Crucial Non Star Players

[goldfishwars]

Which players, have become low-key essential contributors to your team's chances this year? 

This could be a situation where an above, or simply average starter at an important position has absolutely nothing behind them on the roster. Or it could be a player with a specific role that means you can do certain things in your offense/defense or even a special teamer whose absence you would feel if they went down. Essentially I'm looking for players out of the limelight whose absence your team would really feel. 

[pwny]

The Jaguars were 31st in run defense, both in YPC and YPG. Then they traded for Marcel Dareus. Since that point, they are #1 in YPG and #2 in YPC.

Not sure Dareus is a star, particularly after all the complaints about him coming out of Buffalo. But his addition has completely turned around our run defense.

The Jaguars biggest issue with their run defense prior to the addition of Dareus is that they’re too good against the pass. Yannick Ngakoue is aggressive and relentless as a pass rusher, but that comes with him driving himself out of running lanes because he’s being so relentless as a pass rusher. Dante Fowler isn’t a good RE when it comes to pass rushing, but playing LE he’s been able to use his pure athleticism to beat RTs somewhat consistently; problem is he’s not a good run defender against the specialized RTs nor does he have the strength to set the edge as the LE. Myles Jack plays SLB in our base set, and MLB in our Nickle package. He’s a good spot pass blitzer, particularly with how rarely we blitz on defense, and he’s a fantastic pass defender. But he doesn’t have the strength to play on-ball SLB and take on the point of attack, shed blocks at LOS and funnel runners to other players as a prototypical SLB does. The pairing of these three has made for an incredible pass rush and fantastic pass coverage, but paired with what had been mediocre NT play from Abry Jones, it left us extremely vulnerable to getting run on. Marcel Dareus has completely transformed the run defense while also allowing Ngakoue, Fowler and Jack to continue to be as impactful in the pass game as they have been.

 

Everyone knows Ramsey and Bouye are having fantastic seasons, and Tashaun Gipson has the three interceptions that give the vibe of ballhawk Safety. Barry Church seemingly gets lost in the mix when we’re discussing this secondary, but he’s kinda the glue that brings it all together. The consistent piece that allows the other three to play as effectively and aggressively as they do, knowing he’ll be in the right place should their aggressive attempts end in a whiff. Aaron Colvin’s play in the slot is much like that as well. Just consistently there and making plays. Not as good or as flashy as the outside two, but good enough that it forces teams to have to push the ball to the outside or downfield against the two stars on the edge of the defense in an attempt to get more than just the underneath stuff all game.

[Hunter2_1]

Bademosi - Came in when we were missing two of our top corners and done a remarkable job covering his men. 

Andrews - Quietly having a great season at centre, particularly run blocking

Lewis - Back to 2015 form, but still is a RBBC piece

Guy - given how poor our front 7 is, he is doing a job holding up his end. Rarely gets dominated, and we need all the little battle wins we can get there

Van Noy - doing everything he is asked, and he is asked to do a bit of everything 

[EaglesPeteC]

Stefan Wisnewski- Eagles Oline was struggling until they realized Wiz was the best option at LG. The line has been crushing it since.

Corey Clement- does nothing amazing but everything well. Every game he shows up and makes key plays.

Nigel Bradham- he is having a Pro Bowl season and has massively stepped up since Jordan Hicks went down

Patrick Robinson- guy has dominated in the slot this year we thought he might  get cut this summer. No one can figure it out.

The entire backup D-line- Eagles can roll out their front 4 like hockey lines. We all know about Cox, Jernigan, Graham and Curry but the unsung heroes are the backups Beau Allen, Destiny Vaeo, Chris Long and Derek Barnett who can come in and play really well 

 

[tyler735]

Kenny Vaccaro- He was benched early in the year, and since has been a vital part of the Saints defense. Besides putting up flashy numbers in coverage with several Interceptions/Passes Defensed, he has been one of the most productive coverage guys in the slot this season in the NFL. His versatility has been key in the Saints turnaround on defense this season. As it stands, we have 2 guys that have been doing very well at CB this year in Marshon Lattimore, and Ken Crawley...However, it gets very questionable after those 2 on the CB depth chart. Guys like Devante Harris, and PJ Williams have been getting absolutely abused this year. So having Lattimore, and Crawley on the outsides has been huge with Vaccaro taking over the slot/covering the TE. So in a sense, Vaccaro has been able to make up for a couple deficiencies for the Saints this season. We have a major drop-off in talent at CB beyond our 2 starters to the point were opposing teams will target and feast on CB's not named Lattimore/Crawley. Another aspect that Vaccaro has helped cover up is a lack of athleticism at LB. We put Vaccaro on TE's, as our LB unit has played solid disciplined football this year, but against several TE's they would be in an athletic mismatch in coverage, so having Vaccaro there helps. Thankfully we have 2 other talented young Safety's in Vonn Bell, and Marcus Williams, which has allowed us to move Vaccaro all over the field and let his versatility really shine this year.   

[cddolphin]

2 minutes ago, EaglesPeteC said:

Derek Barnett

He was the DE I wanted Miami to draft.. damn Eagles nabbed him.. Charles Harris is only 10 games into his career but so far Barnett is performing better and with more snaps.

 

 

[Phire]

The Eagles have a boatload of them, like, pretty much the entire roster. I don't know if these qualify as "missing them" if they were gone, but we have a ton of non-star players who most people can't recognize who are playing lights out.

Some are saying we have the best OL in the NFL. Can you name them all? Most people have never heard of Brandon Brooks, Stefan Wisniewski, or Halapoulivaati Vaitai. Fewer can spell their names correctly.

Patrick Robinson is literally shutting people down for us in the slot.

Ever heard of Corey Clement, an undrafted rookie? Or Kenjon Barner, who was sitting on his couch for half the year?

The Eagles are so deep with their non-star players that we literally play a whole second defensive line. Nobody has heard of Beau Allen.

[iknowcool]

Mike Adams - Despite being 36 years old, he is still a solid safety.  Doesn't do anything special but does just about everything well enough.  A lot of blame last year was placed on our rookie CBs for the struggling pass defense, but the safety play was an even bigger issue - particularly in the case of Boston.  It forced Coleman to overcompensate because Boston was consistently out of position and/or missing a tackle.  Adams is much more reliable in that regard.

Last year our pass defense was 29th in yards and 20th in NY/A.  This year we are 4th in yards and 9th in NY/A.  Not saying that is all on Adams.  Bradberry has taken that next step to becoming a top 15 CB while Coleman has returned to 2015 form.  However, the consistency of Adams has helped out tremendously.

Ed Dickson - With Greg Olsen out, Ed Dickson has stepped up, which probably no Panthers fan (myself included) expected.  He was an okay blocker for us in years past, but he finally was able to contribute in the passing game.  He's been a reliable target for Cam.

Mario Addison - He's always been a good pass rusher, but his improvement in run defense has been huge and lets us keep him for 3 downs now as opposed to in the past where he was just a situational rusher.

[RandyMossIsBoss]

P-Rob baby. He's been a great corner, can cover anywhere and a great tackler. Really a pleasant surprise for us. Saints have drafted some serious talent at DB in the 1st over the past few years, fortunately for us, 2 didn't work out for them.

[goldfishwars]

Never understood why the Texans let Brandon Brooks walk out so easily.

[43M]

Joe Haden -   Everyone knows who he is, but he isnt a star caliber corner.  However, his addition proved to be more impactful than most Steeler fans thought it would be.   He has had a couple little slip ups, but in general, brought a confidence and talent at CB we havent had since late 2000's Ike Taylor.    His attitude also permeated the Steelers secondary.

Mike Hilton -   Has turned into an excellent nickle corner and him along with Haden have transformed this defense into something no Steeler fans expected....well, at least in regards to our CBs.  Our safeties are another story.

Juju Smith Schuster -  He might be a star in the making, but isnt there yet.   However, he has become the tough nosed complimentary number 2 to Antonio Brown that most Steeler fans hoped Bryant and even Sammie Coates would eventually be.     Youngest player in the league and is arguably the best rookie WR.   He supposedly has a hamstring issue, so we may see how we fair without him this weekend.

[skywindO2]

The Vikings offensive line. I guess Reiff is a known name, and maybe rookie center Elflein, but the unit is playing so well. Especially considering how bad the OL was last year.

Terrence Newman may have been a star corner at one point in his career but certainly not someone you'd consider a star now. He's still balling out at 39 years old. 

[Apparition]

2 hours ago, Hunter2_1 said:

Bademosi - Came in when we were missing two of our top corners and done a remarkable job covering his men. 

Andrews - Quietly having a great season at centre, particularly run blocking

Lewis - Back to 2015 form, but still is a RBBC piece

Guy - given how poor our front 7 is, he is doing a job holding up his end. Rarely gets dominated, and we need all the little battle wins we can get there

Van Noy - doing everything he is asked, and he is asked to do a bit of everything 

I'd definitely include James White and Shaq Mason in that group as well.

[Danger]

2 hours ago, Phire said:

The Eagles are so deep with their non-star players that we literally play a whole second defensive line. Nobody has heard of Beau Allen.

[vikingsrule]

An argument could be made for Case Keenum. MN is second in the league with 20+ yard plays, but how much of it is the receivers? Keenum has the willingness to pull the trigger and the receivers have done a great job bailing out sometimes bad decision. 

Zimmer has said that Keenum has "balls", so might hurt us at some point.

Tom Johnson and Andrew Sendejo have been underrated contributors.

OL has been great but no stars.