Raiders Defense

[big_palooka 1,258]

1 hour ago, raidr4life said:

Conley practicing today, set to be ready for season opener.

Great to hear. How quick can he get up to speed is the question. They need him to be great. 

[OakRaiders3828 84]

Let Pagano call plays, Norton can be the team hype man. 

[MrOaktown_56 493]

Conley is good enough to start day 1 with minimal reps. If the Titans are going Decker, Matthews, Walker, and Davis day 1, you gotta put conley on decker and obi on walker whenever possible or we'll get shredded through the air.

[drfrey13 141]

3 hours ago, Jerry said:

Our numbers for 2016 only look decent because of M. Mariota, T. Taylor and B. Bortles having bad games against us.  If they maintained their average QB rating (or even 10 points under that), our pass defense would measure as it should, which is below average.

This.  I have been thinking this all off-season.  The rules have changed and literally 1,100+ players are going to be on the market!  We could easily find 2-3 decent players to help solidify the DL and LB positions.  I'm sure R. McKenzie has a boatload of data on players he's been surveying throughout the league that he plans on bringing in.  I'm hoping R. McKenzie keeps doing what he has been doing and finds us another great contributor like J. Richard except on defense.

Absolutely agree with the bold writing.  

I would then like to counter that if you are removing the worst you must also remove the best.  It is easy to fudge the numbers otherwise so we would then remove Ryan Brees and Smiths first game giving us an actual of 88.4 and an average of 85.  We look a little worse against opposing QBs yearly average but the numbers are still close to the same.  Just keeping it honest.

[NightTrainLane 276]

2 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Great to hear. How quick can he get up to speed is the question. They need him to be great. 

Not at all. We just need him to learn and make the plays in front of him. I would be fine if he just played around 25 snaps the first 3 or so games. We want to develop him Obi Lee Vader & James Joesph Calhoun for that matter. Throwing him in deep water for huge stretches right away when he had no camp is probably not a good idea.

[NightTrainLane 276]

2 hours ago, OakRaiders3828 said:

Let Pagano call plays, Norton can be the team hype man. 

I think that report is bogus. Mainly because Pagano ISN'T WEARING A HEADSET. He is talking on the sidelines more because that is what he was brought in to do. Improve the communacation on the back end and coach up mental errors. 

[Darbsk 138]

10 hours ago, MrOaktown_56 said:

Conley is good enough to start day 1 with minimal reps. If the Titans are going Decker, Matthews, Walker, and Davis day 1, you gotta put conley on decker and obi on walker whenever possible or we'll get shredded through the air.

Whilst I think Conley is a supremely talented cover corner with huge potential, I'm not so sure starting a rookie with all of potentially 1 pre-season game experience will be our lifeboat on D. I really like his potential but coming out he had issues like not using his hands and being very passive in bump and run. I'm expecting a slow start from him if I'm honest but an appreciable raise in his play in the latter half of the season. We should, you would think be playing Smith on Decker as a better match up and maybe Obi or James (if Obi is struggling with injury) could man up on the prolific Walker. I think we need to see a couple games at least to figure out if the coaches have been keeping the cards close to their chest - I kind of think Pagano might have a few aces up his sleeve as a guy who's been around the league that long with success surely must know our DBs strengths and weaknesses pretty quickly. 

 

On the other hand, maybe I'm just being overly optimistic 

[MrOaktown_56 493]

25 minutes ago, Darbsk said:

Whilst I think Conley is a supremely talented cover corner with huge potential, I'm not so sure starting a rookie with all of potentially 1 pre-season game experience will be our lifeboat on D. I really like his potential but coming out he had issues like not using his hands and being very passive in bump and run. I'm expecting a slow start from him if I'm honest but an appreciable raise in his play in the latter half of the season. We should, you would think be playing Smith on Decker as a better match up and maybe Obi or James (if Obi is struggling with injury) could man up on the prolific Walker. I think we need to see a couple games at least to figure out if the coaches have been keeping the cards close to their chest - I kind of think Pagano might have a few aces up his sleeve as a guy who's been around the league that long with success surely must know our DBs strengths and weaknesses pretty quickly. 

 

On the other hand, maybe I'm just being overly optimistic 

I think even if he's not physical, his movement skills are good enough that he'll make plays on the ball. That's why he was still so good in college and he could play with some big receivers. I"m very high on Conley. I don't think it's possible he isn't average at minimum from DAY 1.

[Darbsk 138]

19 minutes ago, MrOaktown_56 said:

I think even if he's not physical, his movement skills are good enough that he'll make plays on the ball. That's why he was still so good in college and he could play with some big receivers. I"m very high on Conley. I don't think it's possible he isn't average at minimum from DAY 1.

I tend to agree with you here MrOaktown, he is a very good cover guy despite having some obvious techniques to work on. I really hope you're right, but from past experiences the learning curve for rookie CBs is very steep so I'm hoping he can elevate our DB play but I'm not expecting too much just yet.......

It will be good to watch his progress and that of Obi and KJ, hopefully they can grow together. I think a little more pressure up front will really help these guys transition and smooth all their learning curves.

 

[NightTrainLane 276]

3 hours ago, MrOaktown_56 said:

I think even if he's not physical, his movement skills are good enough that he'll make plays on the ball. That's why he was still so good in college and he could play with some big receivers. I"m very high on Conley. I don't think it's possible he isn't average at minimum from DAY 1.

Yeah, that is why I think we'll see him day one just limited for a bit while he gets his conditioning and cordination up to par.

[Nodisrespect 100]

4 hours ago, Darbsk said:

I tend to agree with you here MrOaktown, he is a very good cover guy despite having some obvious techniques to work on. I really hope you're right, but from past experiences the learning curve for rookie CBs is very steep so I'm hoping he can elevate our DB play but I'm not expecting too much just yet.......

It will be good to watch his progress and that of Obi and KJ, hopefully they can grow together. I think a little more pressure up front will really help these guys transition and smooth all their learning curves.

 

Agree

Yeah Conley is a great prospect, but rookie dbs usually don't play well. Hopefully he can play part time to start and come on strong later in the season. He's gonna get picked on until he puts out some good NFL tape. I'm not sure he's fit enough to deal with getting picked on right now but we'll see.

[Jerry 30]

Obi Melifonwu isn't practicing again.  Hopefully him and G. Conley are ready by the start of the regular season.

[mct288 16]

43 minutes ago, Jerry said:

Obi Melifonwu isn't practicing again.  Hopefully him and G. Conley are ready by the start of the regular season.

This is getting frustrating with these two. I know it's only Preseason of their rookie year, so I'm not ready to  question the picks, but it does give me pause. Hopefully they were just giving Obi a day off after getting his first stretch of intensive work load. If he's hurt again, or re-tweaked his injury, it is concerning cause these nagging injuries tend to pile up quick.

[big_palooka 1,258]

1 hour ago, mct288 said:

This is getting frustrating with these two. I know it's only Preseason of their rookie year, so I'm not ready to  question the picks, but it does give me pause. Hopefully they were just giving Obi a day off after getting his first stretch of intensive work load. If he's hurt again, or re-tweaked his injury, it is concerning cause these nagging injuries tend to pile up quick.

Seriously? They have no injury history, got nicked up in the offseason. Bit early to give someone pause.

Reminds me of people questioning Mack as a rookie in preseason because he  looked slow and didn't have any sacks.. Those were good times.

[mct288 16]

34 minutes ago, big_palooka said:

Seriously? They have no injury history, got nicked up in the offseason. Bit early to give someone pause.

Reminds me of people questioning Mack as a rookie in preseason because he  looked slow and didn't have any sacks.. Those were good times.

You think it is unreasonable to have concern about two rookies that have barely gotten any work in during training camp? That there should be no concern about Obi missing extended practice time, playing part of a game, and then missing again (granted, no word has come about injury - it could be an off day)? You don't think it's worth at least acknowledging that we are on the edge of the season and these guys have barely even seen the practice field?

Like I said (and you even bolded it), I'm not questioning these picks. I'm not questioning these guys as players or their long term prospects. I just think it's worth acknowledging that these guys are behind to start the season and, as rookies, it's hard to catch up. I don't see how that is in the same realm as the Mack thing when he was clearly dominating.