Darius Leonard vs Dwight Freeney

[CR91]

Who had the better rookie season? Probably don't need to remind you guys, but Freeney had 13 sacks 9 force fumbles and 20 tackles for losses in his rookie year.

[Coffeedrinker]

38 minutes ago, CR91 said:

Who had the better rookie season? Probably don't need to remind you guys, but Freeney had 13 sacks 9 force fumbles and 20 tackles for losses in his rookie year.

Just think of what Freeney could have done if Dungy did not wait until week 9 to move him into the starter position.

 

To your question it's hard to say because of the different positions.  Both were awesome in their rookie seasons though.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

Two completely different type players & positions.

Freeney's job was to get to the QB, and he was one of the Best of All Time doing so.

 

On my short list as one of my  All Time favorite Colts.

[lollygagger8]

Apples / Oranges and not really a fair comparison. 

 

Two different positions. Freeney will have more sacks, and Leonard will have more tackles.  

[CR91]

2 hours ago, Coffeedrinker said:

Just think of what Freeney could have done if Dungy did not wait until week 9 to move him into the starter position.

 

To your question it's hard to say because of the different positions.  Both were awesome in their rookie seasons though.

 

16 minutes ago, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

Two completely different type players & positions.

Freeney's job was to get to the QB, and he was one of the Best of All Time doing so.

 

On my short list as one of my  All Time favorite Colts.

 

14 minutes ago, lollygagger8 said:

Apples / Oranges and not really a fair comparison. 

 

Two different positions. Freeney will have more sacks, and Leonard will have more tackles.  

 

Ok. How about who had a bigger impact on the defense

[Coffeedrinker]

2 minutes ago, CR91 said:

 

 

 

Ok. How about who had a bigger impact on the defense

Who had the bigger impact on the D?  

 

Both of them.

[csmopar]

32 minutes ago, CR91 said:

 

 

 

Ok. How about who had a bigger impact on the defense

Freeny is my all time favorite colt's defensive player. That said, if we're only talking about his rookie year, compared to Leonard's rookie year, avoiding the stats and talking about performance of the D overall, I'd give it to Leonard by a hair.  When Leonard was out versus when he played, there was a large noticeable drop off in the middle.  But it is a close call.

[LJpalmbeacher2]

37 minutes ago, CR91 said:

 

 

 

Ok. How about who had a bigger impact on the defense

 

I don't really remember too much of Freeneys rookie season. But IMO, probably the one who put pressure on the QB more often. Because of his position that would be Freeney.

[Barry Sears]

The title of the thread reminds me of a boxing match, ha ha.  So, I'd give the edge to Leonard because he has longer arms 

[shasta519]

Yes

[shakedownstreet]

CAGEMATCH!!

Tonight at 8PM on FOX

[ReMeDy]

There were also a lot more pocket passers during Freeney's days. I'm not convinced he'd have as much success today, especially because he had Robert Mathis lined up on the other side.

What Darius Leonard is doing, however, is just ridiculous. I know it's a team sport, but at times, Darius looks like a one-man-wrecking crew. Even in that Kansas City game, he gave us a chance to get back into it with that force fumble; good players making big plays at critical moments.

[Four2itus]

3 hours ago, Coffeedrinker said:

Who had the bigger impact on the D?  

 

Both of them.

Wait...what? Just appreciate them both? What a radical concept. 

[crazycolt1]

4 hours ago, CR91 said:

 

 

 

Ok. How about who had a bigger impact on the defense

I wasn't aware it is a competition?

[ColtsLegacy]

5 hours ago, csmopar said:

Freeny is my all time favorite colt's defensive player. That said, if we're only talking about his rookie year, compared to Leonard's rookie year, avoiding the stats and talking about performance of the D overall, I'd give it to Leonard by a hair.  When Leonard was out versus when he played, there was a large noticeable drop off in the middle.  But it is a close call.

 

Favorite player of all time... Spells his name wrong.

[coltsfan_canada]

7 hours ago, lollygagger8 said:

Apples / Oranges and not really a fair comparison. 

 

Two different positions. Freeney will have more sacks, and Leonard will have more tackles.  

But they are the best Apples and Oranges to have 

[CR91]

2 hours ago, crazycolt1 said:

I wasn't aware it is a competition?

 

Just a friendly conversation

[ColtsBlueFL]

1 hour ago, ColtsLegacy said:

 

Favorite player of all time... Spells his name wrong.

 

You caught it!   A promotion is in order-

 

 

{wink wink}

[ty4atd]

4 hours ago, ReMeDy said:

There were also a lot more pocket passers during Freeney's days. I'm not convinced he'd have as much success today, especially because he had Robert Mathis lined up on the other side.

What Darius Leonard is doing, however, is just ridiculous. I know it's a team sport, but at times, Darius looks like a one-man-wrecking crew. Even in that Kansas City game, he gave us a chance to get back into it with that force fumble; good players making big plays at critical moments.

They also passed less than they do now in his rookie season so he'd have even more chances to rush. I'd say Freeney's was better by a hair but they were both studs.

[DerekDiggler]

5 hours ago, crazycolt1 said:

I wasn't aware it is a competition?

 

You spelled comparison wrong  DS 

[crazycolt1]

1 hour ago, DerekDiggler said:

 

You spelled comparison wrong  DS 

The question was who had a better rookie season. That is asking who was better.

They didn't play the same position so it was not a comparison.

Sorry, I didn't spell anything wrong.

[csmopar]

9 hours ago, ColtsLegacy said:

 

Favorite player of all time... Spells his name wrong.

I’ll remember that the next time you make a typo.

[CoachLite]

19 hours ago, Coffeedrinker said:

Just think of what Freeney could have done if Dungy did not wait until week 9 to move him into the starter position.

 

To your question it's hard to say because of the different positions.  Both were awesome in their rookie seasons though.

You can't compare them by position, but both were and are delightful to watch. Amazing talents!

[Lawrence Owen]

I'm going to get a lot of blow back for this, but Leonard is still learning.  I love Darius, but playing at 218 and trying to tackle high all the time leads to him getting bowled over.  He doesn't lose the tackle per-say, but he does get taken for a ride an extra 2-4 yards when he does.  Playing at that weight allows him to move faster he says, but he weighed in at 225-230 at pro day.  That to me is  a minimum at his position.  He does have good play recognition, and uses his hands well to shed blocks, but when you are consistently out-weighed by the person you're trying to tackle, and you tackle high, you get taken for a ride quite often.

Freeney also had his woes early in his career.  When ever a team wanted to run the ball, they learned to delay hand-off, and wait for Freeney to use his speed or spin to take himself out of position and run in his vacant area.  He improved in that area as his career progressed, but it was still a flaw that other teams took advantage of.

That being said, Leonard had the more impressive rookie season when comparing when each player did for their respected positions.  Freeney's job was to get to the QB, which he did fantastically.  But he was a liability in the run game that year. Leonard did more than he was supposed to be able to do for his position.  You don't ask ANY linebacker to cover Hopkins and other receivers 1-1, Yet he did it, and quite successfully.  Also, it is not normally the WIL's position that get's called to blitz often, yet Leonard did it really well.  As a matter of fact, he was a top 5 linebacker in the NFL, in pressure %.  

[Myles]

22 hours ago, CR91 said:

Who had the better rookie season? Probably don't need to remind you guys, but Freeney had 13 sacks 9 force fumbles and 20 tackles for losses in his rookie year.

Leonard.

He led the league in tackles.  

 

[NewEra]

As good as Leanord was he needs a lot of improvement. Like others said he may be quick to the tackle but he got dozed and pushed back more times than not. Or just completely taken out by blocker. Speed and recognition. But nobody is mistaking him for Lewis, Willis or urlacher. He improves in that area and he will be amongst them. 

 

With that said Freeney WAS the man. People se to forget all those timely strip sacks or sacks in general to give our offense the ball again. 

[cbear]

Freeney.  Rookie season only, I still remember thinking I don't think I've seen this type of pass rusher before, especially since so many were down on his size.  I remember hoping the opponents would pass!  

[crazycolt1]

 

It seems too many want to compare or argue over things that makes no difference.

Who really cares who was better? 

[CR91]

11 hours ago, crazycolt1 said:

 

It seems too many want to compare or argue over things that makes no difference.

Who really cares who was better? 

 

You bring up a topic of discussion then

[crazycolt1]

5 hours ago, CR91 said:

 

You bring up a topic of discussion then

If and when I do I will try to make it worth some discussion.

[CR91]

4 hours ago, crazycolt1 said:

If and when I do I will try to make it worth some discussion.

 

Look forward to it.

[Dark Superman]

I just hate comparing two guys who play two completely different positions

[Defjamz26]

On 2/6/2019 at 2:20 PM, lollygagger8 said:

Apples / Oranges and not really a fair comparison. 

 

Two different positions. Freeney will have more sacks, and Leonard will have more tackles.  

It is a fair comparison. This type of comparison is made when deciding rookie of the year by the NFL. You compare LBs, CB’s, edge rushers, etc...

 

The voters of DROY spent considerable time comparing a safety, 2 LBs, and an edge rusher. 

[a06cc]

Different positions to say the lease. Dwight Freeney had one glaring issue with his game. Teams would exploit the fact that he couldn’t play against the run. Foster when he would play us would wait for Dwight to bit on play-action. He would always leave an open lane for RB’s because he was so fast at trying to get to the QB. Leonard right now to me is the better rookie. As he career here goes on we’ll see if can measure up to DF and what he did for this team. 

[lollygagger8]

On 2/16/2019 at 10:26 AM, Defjamz26 said:

It is a fair comparison. This type of comparison is made when deciding rookie of the year by the NFL. You compare LBs, CB’s, edge rushers, etc...

 

The voters of DROY spent considerable time comparing a safety, 2 LBs, and an edge rusher. 

[Peterk2011]

On 2/6/2019 at 11:46 PM, ReMeDy said:

There were also a lot more pocket passers during Freeney's days. I'm not convinced he'd have as much success today, especially because he had Robert Mathis lined up on the other side.

 

No, he didn't (in his rookie year). Mathis was drafted one year after Freeney (and played mostly spec teams in his rookie year).

 

Regarding their rookie years, i think Leonard has the edge over Freeney. But Bob Sander had probably even better rookie year. Sanders was special from the get go. A  first ballot HOF kind of player. It's said his body's given up on him too soon.

 

In the long term though, just because of their positions, Freeney migh have had bigger impact on the defense than Leonard will. But who knows, the LB position is transforming quickly, maybe the impact of these new kind of LB's will be bigger, than traditional off ball LB's had before.

[Lawrence Owen]

IMO, this is not quantifiable.  Different positions, different times.  It's like saying, who was better, Barry Sanders or Joe Montana?

[horseshoecrabs]

Freeney, was a pass rush specialist! that was his forte.  

Leonard seems to be an overall more versatile player, at sniffing out where the play is developing and being there at the right moment. Both are good at what they do. So this seems silly to compare. 

[WoolMagnet]

Anyone remember why Leonard didnt do drills at last years combine?

  Had he done the drills, i'm not sure he would have been there for our pick.

[CR91]

On 2/25/2019 at 5:11 PM, WoolMagnet said:

Anyone remember why Leonard didnt do drills at last years combine?

  Had he done the drills, i'm not sure he would have been there for our pick.

 

Hurt his hamstring