Rutgers rookies

[Brady6]

Duron Harmon had an excellent game last night with 11 total tackles, 7 of which were solo. He has played better at safety opposite McCourty than Gregory has in my opinion, he may in fact be the long term answer there.

Logan Ryan is a scaled down version (mainly due to playing time) to last year’s Casey Hayward the guy is an absolute playmaker with excellent ball instincts. In limited reps Ryan has 19 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 2 interceptions, 4 pass defends and 1 return for a touchdown this season, that’s impressive when you consider he mainly plays nickel or dime back.

Take a look at what Cooper is doing out in KC and clearly Belichick was on to something raiding the Rutgers defense.

 

[yukon cornelius]

i thought both played well last night

i know payton was limited with the weather, but this was still the NFL's best passing attack....and i thought the kids acquitted themselves quite well


liking both picks right about now


without the injuries this year, this is the defense we've been asking for


collins could still pan out (BB's defenses are tough on young LB's)....chandler jones looked huge last night...when healthy, this secondary is actually a strength.....

liking it

 

[condon84]

Not completely sold on Harmon. He was late in that TD pass to Tamme and he definitely is not as good as Gregory in run support.

Logan is killing it though. Between him and Dennard, we have two young CBs who have great instincts for the ball and are not afraid to challenge WRs.

 

[PatsFan2]

Duron Harmon had an excellent game last night with 11 total tackles, 7 of which were solo. He has played better at safety opposite McCourty than Gregory has in my opinion, he may in fact be the long term answer there.

Logan Ryan is a scaled down version (mainly due to playing time) to last year’s Casey Hayward the guy is an absolute playmaker with excellent ball instincts. In limited reps Ryan has 19 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 2 interceptions, 4 pass defends and 1 return for a touchdown this season, that’s impressive when you consider he mainly plays nickel or dime back.

Take a look at what Cooper is doing out in KC and clearly Belichick was on to something raiding the Rutgers defense.

Good points I questioned the Harmon pick but he is leagues ahead of Tavon Wilson. Harmon seems to be always around the football unlike Chung. I love his upside going forward. Logan Ryan made up for the Ras-I Dowling selection, he's already a player in this league. Great job BB.

 

[Marqui]

Harmon has been good overall but he needs to improve his man coverage. He got roasted a couple of times by Tamme in press coverage.

 

[fnordcircle]

If it was Gregory making the plays Harmon did last night people would be *****ing about how awful he was on Tamme.

I'm encouraged by Harmon but I will never understand the collective hair up its ass this board has for Gregory. He's not an all-pro but he's nowhere near the question mark we have at other positions.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Our CB foursome is beastly when Arrington is in the slot and Talib is healthy.

 

[Brady6]

If it was Gregory making the plays Harmon did last night people would be *****ing about how awful he was on Tamme.

I'm encouraged by Harmon but I will never understand the collective hair up its ass this board has for Gregory. He's not an all-pro but he's nowhere near the question mark we have at other positions.

I don't dislike Gregory I think he has been a solid safety for us this season, that aside I would like it if Harmon was given the opportunity to develop since he could potentially give us more.

 

[Brady6]

Our CB foursome is beastly when Arrington is in the slot and Talib is healthy.

Personally I'd rather have Ryan in the slot and Arrington as our dime back, Ryan is a playmaker who challenges the receiver, he also appears to have natural ball instincts that can't be taught.

 

[VrabelMayeWin]

The other way to look at this is Rutgers before and after.

Last year they allowed 14 PPG. This year they're allowing 32 PPG.

 

[meatface]

I know its silly but I dont trust rookie DB's until they show they can good the year after. Got burned on Darius Butler and i don't plan on having it happen again

 

[manxman2601]

As Harmon's #1 fan, what encourages me is that he's not getting burned badly and seems to understand the defense. I do think he needs to pick up the pace of the NFL a little better in that he tends to be a hair late on occasions but that will come with experience. It's an exaggeration to say he's better than Gregory who I think has been one of our better defenders this season. It's nice not to have safety as a major need as McCourty-Gregory-Harmon is a very nice rotation. One final thought on Harmon. On two of the completions he gave up yesterday, he had almost perfect man coverage but Manning threaded the needle with a couple of perfect passes.

I was less bullish on Logan Ryan post draft but I'm very happy to have been proven wrong. He's outstanding as a #3 right now. I said in the post game thread that Collins, Harmon and Ryan have really improved the depth of this defense, something we lacked last year.

 

[RayClay]

Also don't understand the lack of appreciation of Gregory's season. Harmon has looked good. I'm excited about ryan. He is really aggressive and decisive and confident, in other words, all the intangibles that make a great cornerback. The measurables matter there too, but he looks like a pro cornerback to me.

 

[yukon cornelius]

As Harmon's #1 fan, what encourages me is that he's not getting burned badly and seems to understand the defense. I do think he needs to pick up the pace of the NFL a little better in that he tends to be a hair late on occasions but that will come with experience. It's an exaggeration to say he's better than Gregory who I think has been one of our better defenders this season. It's nice not to have safety as a major need as McCourty-Gregory-Harmon is a very nice rotation. One final thought on Harmon. On two of the completions he gave up yesterday, he had almost perfect man coverage but Manning threaded the needle with a couple of perfect passes.

I was less bullish on Logan Ryan post draft but I'm very happy to have been proven wrong. He's outstanding as a #3 right now. I said in the post game thread that Collins, Harmon and Ryan have really improved the depth of this defense, something we lacked last year.

let's be honest, too....manning and tamme were clicking last night

some of those throws were absolutely threaded, and harmon wasn't bad in coverage


one blown play i can think of where he was late......safeties are occasionally be late, that's the nature of the beast



i thought his play, for a rookie in this defense, has been steadily improving

 

[BKBroiler]

Are people actually making comments that Harmon didn't cover Tamme very well? Really? Maybe I missed something but Tamme had 5 catches for 47 yards and 1 touchdown. And Harmon was not making a play on that touchdown pass to Tamme. Watch the replay again, Manning put that pass in a perfect spot over Hightower's head. The only person who had a chance at stopping that was Hightower (and that was only if he put his hand up in desperation).

 

[Sciz]

Remember when people said they wanted to sign Ed Reed just so Harmon didn't have to start against Manning?

Oops.

 

[skspikex2]

Remember when people said they wanted to sign Ed Reed just so Harmon didn't have to start against Manning?

Oops.

The same Ed Reed that got burnt so badly on the long td bomb from Flacco.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Not completely sold on Harmon. He was late in that TD pass to Tamme and he definitely is not as good as Gregory in run support.

Logan is killing it though. Between him and Dennard, we have two young CBs who have great instincts for the ball and are not afraid to challenge WRs.

Agreed - I think Harmon has been a little slow to react, although I think that was more evident on one of last week's TD passes than on this week's pass to Tamme. But that's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a rookie, and otherwise I think he's done a solid job. I'm encouraged for what that could mean in the future, but for now I'd rather see a healthy Gregory back there. I feel very confident about Harmon as a third safety this year and as future starter.

At a bare minimum, I'm comfortable removing S from the list of primary needs for this offseason. Which is great news in its own right, since that gives the team more resources to plug the holes at CB, DT, C/G, TE, etc.

 

[condon84]

Agreed - I think Harmon has been a little slow to react, although I think that was more evident on one of last week's TD passes than on this week's pass to Tamme. But that's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a rookie, and otherwise I think he's done a solid job. I'm encouraged for what that could mean in the future, but for now I'd rather see a healthy Gregory back there. I feel very confident about Harmon as a third safety this year and as a starter going forward.

Gregory gets $h!tted on unfairly on these boards. He was playing really well prior to getting hurt. He was playing the run as well as any safety in the league this year and his pass defense wasn't as bad as some would suggest.

In regards to Harmon, I'm cautiously optimistic. Giving up that TD to Tamme where he was in position to make a play on the ball was discouraging. He has shown up positively in some spots the past two weeks but you'd like to see better instincts when playing the pass especially if his decision could be the difference between 3 points and 7 points.

I do like Harmon's potential. He's competitive.

 

[BKBroiler]

Agreed - I think Harmon has been a little slow to react, although I think that was more evident on one of last week's TD passes than on this week's pass to Tamme. But that's exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a rookie, and otherwise I think he's done a solid job. I'm encouraged for what that could mean in the future, but for now I'd rather see a healthy Gregory back there. I feel very confident about Harmon as a third safety this year and as future starter.

At a bare minimum, I'm comfortable removing S from the list of primary needs for this offseason. Which is great news in its own right, since that gives the team more resources to plug the holes at CB, DT, C/G, TE, etc.

Harmon didn't react slowly to that pass to Tamme. Harmon and Hightower had Tamme bracketed with Hightower towards the inside shoulder of Tamme and Harmon to the outside shoulder. Manning slipped in a perfect pass directly over Hightower's head to Tamme's inside. Harmon was in the right spot on that play, he just had no opportunity to make a play based on where Manning put the ball.