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CBrownsman

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So one thing has continued to annoy me throughout this season, and that's constantly playing guys out of place.

The big offender is Jabrill Peppers.  We said we would mix him in on offense, were not.  He is more of a SS who plays some LB, we have him 15-20 yards off the ball taking bad angles and waiting for the play to come to him.  I think he could be a really good player but I always assumed it would be as more of a tackler than a coverage guy.  Hell when Jamie Collins got hurt I was hoping that we would finally put Kia Nacua back there at FS, and move peppers up to cover as a linebacker...I know its short notice but he would be better doing that than playing FS would he not?!?!?

Why is Trevon Coley still starting over Larry Ogunjobi?  I'll be honest, we have needed more pass rush presence from someone not named Myles Garrett and I thought Ogunjobi was going to be that guy, and quite frankly every time I see him in the game he looks like he is both a good run defender and a good pass rusher from the defensive tackle spot.  I can't help but watching that team and seeing that our best lineup is Garrett, Sheldon, Ogunjobi, and Ogbah but we never seem to play those 4 together.  (Side note I have liked what I've seen from Caleb Brantley lately too, I'm excited about this D-Line).

This is the one that annoys me the most, and I'm assuming it annoys everyone else on here too, why the BLEEEEEP ins't Duke Johnson our featured back.  At the very worst he should be getting the same number of touches as Crowell.  I know Crowell is a few pounds heavier but if Leshawn McCoy can take that kind of work load, he can too!  Duke is CLEARLY one of the best offensive players we have, we should be getting the ball in his hands MUCH more than we are now.  Quite frankly I don't think we need a feature back in the draft next year, I think we need someone for short yardage that will compliment Duke well, because I would like to see him have a shot to be our guy, he has deserved it!

Also why is Matt Dayes returning kicks.  When he catches the ball in the end zone he doesn't seem to have any chance to blow by people, or have any chance to get past the 25 where he would be if he just took a knee anyway.  I thought we would see someone more illusive like Peppers or Duke or someone take this responsibility.  Even someone faster would be nice like Coats or Louis or something, It just seems we have even less advantage in the kick return game than every other team has (though I know these days that's not a ton anyway).

I know I'm not the greatest football mind out there, so if there are legitimate reasons for these moves I would honestly like to hear them.  Posting this is more a question of if this is something that's driving everyone insane or if there's just something I don't see that give these merit...

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5 minutes ago, Rod Johnson said:

Aight this Kai Nacua fanboyism gotta chill out.  We been letting this slide way too long.

I'm not saying he would be a superstar there, I have no idea, but I do know we don't have someone playing free safety now that can do it, and in the one game he did, he looked better than peppers has all season back there...

I just want peppers near the LOS...

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1 hour ago, CBrownsman said:

I'm not saying he would be a superstar there, I have no idea, but I do know we don't have someone playing free safety now that can do it, and in the one game he did, he looked better than peppers has all season back there...

I just want peppers near the LOS...

The problem with that is he isn't better than Kindred at that position....

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1 hour ago, CBrownsman said:

I just want peppers near the LOS...

I'd just settle for seeing him on my television pre-snap. My TV only covers 25 yards after the line of scrimmage, so I can't even see him line-up pre snap. I'm not joking.

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8 minutes ago, MSURacerDT55 said:

The problem with that is he isn't better than Kindred at that position....

That is the conundrum.  Kindred is playing well at SS so its hard to take him out.  Peppers is not playing well at FS so I wouldn't mind seeing someone else there like Nacua.  This is why I admit I was kind of hoping after Collins wen't down for the season we would see more Nacua deep and Peppers maybe in a Hybrid linebacker position.  I hear all the time the best coaches fit the scheme to the players strengths, Peppers playing 25 yards off the screen is not his strength...Why not play 4 - 2 - 5 and have peppers as another strong but also cover the TE?  Unless throwing him out there is helping his long term growth as a player and will lead to him being better down the road?

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3 minutes ago, CBrownsman said:

That is the conundrum.  Kindred is playing well at SS so its hard to take him out.  Peppers is not playing well at FS so I wouldn't mind seeing someone else there like Nacua.  This is why I admit I was kind of hoping after Collins wen't down for the season we would see more Nacua deep and Peppers maybe in a Hybrid linebacker position.  I hear all the time the best coaches fit the scheme to the players strengths, Peppers playing 25 yards off the screen is not his strength...Why not play 4 - 2 - 5 and have peppers as another strong but also cover the TE?  Unless throwing him out there is helping his long term growth as a player and will lead to him being better down the road?

eh....I'm not sure of its him or is it scheme. The 4-2-5 would be pretty good, and I thought at some point, we were playing that

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2 hours ago, CBrownsman said:

Also why is Matt Dayes returning kicks.  When he catches the ball in the end zone he doesn't seem to have any chance to blow by people, or have any chance to get past the 25 where he would be if he just took a knee anyway.  I thought we would see someone more illusive like Peppers or Duke or someone take this responsibility.  Even someone faster would be nice like Coats or Louis or something, It just seems we have even less advantage in the kick return game than every other team has (though I know these days that's not a ton anyway).

Dayes is actually like 6th in return average of kick returners with at least 10 returns. He averages 6+ more yards per return than Peppers. Peppers is 23rd among qualifying punt returners averaging 6 per. The talk of Peppers being Cribbs-like this preseason was a little off I think. He has been very useless as a returner. Duke is probably a better returner but is too important to the offense to risk being injured in the return game.

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6 minutes ago, Thomas5737 said:

Dayes is actually like 6th in return average of kick returners with at least 10 returns. He averages 6+ more yards per return than Peppers. Peppers is 23rd among qualifying punt returners averaging 6 per. The talk of Peppers being Cribbs-like this preseason was a little off I think. He has been very useless as a returner. Duke is probably a better returner but is too important to the offense to risk being injured in the return game.

Agreed, Dayes doesn't look too bad back there.

Peppers is being misused IMO and the opinion of most.  Id love to hear why.

Ogunjobi should be starting too, no doubt.

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21 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Peppers is being misused IMO and the opinion of most.  Id love to hear why.

I agree here, and I'm NOT Greg Williams, but if I absolutely HAD TO guess, I would bet it's one of those things as a coach where:

*While he's better suited/stronger at the strong safety position, he's better at the single high/FS position than anyone else we have

*Him at FS (not his strength) and others at SS (Kindred) is better than anyone else at FS and Peppers at SS (even though that's where he should play)

Regardless, I want to see us get a true FS going forward and bump Peppers to SS, or we wasted a 1st round pick. You don't draft a natural SS in the 1st and then play him out of position.

I'm with you...this team at least needs some band aids in place in 2018 and beyond to do things like this or this philosophy will NEVER be the answer.

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38 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

I agree here, and I'm NOT Greg Williams, but if I absolutely HAD TO guess, I would bet it's one of those things as a coach where:

*While he's better suited/stronger at the strong safety position, he's better at the single high/FS position than anyone else we have

*Him at FS (not his strength) and others at SS (Kindred) is better than anyone else at FS and Peppers at SS (even though that's where he should play)

Regardless, I want to see us get a true FS going forward and bump Peppers to SS, or we wasted a 1st round pick. You don't draft a natural SS in the 1st and then play him out of position.

I'm with you...this team at least needs some band aids in place in 2018 and beyond to do things like this or this philosophy will NEVER be the answer.

I agree that I think they're doing this out of necessity, but who know?  I would have expected to see more big nickel packages, but that hasn't been the case, mostly due to BBC playing so well I'd imagine.

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11 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

I agree that I think they're doing this out of necessity, but who know?  I would have expected to see more big nickel packages, but that hasn't been the case, mostly due to BBC playing so well I'd imagine.

I have zero clue what our secondary is trying to do. I know McCourty is good, but other than that I have zero clue what they're trying to do.

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