Adalius at ILB or OLB?

[JoePats]

Definately OLB. He was a beast in the Super Bowl, and is the guy who replaces Colvin. Between Bruschi, Hobson, Seau, and Mayo, that should be fine inside. I would guess Hobson would backup Vrabel and AD outside and Crable would be more of a situational player at this point.

 

[Lockdown06]

I believe it will depend on who the Pats pick up either in free agency or the draft. Bruschi and Seau cannot play full time and are slowing down. Linebacking corp needs youth.

I think they'll rotate them - i bet on obvious passing downs, the linebackers will look like this : Vrabel, Mayo(once he's learned the D) Thomas, Crable (once he's learned the D)

I love bruschi and seau, but Thomas and Mayo just have a huge athleticism advantage over them right now, and they should be able to hang with TEs and RBs much better than bruschi and seau.

since it will take Mayo and Crable at least a few weeks (probably a lot longer than that, actually) to get the D down, we likely won't see this till later on, but once we can use this package, i bet that's what will happen.

and just for the record, I don't see Crable taking over at OLB this season, I just meant he'd be used as a situational pass rusher. On most downs, thomas will be at OLB, and crable will be on teh bench.

 

[BradyManny]

Definately OLB. He was a beast in the Super Bowl, and is the guy who replaces Colvin. Between Bruschi, Hobson, Seau, and Mayo, that should be fine inside. I would guess Hobson would backup Vrabel and AD outside and Crable would be more of a situational player at this point.

I'd love to see the Pats rotate their defensive players more this season. A few of them were gassed down the stretch, and a liberal rotation might not just help within games, but in the long run.

Think about the fact that at ILB, as you say, they have four (or five counting AD) players who can play at a pretty high level.

OLB isn't quite as deep, I'd say the depth chart would be:

Thomas
Vrabel
*Hobson
Woods
Crable

As of now, Woods and Crable are more situational players, and Hobson is set to play more ILB in this system according to reports.

Nonetheless, they can get a pretty healthy rotation going.

 

[Franchise12]

OLB for sure, did you see him in the Sb. him and welker would have gotten heavy consideration for sb mvp had we won. simply put, hes more valuable at olb

 

[PatsfanGlo]

I would much prefer AD starting at OLB than ILB. AD was abolute beast playing OLB rushing the passer, using both his speed and strength. My guess is most likely it'll be Thomas, Mayo, Bruschi/Seau(rotation) and Vrable starting. I suspect we'll see a lot of 3-3-5 till Mayo feels comfortable with Pats D and probably a lot of passing situations. I actually liked Rodney shooting up the field. Let's just hope everyone can manage to stay healthy considering depth behind them isn't exactly too reassuring.

 

[BradyManny]

Follow up question to those that understand these things better than me:

Is Hobson big enough to play SILB if we move AD to OLB?

I believe Bruschi ended up playing SILB when Colvin went down last season when AD moved, and that was probably the weak link in it all, right?

 

[Lockdown06]

Follow up question to those that understand these things better than me:

Is Hobson big enough to play SILB if we move AD to OLB?

I believe Bruschi ended up playing SILB when Colvin went down last season when AD moved, and that was probably the weak link in it all, right?

I dunno if I understand things better than you, but from what i've read, and heard from Jets fans, Hobson's main strength last year was playing the run, and the big knock on him was that he struggled in coverage. He isn't huge (he's only around 240) but given his strengths and weaknesses I'd say if he were to play ILB it would likely be SILB because that seems to lean more towards his skillset

 

[BradyManny]

I dunno if I understand things better than you, but from what i've read, and heard from Jets fans, Hobson's main strength last year was playing the run, and the big knock on him was that he struggled in coverage. He isn't huge (he's only around 240) but given his strengths and weaknesses I'd say if he were to play ILB it would likely be SILB because that seems to lean more towards his skillset

Interesting points...I'm seeing Hobson at 6'0 252 according to ESPN, though, which makes him a little more stout, although on the smallish side height wise, and given - as you say - his skillset and ability to stop the run, maybe he is a fit for SILB. I'm guessing based on his size and speed that Mayo is a WILB in the making, but I could be wrong.

Add Bruschi and Seau, two other guys that rotate in on WILB (well, they did before Colvin went down), then you need Hobson to play some considerable time at SILB otherwise AD won't be moving outside full-time.

 

[Lockdown06]

Interesting points...I'm seeing Hobson at 6'0 252 according to ESPN, though, which makes him a little more stout, although on the smallish side height wise, and given - as you say - his skillset and ability to stop the run, maybe he is a fit for SILB. I'm guessing based on his size and speed that Mayo is a WILB in the making, but I could be wrong.

Add Bruschi and Seau, two other guys that rotate in on WILB (well, they did before Colvin went down), then you need Hobson to play some considerable time at SILB otherwise AD won't be moving outside full-time.

Yeah, I agree - in my mind, I guess I see the pats rotating their linebackers a lot depending on the situation - on obvious run-stuffing downs, I wouldnt be surprised to see a lineup of vrabel-seau-hobson-thomas, as hobson sounds like a run-stuffer, and nobody shoots the gap better than seau.

On obvious passing downs, at least later in the year, I could see thomas rotating in and having him and mayo play inside, with crable or woods rushing on the outside.

this is what ESPN had to say about him http://proxy.espn.go.com/nfl/players/scouting?statsId=6389 : Hobson is a short, stocky built player with good strength and above-average athletic ability. He does a nice job maintaining leverage versus tight ends and separating to the ball. He uses his hands well to maintain position on the edge effectively. He can fold and pursue down the line of scrimmage on plays away or close in space showing short area quickness. He is a powerful tackler with great explosion and hip roll on contact. Hobson has quickness and speed rushing the passer and marked up six sacks with great effort and technique. He is a solid short-zone coverage player as he reads routes well and understands leverage. He can get exposed in man coverage as he does not have great speed and burst off the line of scrimmage. He is best playing on the edge of blockers and rushing the passer as opposed to taking on lineman or playing pass coverage. Hobson plays with a great motor, instincts and toughness which resulted in his best season as a pro. Hobson has played well in the new 3-4 defensive scheme that Eric Mangini has brought to the Jets and should continue to be productive in the coming years.


On downs in between, its really anybody's guess - the pats have a lot of options with how they can tweak their linebackers this year, which is pretty sweet considering we were so limited last year due to injury and physical ability in this capacity.

And you're right about hobson - my bad on the weight, I thought he was lighter - that to me makes it seem like he's a 2 down run-stuffer in the making

edited in ESPN's scouting report

 

[WhiZa]

The only choices are whether you'd want Woods or Alexander to start. So right now I'd say you have to play him outside and play Bruschi and Alexander inside. There's no doubt tho that a LB or CB will be drafted in the first round.

I feel smart

 

[BradyManny]

Yeah, I agree - in my mind, I guess I see the pats rotating their linebackers a lot depending on the situation - on obvious run-stuffing downs, I wouldnt be surprised to see a lineup of vrabel-seau-hobson-thomas, as hobson sounds like a run-stuffer, and nobody shoots the gap better than seau.

On obvious passing downs, at least later in the year, I could see thomas rotating in and having him and mayo play inside, with crable or woods rushing on the outside.

this is what ESPN had to say about him http://proxy.espn.go.com/nfl/players/scouting?statsId=6389 : Hobson is a short, stocky built player with good strength and above-average athletic ability. He does a nice job maintaining leverage versus tight ends and separating to the ball. He uses his hands well to maintain position on the edge effectively. He can fold and pursue down the line of scrimmage on plays away or close in space showing short area quickness. He is a powerful tackler with great explosion and hip roll on contact. Hobson has quickness and speed rushing the passer and marked up six sacks with great effort and technique. He is a solid short-zone coverage player as he reads routes well and understands leverage. He can get exposed in man coverage as he does not have great speed and burst off the line of scrimmage. He is best playing on the edge of blockers and rushing the passer as opposed to taking on lineman or playing pass coverage. Hobson plays with a great motor, instincts and toughness which resulted in his best season as a pro. Hobson has played well in the new 3-4 defensive scheme that Eric Mangini has brought to the Jets and should continue to be productive in the coming years.


On downs in between, its really anybody's guess - the pats have a lot of options with how they can tweak their linebackers this year, which is pretty sweet considering we were so limited last year due to injury and physical ability in this capacity.

And you're right about hobson - my bad on the weight, I thought he was lighter - that to me makes it seem like he's a 2 down run-stuffer in the making

edited in ESPN's scouting report

Good stuff, thanks for posting the scouting report. I agree with your feelings on Hobson being a potential run stuffer.

It's too bad there's not two Adalius Thomas out there, b/c when I see you want to line him up back inside for passing downs, it's hard to disagree he played well in coverage there - but he also had some great production at OLB. Truly, if we could clone AD we'd be all set

They could use Thomas at either ILB or OLB in any situation - and that's his real value - like I said in another thread, given his ability to rush the passer to well and his ability to drop in coverage, and given the other versatile LBs on this team now, they can really use him next year to disguise where the rush is coming from more than ever.

 

[JoePats]

I'd love to see the Pats rotate their defensive players more this season.

I agree completely...Between AD, Vrable, Thomas, Bruschi, Hobson, Seau, Mayo, Woods, and Crable, that's 9 linebackers who should see at least some time at the position. Last year after Colvin got hurt, the 5th linebacker was either Eric Alexander or Pierre Woods and I guess Izzo after that. There was no depth after Colvin went out and the exact opposite is true this year.

Along those same lines all these LBs plus a few of the new corners and I think Izzo is going to have hard time making the team.

 

[Lockdown06]

Good stuff, thanks for posting the scouting report. I agree with your feelings on Hobson being a potential run stuffer.

It's too bad there's not two Adalius Thomas out there, b/c when I see you want to line him up back inside for passing downs, it's hard to disagree he played well in coverage there - but he also had some great production at OLB. Truly, if we could clone AD we'd be all set

They could use Thomas at either ILB or OLB in any situation - and that's his real value - like I said in another thread, given his ability to rush the passer to well and his ability to drop in coverage, and given the other versatile LBs on this team now, they can really use him next year to disguise where the rush is coming from more than ever.

I know, I love Thomas' ability to rush the passer, and it will probably depend on the match up - for example, if we're against the colts or the chargers, I bet they have him cover Dallas Clark or Antonio Gates. If we're facing a team like the Broncos or Jacksonville, teams that don't have great receiving threats at the TE position, then he's far more likely to play outside

and more than likely, i'm completely wrong - I'm just excited that BB has so many versatile guys to play with this year - him and dom capers are going to give offensive coordinators some serious headaches

 

[Kontradiction]

A.D. led all defenders in the Super Bowl with two sacks as an OLB. There in lies your answer.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

With the addition of Mayo and Hobson, Thomas should move outside.

 

[BradyManny]

I'm bumping this.

 

[Kontradiction]

Still saying outside with Mayo at WILB, Bruschi at SILB, and Vrabel on the other side rotating with Crable.

 

[BradyManny]

Still saying outside with Mayo at WILB, Bruschi at SILB, and Vrabel on the other side rotating with Crable.

I agree for the most part, save for maybe Bruschi at SILB. I'm leaning towards penciling Bruschi in as a rotational player - as he was before Colvin was injured last season - and also seeing that he struggled at SILB when the LB corps reorganized to make up for Colvin's loss. I hope Hobson wins out the starting job at that position and that Bruschi goes back to situational and rotational play.

 

[RoughingthePasser]

Let's keep "them" guessing!