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I think Okereke is going to start


Defjamz26

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1 hour ago, Irish YJ said:

height and weight are not the end all be all of "build". build is how it is proportioned.

 

here's the NFL.com's draft notes on both.

 


 

 

Okereke build

nfl-combine-football-indianapolis-usa-sh

 

 

Anthony walker build. His legs are tree thick

usa_today_9919775.0.jpg

 

Walker's legs are tree thick BUT what type of tree?

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3 minutes ago, Defjamz26 said:

IDK I feel like people say that about every player who starts.

 

Honestly, not sure why so many folks are that down on Walker. He's not Lenard, but was 2nd in tackles for the Colts, with far less snaps than Leonard. 

 

Leonard played 91.3% of snaps and led the team with 163Ts and 12TFLs. 

Walker played 66.3% of snaps and was second with 105Ts and 10TFLs. 

If you normalize on snaps, Walker would have had 144Ts and 14TFLs.

Pretty decent if you rightfully believe Leonard is a stud. 

 

5 minutes ago, LJpalmbeacher2 said:

 

Walker's legs are tree thick BUT what type of tree?

Not a Stanford Tree :-)

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12 hours ago, krunk said:

Maybe but to my knowledge we dont really do that with our backers. The starters are usually who you see out there. We dont really rotate them in and out. They may create some new packages for specific matchups. Not sure.

I am just going off what Ballard said about the players post draft as well in their webseries on the draft.  When talking about the sudden wealth of backers or backer capable players he seemed to emphasize their unique skills for specific situations rather than all around skills.  Maybe it's just Patriot speak for taking players with obvious deficits but also obvious elite skills, since they usually have focused starters, but if you watched that stuff (and I'd think you likely have, perhaps I am wrong) he really talked about specialized skills for specialized attacks.  

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12 hours ago, MFT5 said:

 

“Don’t you think ...” means you don’t even care about the answer. You’re looking for someone to agree w your point. Either find a better way to present your thought or don’t speak 

Actually, I respect Krunk and his opinions, and saying "Don't you think" is a respectful way to propose an alternative answers without saying "you're an *" sort of like your response above.  

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23 hours ago, Defjamz26 said:

I still have more film work to do but from what I’ve seen, I think he is likely going to start, and possibly at MIKE. He seems to be a perfect fit for this defense and it’s easy to see the Leonard comparisons. Walker is a good player but I feel like Okereke has a higher ceiling because of his athletic traits. 

 

He seems pretty polished too. I just have this feeling that he’ll be a day 1 starter. Him next to Leonard could be something really special. Plus you could put him at WILL and let Leonard play MIKE. 

 

Which game tapes are you watching?  I'd love to see them as well.  

 

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I think it's a pretty big if that either banogu or okereke turn out to be leonard or even walker.  Banogu has no pass rush skills, though he does set a good edge and plays the run game well.  Okereke looks very raw to me.  Hopefully I'm wrong. 

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44 minutes ago, cbear said:

I think it's a pretty big if that either banogu or okereke turn out to be leonard or even walker.  Banogu has no pass rush skills, though he does set a good edge and plays the run game well.  Okereke looks very raw to me.  Hopefully I'm wrong. 

 

Banogu needs serious technique coaching and a little SandC improvement. 

Okereke needs SandC if he wants to be an every down guy. 

IMO, both will see their snap counts increase as the season goes along, but both need a lot of work if they want to be more than situational guys.

 

I wouldn't really compare these guys to Leonard. Leonard had good size, strength, and technique already. He was also a monster stat stuffer. His only sin was going to a small school.

 

Banogu and Okereke both went to P5 schools and weren't really stat stuffers. Banogu is a victim of TCU's D scheme (nobody was really trying to correct his deficiencies), which can be corrected with good coaching. Stanford has a great SandC program, so Okereke's need to get thicker and get better against the run is a bit harder IMO because I'm sure Stanford already made it a priority.

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41 minutes ago, Irish YJ said:

 

Banogu needs serious technique coaching and a little SandC improvement. 

Okereke needs SandC if he wants to be an every down guy. 

IMO, both will see their snap counts increase as the season goes along, but both need a lot of work if they want to be more than situational guys.

 

I wouldn't really compare these guys to Leonard. Leonard had good size, strength, and technique already. He was also a monster stat stuffer. His only sin was going to a small school.

 

Banogu and Okereke both went to P5 schools and weren't really stat stuffers. Banogu is a victim of TCU's D scheme (nobody was really trying to correct his deficiencies), which can be corrected with good coaching. Stanford has a great SandC program, so Okereke's need to get thicker and get better against the run is a bit harder IMO because I'm sure Stanford already made it a priority.

 

You bring up a good point about banogu.  In every tape I've watched on him, I kept scratching my head as to why he played as poorly as he did pass rushing.  You can see the potential and athletic ability, but he played DE so tentatively.  He loves to stunt inside (and right into double teams).  Even when using a speed rush, if he doesn't get passed the tackle immediately, he just sort of sticks to him and is neutralized. 

 

It looks so coachable and it was puzzling why they didn't coach him up with some pass rush skills.  Hopefully our coaches can do that job.  His physical abilities got him his college numbers, but he won't be getting much in the NFL without major coaching.  But Ballard/Reich must be confident they can do it. 

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32 minutes ago, cbear said:

 

You bring up a good point about banogu.  In every tape I've watched on him, I kept scratching my head as to why he played as poorly as he did pass rushing.  You can see the potential and athletic ability, but he played DE so tentatively.  He loves to stunt inside (and right into double teams).  Even when using a speed rush, if he doesn't get passed the tackle immediately, he just sort of sticks to him and is neutralized. 

 

It looks so coachable and it was puzzling why they didn't coach him up with some pass rush skills.  Hopefully our coaches can do that job.  His physical abilities got him his college numbers, but he won't be getting much in the NFL without major coaching.  But Ballard/Reich must be confident they can do it. 

TCU's scheme just doesn't rely on the same things we want in our scheme, so they only coached per their scheme. I can see him really improving as the year goes along. If there's a most improved winner at the end of the season pre-season candidate, I'd bet on Bonagu.

 

If he's smart and willing to be coached, he'll do well over the next 2 years (assuming we put the time in coaching). If he's anything like the Nigerian kids who went to ND, he'll be hard working and very coachable. ND takes a lot of chances on international kids, so I've seen guys like Banogu completely morph in a few years.

 

I don't know how he is personality or brain wise, but I do trust Ballard in those areas so I'm gonna say he'll stick, and in year 2 or 3 he's a nice player. Not saying he'll be Leonard type stud, but much more complete than he is today.

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5 minutes ago, Legend said:

Okereke is a Darius Leonard clone.

 

And yet he lasted to pick 89.   There’s a reason for that.   Okereke is similar to Leonard, but he’s the lite version, maybe even the extra-lite version. 

 

Remember, we’re starting him at MIKE not the WILL. 

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5 hours ago, Irish YJ said:

 

Honestly, not sure why so many folks are that down on Walker. He's not Lenard, but was 2nd in tackles for the Colts, with far less snaps than Leonard. 

 

Leonard played 91.3% of snaps and led the team with 163Ts and 12TFLs. 

Walker played 66.3% of snaps and was second with 105Ts and 10TFLs. 

If you normalize on snaps, Walker would have had 144Ts and 14TFLs.

Pretty decent if you rightfully believe Leonard is a stud. 

 

Not a Stanford Tree :-)

No one is down on Walker. It’s more that people are high on Okereke. But I’d also add to that that once upon a time, Morrison had 109 tackles in a season.

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12 minutes ago, Defjamz26 said:

No one is down on Walker. It’s more that people are high on Okereke. But I’d also add to that that once upon a time, Morrison had 109 tackles in a season.

IDK, you have to be pretty down on Walker IMO to think someone will come in and start over him. It was only Walker's second season, and he went from like 10% of snaps to 60% of snaps, while being second in tackles and 2nd in TFLs by snap count %.

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On 5/2/2019 at 9:07 AM, Coltsfan1953 said:

I'm wondering if we will have trouble with teams running right at us. It seems like the LBs are fast but not all that big. Dungy's defenses seem to have that trouble.

 

Didn't we have the league's best rushing defense last year?  Leonard didn't have any trouble stopping the run.  

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On 5/3/2019 at 12:05 AM, Irish YJ said:

IDK, you have to be pretty down on Walker IMO to think someone will come in and start over him. It was only Walker's second season, and he went from like 10% of snaps to 60% of snaps, while being second in tackles and 2nd in TFLs by snap count %.

And another point about Walker is, his snaps increased as the year went on.  They took it easy with him the first 4 or 5 weeks of the season because he missed all of training camp with an injury.  The last 7 weeks of the year (including the playoffs), he never saw less than 74% of the snaps (Except for the Giants game when they kept him out with a shoulder injury he sustained against the Cowboys).

 

So once the team was comfortable he had recovered from his injury he was on the field a lot.

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On 5/2/2019 at 12:59 AM, crazycolt1 said:

Other than a few spots like QB, RB, Maniac and Q there is strong competition all over the place.

I'm not going to say who is going to be a starter because I don't know yet.

That is what training camp and pre season games will sort out.

On defense we could very well see different line ups depending on what offenses we face.

This

 

I think it will all work out

 

You may see Speed be a special teams ace the next 1-2 years, and be decent backup (always needed)... That MAY be all he is.... not every rookie will start

 

If done right......  the top players have to step up their game..... to keep their spot

 

If EVERYONE improves a little.....driven by competition...... this is a MUCH better team ..... as a whole.

 

We MAY see as high as 2-3 rookies become starters, (at least for one or a series of games) by the end of the year due to performance, and injuries, that always seem to happen.

 

The 1 year players SHOULD all take a step forward

Leonard, Nelson, B. Smith, Turay, Lewis.

 

The player that people ARENT talking as much about is WARD....... the guy was just getting started........

 

The defense SHOULD improve as they learn new wrinkles and have ayear under their belts to the Eberflous approach

 

The future is bright.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 5/1/2019 at 10:07 PM, Scott Pennock said:

Multiplicity always wins in the end. FS, CB, dime back and gunner should be more valuable than a gunner. Free's up a spot elsewhere too.

 

No different than finding someone who can play a position AND return both kickoffs and punts. That would free up another roster spot. 

 

I'm sure the coaching staff believes that too and is looking for someone to take the bull by the horns....

 

Ballard seemed to say that a lot over the past 2-3 months.... part of the reason why Q. Wilson is so valuable is because he can play outside, play nickel/dime, and if needed he could make the transition to safety.  Sounds like he thinks the same about Tell... he said he wants to start him at CB, but he's got value because he's got the size/athleticism/experience to move away from just and outside CB.

 

We also have guys like Geathers who is by trade a SS, but I think we will see him being moved into kind of a hybrid LB/dime CB on 3rd down packages.  I think a lot of the players we took this year, especially the LBers, are really just very good athletes with a lot of range.  I don't know that we'll always have a true WILL/MIKE/SAM all year as Leonard, Speed, Okerere and potentially some guys from last year (e.g., Skai Moore if healthy) can play as hybrid-types in certain packages.

 

On 5/1/2019 at 11:59 PM, crazycolt1 said:

Other than a few spots like QB, RB, Maniac and Q there is strong competition all over the place.

I'm not going to say who is going to be a starter because I don't know yet.

That is what training camp and pre season games will sort out.

On defense we could very well see different line ups depending on what offenses we face.

 

I agree completely here.   This is the strongest overall competition I can remember in the past 25 years across the board.  Our defense seems to really be getting full of athletes with a lot of range and ability to interchange at positions.

 

I'm just hoping for a healthy camp and season.  As Ballard said, "You know you're doing things right when you have to wind up cutting players who sign and play with other teams."  I think that'll be the case at WR, DB, LB, potentially OL and DL -- which, at the end of the day, is a good thing.

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I said in my draft grade I thought Okereke will start over Walker and I like Walker. The depth and athletic ability of this linebacking crew is going to very good. And, just as important, they are all great football players. I also think Adams will start over Banogu. Banogu is extremely fast and that's a good thing.

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On 5/1/2019 at 11:36 PM, krunk said:

Milton is who i think Tell will run out of here. Especially if he learns corner and core special teams. I already know he could do well at FS. Hed have more value than Milton. Quite a bit more.

I think if Tell or Odom can play centerfield like Hooker that should let Hooker do more underneath and some 1 on 1s with other teams TE. Remember Hooker coming out of college was known for a ball hawk. Playing him centerfield all the time is only using half his skills.

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It doesn't matter who starts or who out plays whom. 

 

Unless the rookies are busts, the level of play at each position should be better due to positional competition, and that's the main thing, not the name on the jersey. 

 

Heck, if the rookies outplay and start over both Walker and Leonard (assuming they've improved as well), I'd be thrilled! 

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8 hours ago, Coffeedrinker said:

And another point about Walker is, his snaps increased as the year went on.  They took it easy with him the first 4 or 5 weeks of the season because he missed all of training camp with an injury.  The last 7 weeks of the year (including the playoffs), he never saw less than 74% of the snaps (Except for the Giants game when they kept him out with a shoulder injury he sustained against the Cowboys).

 

So once the team was comfortable he had recovered from his injury he was on the field a lot.

Yup. While I don't think Walker is a superstar, he's far from a slouch. He's a fifth round pick, who did quite nicely in his soph season, and in the first year of Eberflus's D. Can't expect much more out of 5th round guy. He's exceeded my expectations already and I'd bet he continues to improve.

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I think eventually, as this year unfolds,  if Okereke plays well,  we will see him come in on more passing downs.    But Walker should hold the fort on running downs.   

 

That's the strength for both.     Hard to see things changing in BO's rookie season.....

 

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What I like about both Rookies is they come from good Defensive programs, Stanford and TCU!  I like this staff’s vision to see prospects excel at the top level which makes them elite.  No knock on Walker but if the comparisons are true and pan out with Bobby and Darious, Colin Cowherd just may be on to something about this team being the next Dynasty!?

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