Change Defense

[Forge]

49 minutes ago, N4L said:

No one talks about my guy marcell Harris, but that dude balled out at the end of the season. #41 was all over the place flying around. He seemed like a steal.

I think there's a couple of reasons for that. One, we just had that happen with Colbert. I think that may cause some hesitance as you stated.

Second, I think he's the clear backup to Tartt. If all goes well and right with the defense, he shouldn't see the field much this year unless we throw out some three safety looks. 

[N4L]

28 minutes ago, Forge said:

think there's a couple of reasons for that. One, we just had that happen with Colbert. I think that may cause some hesitance as you stated.

I didn't know anything about either guy before we drafted them, so please correct me if I am wrong, but Harris tore his Achilles his last year in college, which caused him to fall to the sixth round, whereas colbert was taken in the seventh and was healthy?

Seems like the league felt Harris was too risky because he was injured, whereas colbert fell because people didn't think he was very good. Big difference there. 

So if Harris is healthy then you'd think he have significantly higher upside. He did start early on a talented Florida team who had other talented guys in the secondary. Miami was terrible when Colbert was there and the next year after he left they had a fluky season where they had an unsustainable amount of takeaways with the first year of the turnover chain. Then the following season (last year) they were terrible again and they fired their HC  Other than that Miami has been horrible since like Frank Gore left lol 

The point is, Miami is not a good program. Harris came from a much better program in Florida and was a high level player. The guy has physical tools. He's got some great length to him. Again, I loved the way he flew around the field.

28 minutes ago, Forge said:

Second, I think he's the clear backup to Tartt. If all goes well and right with the defense, he shouldn't see the field much this year unless we throw out some three safety looks. 

So you're saying he's guaranteed to get some playing time? Considering tarrt is assuredly going to miss some time LOL

Neck injuries sometimes never heal.

Tarrt rushed himself back last year and didn't look like the same player. I always loved his upside, you could tell he laid the lumber. Fingers crossed he will be healthy but I also won't hold my breath. 

Jimmie ward and tarrt as our S duo... Better have some S depth at both spots.

If Colbert can't cut it at FS after ward inevitably gets hurt then Harris needs to play next to tarrt and we need to play more cover 2 or anything that doesn't ask either guy to play center field all the time. Neither guy quite has the range. 

As always, you draft players who fit your scheme but you always want to adjust the scheme to make it the best fit for your players. 

Continuing to run the same coverage scheme in the secondary after not adding Earl Thomas, would be asinine imo. We don't have that center fielder on the team currently, so let's not run a scheme that requires one 

I'm hoping we are smart enough to see this, otherwise this regime (or maybe just our defensive coaching staff) may never make it 

[Forge]

^^ both Colbert and Harris had very minimal college experience. 

As for Tartt and the injury, that's why I said if all goes well and good (which includes health). If Tartt and Ward are healthy all year, I don't think Colbert or Harris see the field much

[oldman9er]

Another full offseason of scheme absorption can be huge for the guys we have. 

Adding Ford and early edge rusher that can actually get to the QB.. can be the other catalyst for an improved secondary. 

 

We knew that we needed to address the pass rush. We knew we wanted to add some competitive depth and preferably a starter in the LB and DB corps. We knew that we had to try and keep a decent starting RG.

We added one of the best available pass rush options in FA with Ford. We locked Person in on a cheap 3 yr deal. We took a short term gamble on some risk guys like Alexander, Verrett, and Ward. 

These offseason choices were not ones that I was expecting or gushing over.. but I won't pretend to know what transpired behind the scenes. I won't pretend to know how it all plays out either. My guess is that by September, we will be legit NFC contenders.

 

Back on the path, oops. There's enough youth and then vets that have not played so much within this scheme. They can get this figured out. 

[y2lamanaki]

5 hours ago, N4L said:

I didn't know anything about either guy before we drafted them, so please correct me if I am wrong, but Harris tore his Achilles his last year in college, which caused him to fall to the sixth round, whereas colbert was taken in the seventh and was healthy?

Seems like the league felt Harris was too risky because he was injured, whereas colbert fell because people didn't think he was very good. Big difference there. 

So if Harris is healthy then you'd think he have significantly higher upside. He did start early on a talented Florida team who had other talented guys in the secondary. Miami was terrible when Colbert was there and the next year after he left they had a fluky season where they had an unsustainable amount of takeaways with the first year of the turnover chain. Then the following season (last year) they were terrible again and they fired their HC  Other than that Miami has been horrible since like Frank Gore left lol 

The point is, Miami is not a good program. Harris came from a much better program in Florida and was a high level player. The guy has physical tools. He's got some great length to him. Again, I loved the way he flew around the field.

So you're saying he's guaranteed to get some playing time? Considering tarrt is assuredly going to miss some time LOL

Neck injuries sometimes never heal.

Tarrt rushed himself back last year and didn't look like the same player. I always loved his upside, you could tell he laid the lumber. Fingers crossed he will be healthy but I also won't hold my breath. 

Jimmie ward and tarrt as our S duo... Better have some S depth at both spots.

If Colbert can't cut it at FS after ward inevitably gets hurt then Harris needs to play next to tarrt and we need to play more cover 2 or anything that doesn't ask either guy to play center field all the time. Neither guy quite has the range. 

As always, you draft players who fit your scheme but you always want to adjust the scheme to make it the best fit for your players. 

Continuing to run the same coverage scheme in the secondary after not adding Earl Thomas, would be asinine imo. We don't have that center fielder on the team currently, so let's not run a scheme that requires one 

I'm hoping we are smart enough to see this, otherwise this regime (or maybe just our defensive coaching staff) may never make it 

You make an interesting point about Harris and where he was drafted, but the flip side to that is that the projected starters were first and second round picks. And because we drafted both Harris and Colbert, there is no saying that both weren't guys who otherwise would have gone undrafted if we weren't the ones that took them. 6th and 7th rounds are complete lottery tickets, and other teams may not have had either on their radar.

But as the Gators are one of my teams, you do have company on the Harris bandwagon. I think if Tartt goes down again (might not be going out on a limb to say he will), Harris might take the job and not let it go for a while.