Dein erstes Forum » Linebackers Tahir Whitehead and Marquel Lee actually

Over the last few weeks Womens Antonio Brown Jersey , no team has had as many trade rumors swirling around them as the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders have some talented players, but at 1-5 their season is basically over and other teams could look to swoop in and acquire talent. We’ve had rumors about Amari Cooper and Karl Joseph possibly on the trade block, and this week there have been rumblings about trading Gareon Conley and even Derek Carr. Trading Carr would seem to be highly unlikely given the nature of his contract, but the only player the Raiders have actually traded so far is Khalil Mack and his new contract is a monster too.Here’s what Jason La Canfora said this week about the Raiders trading Derek Carr to the team he thinks will pay the price, the New York Giants:“The final one will be Derek Carr and I don’t think it will be close to the draft, I think it will be at the combine,” La Canfora continued. “And ultimately what’s the point of keeping Derek Carr? And if you have all this draft capital and you get a one plus something else for Derek Carr, which I think he can — I’ll call it right now, Derek Carr to the New York Giants. At the combine.”If you think Giants fans are frustrated now with Eli at quarterback, wait until they see how Derek Carr does with a porous offensive line. But that doesn’t mean the Giants won’t at least try, and it certainly doesn’t mean Jon Gruden won’t listen. If Derek Carr doesn’t have a good season the rest of the way and Gruden doesn’t think he can win with him going forward, it’s entirely possible he could be traded. If Jon Gruden wanted to reboot the franchise with, say, Justin Herbert at the helm, he most certainly has the opportunity to do so, and at this point that may not be the worst idea in the world.Jon Gruden has a ten-year contract, meaning he has a 10-year mandate to rebuild the team. Even in their good year of 2016, this was a team that won a ton of close games and frankly were more lucky than good. They haven’t had anything approaching that level of success since, and have regressed hard to the mean and even below it. The Raiders’ season got even worse with the recent news that Marshawn Lynch will be out for an extended period of time with a groin injury. The Raiders seriously need help at running back, and it just so happens that a player who fits what the Raiders are looking for is sitting at home right now- LeVeon Bell.The Steelers are starting James Conner at running back and Bell is nowhere to be found, but Pittsburgh is reportedly asking for a first-round pick for Bell. That’s patently absurd since it’s already Week 7 and Bell is a free agent next year. Bell is exactly the sort of player the Raiders should go after in free agency next year. He’s a dynamic playmaker who runs well between the tackles and is the best pass catcher at running back in the NFL. The Raiders love to throw to their backs and nobody is better than Bell.The Raiders have a ton of guys on one-year deals. Most of them will probably not come back. The Raiders may need new blood at WR, LB Antonio Brown Jersey White , CB, S and DE. Trading Conley would be a mistake, but he’s in the doghouse for reasons we don’t know about. Trading Karl Joseph would be a lateral move since he barely plays and hasn’t lived up to his first-round billing. Amari Cooper has all the talent in the world, but is so inconsistent that he won’t be worth the contract he’s in line for. When Reggie McKenzie took over as GM, he was given the task of jettisoning old players who didn’t deserve their contracts. Jon Gruden is potentially doing that now, but with young players who don’t deserve their contracts. The good news is, the 2019 and 2020 drafts are chock full of talent, and the 2018 draft featured several players who will be long-term starters for the Raiders- particularly the three defensive linemen taken in the middle rounds. LT Kolton Miller is also pretty good when healthy, and might go higher than he was taken if the draft were re-held today.Think of what the St. Louis Rams did in their final year before moving to Los Angeles, and the year they moved there. They tore down their team to the bare bones, cut payroll, and drafted offensive skill players like Jared Goff and Todd Gurley in the first round of drafts. This year, they spent all their money on high-priced free agents to open a championship window. That is the blueprint these days, and now the Rams are the best team in the NFL.If the Raiders were to really go all out and trade their best players, they could have five or six picks in the top two rounds of next year’s draft. If they were to replicate the draft success they showed with Gruden and McKenzie working together earlier this year, they could suddenly have one of the youngest, deepest and most promising teams in the NFL, instead of what they have right now, which is the complete opposite of that- an old team with no depth and no future. Moving into a new market like Las Vegas soon, they’ll most definitely want the former, and if they are bold enough, they can achieve it.It remains to be seen who Bo Jackson Jersey White , if anyone, the Raiders actually trade. Even if reports say Raider players are ‘available’, that doesn’t mean Oakland is shopping any of them. But don’t be surprised if they completely gut the team in preparation for the future. The loss against the Colts this Sunday felt like a Jekyll and Hyde story of efficient offense followed up by poor defensive play.The offense did give up a turnover at the end of the game; putting a dagger into the Raider’s chances of winning.It was the defense however that put the Raiders into a hole that got deeper as the game went on.Jon Gruden and defensive coordinator Paul Guenther were quoted in press conferences this week talking about getting different defenders more playing time.Many pundits and fans alike interpreted this to mean the Raiders were attempting to get some current film on players before the trade deadline this week.Gruden denied that the game would be an “audition” for defensive players in the doghouse like Gareon Conley and Karl Joseph— hopefully he was right because both players were victimized by Colts Tight-Ends for Touchdowns.The infusion of new starters surely added to the Raider’s defensive issues, and it seemed like players weren’t on the same page through four quarters of action.The Colts offense ran the ball at will and utilized tight-ends in the passing game, setting a record for number of tight-ends to catch a touchdown pass in a single game.Run defense This run play is as simple as it gets and is one of the first runs installed in any youth football offense — lead weak.The Fullback leads up the weakside A gap creating another gap that stresses the defense, forcing the linebackers to fill appropriately to negate an open running lane. do a solid job of filling the new gap presented by the fullback and it forces Colts RB Marlon Mack to bounce outside.Notice before the snap, Maurice Hurst is lined up in the B gap, his natural 3 technique position.Against the run Hurst needs to have his outside arm and leg free in the B gap in case the RB bounces in his direction but instead the rookie DT is driven back on a solo block and this is what allows Mack the room to bounce.DE Bruce Irvin also doesn’t give his best effort against this run and closes too late to be a factor.This again is another basic run play from the Colts defense— zone stretch out of 11 personnel.TE Jack Doyle does a superb job of helping seal the DE by getting a quick chip and allowing the left tackle to secure his block.But Doyle isn’t done yet, he finds more work and gets his hands on Tahir Whitehead.Whitehead jumping outside of Doyle’s block is the head scratcher here.Most defenses teach their linebackers to “spill” lead blocks meaning they should attack the blockers inside shoulder and make the ball bounce outside to the secondary.It’s possible that Guenther called a play for Whitehead to be the “force” man against outside run but that would mean either the safety or corner should end up inside Whitehead. That would usually only happen on a blitz or some kind of gap exchange against a mobile QB.Either way someone is out of position and theres a good chance it’s Whitehead.This play is a little more exotic and a staple of smash-mouth run teams— TE Wham. The left guard leaves PJ Hall unblocked allowing offensive linemen to quickly climb to linebacker level.The TE in this case, Jack Doyle once again, “whams” the unblocked DT from outside in.Whitehead is for certain the culprit of this poor defensive play.He inexplicably jumps inside the offensive lineman and leaves a ton of room for the back to work. There is a theme in 2018 of Raiders linebackers, namely Whitehead, dancing around blocks and giving runners wide open holes to run through. Covering tight endsJack Doyle being the Colt’s primary run blocking tight end likely helped him get loose on this play.Andrew Luck shows play-action and you can see the linebackers flow to the left.Doyle sells a convincing down block, actually trips and get back up in the opposite direction from the flow on the linebackers. Marquel Lee and Kyle Wilbur are at fault on this play.Lee over-pursues and is too far away from Doyle by the time he realizes its a pass play.It’s possible however that Lee is free to be aggressive because Kyle Wilbur should be playing the crossing route from the backside.You can see Wilbur get tangled up with the backside TE, fall to the ground and get completely turned around.Wilbur is a journey man special teams player, not sure what the Raiders coaching staff thought they would get out of him in this game.But the Raiders linebackers weren’t all at fault.The 3 passing touchdowns to tight-ends came against defensive backs.On this play the Raiders are in Cover 1 which means man coverage across the board and a single safety deep.Karl Joseph draws man coverage against TE Eric Ebron.We all know how that usually ends, and Joseph’s struggles to match-up with tight ends likely is the reason for Paul Guenther being so reluctant to play the former first round draft pick.Joseph actually isn’t in a bad spot on this play.He impacts the corner route with his outside leverage position, forcing Ebron to run around him.But a perfectly thrown ball from Andrew Luck and a spectacular catch later — Joseph yet again gives up a TD catch against a tight end.Back to the linebackers blowing it.The Raiders are again in Cover 1 on this play. Usually when Cover 1 is played with a 4 man rush, there is a free player in the middle of the field called the hole player.This time it’s Nicholas Morrow not Whitehead who is out of position.Whitehead sees the crossing route from the backside and passes off the tight-end to the hole player.This is a type of combination coverage that is designed to help linebackers stay in leverage against crossing routes.The problem is Morrow is an inexperienced player with limited game action and doesn’t understand he should replace Whitehead as the hole player and simply chases the crossing route across the formation. This results in a wide open Jack Doyle adding to his highlight reel day against the Raiders.ConclusionThe linebackers quite simply sucked against the Colts.They were out of position against the run and the pass for the entire game.Andrew Luck made some phenomenal throws against Raider’s DBs who were in solid position but the strong arm QBjust made the play.The biggest assist to Luck’s day was the lack of pass rush generated by the Raiders defense.Luck was only hit once and had too much time to throw.Maurice Hurst and PJ Hall were drafted to provide an inside pass rush and save for only a couple occasions this has failed to come to fruition.But against the run both players have done well below average.They still have time to develop but so far offensive lines have their number in the run game.Erik Harris is the sole safety saving his place on the team.He was the only player on defense period who showed up against the run and the pass on Sunday.