(08-23-2019, 09:57 AM)Firesky Wrote: I think we need to chill out a bit on Taven, yea he won't live up to his draft slot but he can still be productive; we knew when he was drafted he was RAW, it's the start of his 2nd year what'd we expect an all-pro nod already? It also didn't help that we tried to make him a DE all of last year. Now i'm no apologist but we're expecting too much.

Prior to the boneheaded penalty, he was getting good push and gave the Guard he was matched with absolute fits. Now I think he should be on the bench and rotate in at 3-technique but it's way too soon to just write off a guy with physical gifts like he has. We were saying similar things about Smoot the last 2 years before tonight and he was similarly raw (more polished than Taven though) coming out of Illinois... how quick we forget. Obviously if we compare Taven to Josh Allen we're going to be dissapointed because Josh Allen is debatably a generational talent.

I don't disagree with this. 

What I'm seeing is a guy that's good at getting some push on passing downs and possibly really good at getting penetration on run downs. The problem is, he has no nose for the football once he's in the backfield. 

Last season there was that one horrible play where he got to the ball in the backfield but ended up with his back turned to the play and missed a chance to contribute. Everyone jumped on him for it, and I explained it was one play from a raw rookie. Probably not indicative of his body of work. 

Well...  it seems "awareness" may indeed be an ongoing issue he'll need to correct. 
The physical ability is there. He needs to learn the game and learn how to predict tendencies through tape study.  He doesn't know what's coming at him when he looks at the formation before sticking his hand in the dirt. The better defenders have it narrowed down pres-nap. He's not there yet mentally.

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