Quote:Eric......the article states that we're moving away from the carbon copy of Seattles D to something closer to Buddy's 46. If Wes Hopkins was good enough for that, then Collins would certainly be good enough here. 

 

The author is drawing parraells to the 4-6, but this role is a pretty standard in under 4-3 under fronts, of which Pete Carroll and Bradley come off the Kiffin tree.   He has to be big and physical, because he's often going to be playing head up over the inline "Y" tight end and muscling with him in the perimeter running game, and he has to be agile enough to cover RBs in the flat, and then explosive enough to rush off the blitz in 3rd down situation.  

 



 

 

Mike Zimmer runs a Tampa based under 4-3 scheme, and he's always utilized a SAM like this.  When he first ran an under 4-3 in Dallas, he brought in the zombie corpses of Broderick Thomas and Quintin Coryatt.   In Cincy he used Manny Lawson and Michael Johnson.  He envisions  Anthony Barr playing this role. 

 

 

 

Quote:Typically, our 'Sam' linebacker blitzes a lot more than our 'Will' linebacker, for instance," Zimmer said. "We're thinking of ways to continually try to pressure the quarterback as many times as we can, and the position he plays is a pressure position. That's why we felt good about him.

 

Almost exactly how Babich described the OTTO position.  

 

Here's an evaluation of Watson from the people who watched him the last 4 years at Bucs Nation. 

 

 

 

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<p style="font-family:'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif;color:rgb(41,41,41);font-size:16px;font-style:italic;">Watson has also on occasion displayed some potential as a pass rusher, with his hand off or on the ground. He has tremendous burst and speed, and he flashes the ability to turn the corner and get to the quarterback, but he lacked a counter-move to go with his speed rush. I did see him execute a speed-to-power move effectively a couple of times, and if he can build on that he could actually turn into a quality situational pass-rusher. I could see him playing either Sam or (situational) Leo in your scheme, if the coaches can help him improve a little.

 

<p style="font-family:'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif;color:rgb(41,41,41);font-size:16px;font-style:italic;"> 

<p style="font-family:'Mercury SSm A', 'Mercury SSm B', Georgia, serif;color:rgb(41,41,41);font-size:16px;font-style:italic;">Watson also had 6.5 sacks his Senior Season at FLorida State and played with his hand on the ground as a pass rusher at times.    I was actually wondering if they might try Branch in this role, since Babin and Clemons have the LEO covered and there was some talk that Branch could play 3-4 OLB when he was coming out for the draft, but they might just view him as too much of a liability in space.   I don't know what Branch's role is this year, and I think  he could be a camp casualty.  

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