally Posted by Rcee

Derek wolfe is our starting left end, kicking him inside in nickle packages. Looked good week 1 against the steelers. Stout vs. the run, recorded a sack as well. Someone to keep an eye out for tonight.

I went to the game last night and saw Derek Wolfe warming up before the game with shorts on. He looked very impressive I thought he was an OL at first and they wasnt any fat on him. He passed the eye ball test for sure.

[AntoinCD]

Chandler Jones had one particular series against Arizona that was just pure sex. Baptiste couldn't have held him more if he had glue over his hands. I don't remember any first year pass rusher use their hands better than Jones does. What he lacks in elite speed he more than makes up for with his ability to disengage from blockers, core strength and pass rush moves. He threw a sick stutter step on Baptiste in the above mentioned series where he faked to jump inside, knocked Baptiste's hands down and bent under him. It would be an understatement to say I am happy with Jones to this point.

Jones may already be the Pats best defender against run and pass combined.

Had another forced fumble on Sunday as well.

Hightower had a nice game as well. Shot some gaps and made sound tackles.

Wilson had a quieter game but the secondary in general played very well.

Bequette hasn't done anything and Ebner missed a key block on Quentin Groves.

The two 1st rounders already look like studs.

[K Train]

mike adams has been playing better on the right side in spot duty

[Brown Leader]

Browns rookies vs Cincinnati.

Weeden
RGIII was the first rookie QB in NFL history to throw for over 300 yards with multiple TDs and no ints in his debut. Against Cin, Weeden did the same and was more impressive doing so. Stunning really considering how awful his debut was. He still missed reads and his TD tosses were fortunate throws but he showed incredible mental toughness coming back from that week 1 embarrassment.

Richardson
His line did much better and he got more opportunities in the open field and shined.

Mitchell Schwartz
Had as dramatic a rebound game as Weeden. TR had his best runs to his side and he held up well in protection against one of the better pass rushing Dlines.

Josh Gordon
Quiet, although Weeden didn't see him wide open en route to the end zone in the first.

Travis Benjamin
Flashed his speed in each game. Wisely taken out jump ball situations;

Billy Winn
Again started and was solid, but knocked himself out colliding on a Cin lineman trying to track BJGE early on. Concussion.

John Hughes
Supposedly way overdrafted guy by Heckert had an impressive game getting extended time because of Winn. Stuffed the run and recorded a sack.

L.J. Fort
With the return of Fujita he made no impact.

[Bengals78]

Originally Posted by Brown Leader

Browns rookies vs Cincinnati.

Weeden
RGIII was the first rookie QB in NFL history to throw for over 300 yards with multiple TDs and no ints in his debut. Against Cin, Weeden did the same and was more impressive doing so. Stunning really considering how awful his debut was. He still missed reads and his TD tosses were fortunate throws but he showed incredible mental toughness coming back from that week 1 embarrassment.

Richardson
His line did much better and he got more opportunities in the open field and shined.

Mitchell Schwartz
Had as dramatic a rebound game as Weeden. TR had his best runs to his side and he held up well in protection against one of the better pass rushing Dlines.

Josh Gordon
Quiet, although Weeden didn't see him wide open en route to the end zone in the first.

Travis Benjamin
Flashed his speed in each game. Wisely taken out jump ball situations;

Billy Winn
Again started and was solid, but knocked himself out colliding on a Cin lineman trying to track BJGE early on. Concussion.

John Hughes
Supposedly way overdrafted guy by Heckert had an impressive game getting extended time because of Winn. Stuffed the run and recorded a sack.

L.J. Fort
With the return of Fujita he made no impact.

Our DL is not one of the better pass rushing lines. Our best pass rusher didn't play and everyone else on our DL doesn't know how to pass rush outside of maybe Still but he is still very raw. Our DL has actually been horrible, well in comparison to 2011. But that is the standard I hold it to now. Schwartz went up against Robert Geathers and Jamaal Anderson (yes that Jamaal Anderson). Anderson, now on the IR, maxed out with a career high 3 sacks in 2011. Geathers hasn't topped 3.5 sacks 1 time. In 2006. Without Dunlap, our pass rush is god awful.
Despite all that, Weeden showed potential by being able to dissect our secondary.

Richardson is a monster in the open field. For a guy so big he is absolutely way too shifty.

Hughes looks like a steal

[Brown Leader]

Originally Posted by Bengals78

Our DL is not one of the better pass rushing lines. Our best pass rusher didn't play and everyone else on our DL doesn't know how to pass rush outside of maybe Still but he is still very raw. Our DL has actually been horrible, well in comparison to 2011. But that is the standard I hold it to now. Schwartz went up against Robert Geathers and Jamaal Anderson (yes that Jamaal Anderson). Anderson, now on the IR, maxed out with a career high 3 sacks in 2011. Geathers hasn't topped 3.5 sacks 1 time. In 2006. Without Dunlap, our pass rush is god awful.
Despite all that, Weeden showed potential by being able to dissect our secondary.

Richardson is a monster in the open field. For a guy so big he is absolutely way too shifty.

Hughes looks like a steal

Ok, we'll take Geno Atkins;

[bantx]

Originally Posted by San Diego Chicken

Reyes is beasting. Looks bad for Corey Liuget that Reyes is a far better player at this point. Both Reyes and Ingram were perfect fits for Pagano's scheme. Mike Harris seemed to struggle a little bit more than he did last week, but did an serviceable job. Ladarius Green had a nice 31 yard catch and run although it should have been called back due to an illegal screen from Eddie Royal. Still haven't seen much from Brandon Taylor since Atari Bigby seems to be doing well at SS.

Reyes is a monster, I really like Luiget too he'll still get worked in the rotation though. We have a solid young DL which is promising for our future, something that we've been lacking in the past few years.

[Cardsfan]

Bobby Massie could very well be the steal of the draft. He should of

been a second round pick. The Cards may have finally found a

quality tackle. Jammell Fleming our third rounder also looked good

against the Pats. Nothing from Floyd yet but I think he will start to

contribute towards the end of the year

[J-Spot]

Luke Kuechly looked pretty bad last night.

Before the 2012 draft, people were wondering if Carolina should pick a DT like Michael Brockers or Fletcher Cox, and I think in retrospect, they made the wrong decision.

Even if Kuechly was playing well, a pass-rushing DT is more important in today's NFL than an ILB. But Kuechly simply hasn't shown the ability to get off blocks or diagnose plays in the NFL.

[cmarq83]

Originally Posted by J-Spot

Luke Kuechly looked pretty bad last night.

Before the 2012 draft, people were wondering if Carolina should pick a DT like Michael Brockers or Fletcher Cox, and I think in retrospect, they made the wrong decision.

Even if Kuechly was playing well, a pass-rushing DT is more important in today's NFL than an ILB. But Kuechly simply hasn't shown the ability to get off blocks or diagnose plays in the NFL.

Did you watch the game last night? Kuechly was fine, he sniffed out a few plays despite getting zero protection from the guys in front of him.

[J-Spot]

Originally Posted by cmarq83

Did you watch the game last night? Kuechly was fine, he sniffed out a few plays despite getting zero protection from the guys in front of him.

He was bad in pass coverage and made too many tackles downfield.

"despite zero protection from the guys in front of him"... that's the point. DL sort of make the ILB, and not vice versa. I don't think we're talking about Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman quite as often if they don't play behind that beastly DL with Justin Smith and Ray McDonald.

The Panthers should have gone DL with their first round pick and then spent their 2nd rounder on one of the ILBs like Mychal Kendricks or Bobby Wagner.

[tjsunstein]

I thought Kuechly was one of the less terrible players on the d last night.

[tjsunstein]

Originally Posted by J-Spot

The Panthers should have gone DL with their first round pick and then spent their 2nd rounder on one of the ILBs like Mychal Kendricks or Bobby Wagner.

This is all in hindsight but no one argued Kuechly/Silatolu at the time.

[scottyboy]

Hosley looked really good last night, which is awesome

[J-Spot]

Originally Posted by tjsunstein

This is all in hindsight but no one argued Kuechly/Silatolu at the time.

Alot of draftniks were debating whether Carolina should go DT with their first round pick or not. Carolina's DTs were terrible in 2011 and continue to be so.

In fact, I think most mock drafts had Carolina picking Michael Brockers or Fletcher Cox with their pick.

[Bengals78]

I was a little shocked they went LB over DL.
But I wanted Kuechly bad so....

[cmarq83]

Originally Posted by J-Spot

He was bad in pass coverage and made too many tackles downfield.

"despite zero protection from the guys in front of him"... that's the point. DL sort of make the ILB, and not vice versa. I don't think we're talking about Patrick Willis and Navarro Bowman quite as often if they don't play behind that beastly DL with Justin Smith and Ray McDonald.

The Panthers should have gone DL with their first round pick and then spent their 2nd rounder on one of the ILBs like Mychal Kendricks or Bobby Wagner.

He wasn't bad in pass coverage because the Panthers inexplicably take him out in their nickel set, he sniffed out a screen for a negative play, and made saving tackles down the field from the opposite side of the play, that's hardly considered a negative.

A couple of years down the line Kuechly will be a better overall player than Cox and Brockers, and hopefully the Panthers can address their DL in the interim, but you go with the best available players instead of drafting for need.

[J-Spot]

Originally Posted by cmarq83

He wasn't bad in pass coverage because the Panthers inexplicably take him out in their nickel set, he sniffed out a screen for a negative play, and made saving tackles down the field from the opposite side of the play, that's hardly considered a negative.

They take him out of the nickel because he can't cover all that well.

A couple of years down the line Kuechly will be a better overall player than Cox and Brockers, and hopefully the Panthers can address their DL in the interim, but you go with the best available players instead of drafting for need.

I wouldn't be so sure that Kuechly will even be a better LB than Cox or Brockers will be DTs.

It's also alot harder to acquire good DTs (especially ones that can pass-rush) than it is to acquire good ILBs. (through free agency or the draft)

[cmarq83]

Originally Posted by J-Spot

They take him out of the nickel because he can't cover all that well.



I wouldn't be so sure that Kuechly will even be a better LB than Cox or Brockers will be DTs.

It's also alot harder to acquire good DTs (especially ones that can pass-rush) than it is to acquire good ILBs. (through free agency or the draft)

That first statement is blatantly false, maybe the coaches feel more comfortable with Beason and Anderson because they're veterans, but Kuechly was an outstanding pass coverage LB in college and played well in that area in camp and preseason. There has been nothing that he has done so far in the NFL that would suggest that he doesn't cover all that well.

As to your second point meh, look at a division like the AFC East Kyle Love, Sione Pouha, Kyle Williams, and Paul Soliai were all picked later than the 3rd round, and all of them are above average DT's. Geno Atkins was a 4th round pick a couple of years ago, and pass rushing specialists like Crick and Wolfe lasted past the 1st round this season. Even some quality DT's have hit the market in the past few years like Red Bryant, Jason Jones, Kendall Langford, Barry Cofield, and Cullen Jenkins. The Panthers have had their chance to grab some of them, and just because they didn't address it with their first round pick this year doesn't mean that they missed out on their only opportunity to add a quality DT.

Kuechly was a safer and probably going to turn out as a great pick. Cox and Brockers are much bigger risks, and had they been on the field last night instead of Kuechly the outcome most likely would have been exactly the same.

[Ghost of Juice]

Yeah I thought Kuechly was one of the only decent players for the Panthers D last night. Beason looked awful.