Which Patriots LB will have the best season?

[livinginthe past]

Thread title "
Which Patriots LB will have the best season?"

Typical Chicken little response: "LBer A sucks so much...and here's why.....allow me to explain in the format of a wall of text that maybe 5% of the forum will actually read"

 

[Ivan]

Ivan dude(being friendly no pun intended) Everybody knows by now I want patriot players dominate! Not just play well, but savage our opponents! I hope Easley Buchanan Moore,Collins are terrorizing passrush forces and Jones takes another stride. I want Dobson and the hard working Thompkins (especially kenbrell)to step up in Hightower want us to field our most dominant OLineman I think Halapio can be a great center and Fleming/Cannon compete to be our athletic powerful RG. Most of all I want to acquire the vastly underrated destructive Carl Nicks. I don't want to hope we can pull off a Superbowl run, I want to know we will savagely dominate every team on route to a Superbowl trophy. I was hoping Hightower was as explosive as elite LBs like Willis/Bowman but packaged in his 270lb body. However its just not the case.

Craig,dude. After erasing as much of that nonsense as I could on my phone I come back to my original question..... Link? You make all these declarative statements about players but support them with nothing more than hyperbole. You are talking to a large number of knowledgeable football fans who know this team very well and most of what you say is for lack of a better term complete bullsh.t. This is not the run up to the draft and othe than a few metric fixated fantasy fans we really don't care about 40 times and verticals, what we care about is great football players. The Patriots have a realy good starting linebacker corps, and this thread is about them, notBuchanon and Ryan and every other player on the team. Please stop with the unreadable posts, try to produce short intelligent posts and responses, and stop with the hype declarative posts and responses without supporting links and evidence to back them up.

 

[PatFanCraig]

First off I'm my own person with my own opinion of Hightower. Thanks to gymrat i suppose for my one thumbs up I received on my opinion of Hightower.Who said anything bout 40 times? I take that in consideration but I'm into watching highlights and making my own assessment of a players play speed. I don't care much for 40 times. Its just a jumping off point for making a conclusion about a players speed.

I to care about good players. While I don't go by 40 times I do think speed is becoming more and more important in today's NFL. I apologize about links but my tablet has viruses and having trouble. I have to get my X GFs sister to clean it all up. I did however tell you where to find the highlights. I watched them over 5 hours straight on various players,mostly patriots players in the NFL and college. I didn't like what I saw on Hightower if that was supposed to be his "BEST" STUFF. SO I WATCHED HIGHLIGHTS of other LBs and highlights of their particular games and best stuff. And unfortunately Hightower looked pedestrian. He didn't look lost at least. He just showed no burst or explosion compared to the others He showed no intensity or agility or closing burst compared to the others. I was dissapointed. Over last couple seasons watching games broadcasters including Collins worth called Hightower out saying he needs to show more burst than that while ball carriers ran by him like he was in quicksand. I wanted to see if there were times he flashed explosiveness and closing speed/jarring hits. I didn't see much to get excited about. Just lots of drag down tackles. So I looked for other LBs highlights and was like WOW! I did however see some good impressive stuff on Beauharnais. Some other patriots players movement skills/explosion/strength/agility and Was very WOW and comparable to the top talent at their position. But since this is a LB thread I'll talk bout them elsewhere.

I'm sorry if my opinions on any players offend anybody. We all aren't going to think everybody that wears a patriot uniform is very good or has impact potential. We all like different players potential but we have the same goal in mind. SUPERBOWL TROPHY!

 

[Ivan]

Off to ignore you go.

 

[PatFanCraig]

I'm here for friendly discussions I'm trying to be polite

 

[Joker]

I'm betting Craig was a HUGE Vernot Goatston fan when the Pats drafted Mayo.

 

[PatFanCraig]

Nope that draft I was just starting to develop my own system. I liked him but not a man crush. Same with Mayo. I liked him bout same as Vernon if i remember correctly The player I loved was Clady. Wanted him our first pick and slide Light to RT and Kaczur to RG for aging Neal.I l liked DRC,whom I think is underrated and will have big year. I liked Forte a lot. And I liked cliff Avril a lot. I really liked desean Jackson. My busts I liked were dre moore ,DA Juan morgan,Jason Shirley. My man crushes were Ryan Clady,Carl Nicks. My man crush bust was Mario Manningham. My long shot I wanted to make it was Roy Scheuning.

In 2010 I nailed the most accurate. I liked Gronk a lot. I liked Bowman as much as Gronk. My man crush was Geno Atkins/Dez Bryant. I still have no idea what atkins was doing there in round4 and will never understand that. I thought he was a Darnell Dockett talent. He exceeded even my expectations. liked jimmy graham but Mike Williams more.my big Mistake. Other than jpp I disliked all first round rushers. My bust was Everette brown although I didn't like him as much as Williams/Atkins/Gronk/bowman/bryant.

I have such high hopes for Easley to fill out his frame and become an impact pass rushing DT. Really REALLY BAD!!!! To be that Geno Atkins that should be ours!!!! Bill actually liked him as a rotational rusher. He should be ours D@MMIT!! WE WIN IN 2011 I think had we picked him. I'm really pulling for Easley to fill that void for an impact DT we should have had. If Easley is better than Atkins we can forget Atkins then.

 

[DarrylS]

Never understood the disdain for Mayo, what is not to like about a low maintenance, steady leader who is one of the best at his position, I suspect that one of the reason he is not so much of a "playmaker" is for a while now the need has been for dependability rather than the need to take chances...

 

[sevengables_2207]

I voted Mayo. Until I see it otherwise, he is the best linebacker on the team by far.

Collins has a lot of upside, as everyone who watched the playoff game against the Colts saw. I would love to see it showcased over the course of the season.

Hightower should be more comfortable at MLB and his play could take another step forward now that his responsibilities seemingly align with his skill-set (unlike last year).

I love the signing of James Anderson after we lost Fletcher. He was productive on the Bears last season, stepping in and leading the team in tackles, I believe. Granted, that was a historically bad Bears run defense, due to injuries and ineffectiveness of key players (Hello, Julius Peppers).

Beauharnais is someone I am hoping can step up and solidify the depth of the linebacking corps.

 

[Rob0729]

It depends.

I think we will see Hightower play DE on some passing downs. He was a very good pass rusher in college and rushed from the DE position quite a bit. So we may see him on passing downs at another position.

If Collins plays remotely like he did against the Colts in the playoffs on a consistent basis, not only will he be the best LB on the team he will be competing for best LB in the NFL. It is only one game. So we cannot expect him to be that player game in and game out, but it is hard for a LB to have a single game performance better than that one.

I think Mayo will be solid like he always is, but with an improved defense will they allow him to make plays? Rush the passer more? Take chances? If they do, he could be the best.

Gun to my head, I will say Collins because he showed at the end of last season that he has the potential to be an elite LB and possibly even the best LB in the league at some point. I am hopeful he will reach that pinnacle, but it isn't even close to guaranteed he will be close to that. So I am betting he will be about 80% of that which will make him the best LB on the team.

 

[RayClay]

They need to function well as a unit so, if that happens, we'll be fine. Playing with Mayo and Collins instead of a limping spikes, he should be a lot different, plus Mayo takes over the field general role.

I don't care if they burst, bounce, or blowup. There's plenty of athleticism on the defense and some excellent experienced football players too.

 

[Ivan]

I still think the LB alignment(s) is going to be one of the most interesting aspects of this camp and pre-season and eventually season. There are a number of alignments they can use and the flexibility and choices will be fascinating.

 

[Brady6]

Hightower should be more comfortable at MLB and his play could take another step forward now that his responsibilities seemingly align with his skill-set (unlike last year).

According to reports in OTAs Hightower was playing the SAM LB spot closer to the line.

 

[RayClay]

According to reports in OTAs Hightower was playing the SAM LB spot closer to the line.

Does that mean whoever played the middle is going to during the season?

 

[rochrist]

Same thing I have been wondering

So if Hightower cut his body fat to 4%?

 

[AzorianPats]

BTW I voted for Hightower. .

He was coming along nicely by the end of last season. Should be better with Mayo and Collins next to him.

 

[sevengables_2207]

According to reports in OTAs Hightower was playing the SAM LB spot closer to the line.

I stand corrected. Thanks for the info.

 

[Brady6]

Does that mean whoever played the middle is going to during the season?

I am not sure if this is a smug question where you ask a question to attempt to insinuate that what happens in OTAs does not mean anything, or a legitimate question. I will answer it as if it is the later.

I would assume that if they were practicing like that, that would be the intentions. Also Hightower has played OLB throughout his time here, so I see nothing to indicate he is going to play MLB. I would suspect Mayo whose original position with the team was MLB where he was a first team All-Pro in 2010 would move back to MLB.

This would have the 265lb Hightower playing the SOLB, and the extremely athletic, good in coverage Jamie Collins at WOLB, which in my opinion is the best alignment and based on OTAs Belichick also feels that way.

 

[RayClay]

I am not sure if this is a smug question where you ask a question to attempt to insinuate that what happens in OTAs does not mean anything, or a legitimate question. I will answer it as if it is the later.

I would assume that if they were practicing like that, that would be the intentions. Also Hightower has played OLB throughout his time here, so I see nothing to indicate he is going to play MLB. I would suspect Mayo whose original position with the team was MLB where he was a first team All-Pro in 2010 would move back to MLB.

This would have the 265lb Hightower playing the SOLB, and the extremely athletic, good in coverage Jamie Collins at WOLB, which in my opinion is the best alignment and based on OTAs Belichick also feels that way.

Who played MLB? Mayo? Could be, I suppose.

I don't think OTA means a hell of a lot as far as where people play, but it was a serious question.

 

[RayClay]

Why I asked was, if beuarnais sauce was playing MLB, it wouldn't mean diddly, because he's not playing much. Now they play a lot of different looks in OTAs, for instance this writer says all three played MLB. However, if you quoted this, it would lead me to believe they are mostly looking at Mayo in the middle, it wasn't just one instance.

The linebackers were a very active group throughout the OTA workout. The first observation was that
Jerod Mayo spent a good deal of time in the middle. There had been some assumption that Mayo might return to the outside linebacker spot he played the last couple seasons before he was lost to injury, with Dont’a Hightower replacing free agent departure Brandon Spikes in the middle. While all three linebackers, including Jamie Collins, saw reps in the middle of the defense on Thursday, it certainly looks like Hightower and Collins might be destined for the outside with Mayo returning to the middle.

http://www.patriots.com/news/blog/a...rvations/880ee99d-749d-49e2-b989-a0fceda9b251