Quote:Then you probably shouldn't open up a reply by saying "you simply don't understand the concept of tweaks "
Tweak the SAM? Doesn't matter when the opposing team goes nickel.
Don't play as much nickel? haha funny. And have him match up with the shifty slot WRs in the NFL? Yeah, good one.
If you play Myles, SOMEONE will have to come off the field. The question is who and where. It won't be the nickel because of the problems he'll have covering the slot WRs. This is the NFL. You cannot "hide" anyone or "protect" anyone. If he's there instead of a "nickel", you can bet that OC's will scheme it up to get him to match-up with that shifty receiver. And that's where you get into trouble as a defense, because you then have to scramble around to "protect" Myles, creating other holes in your defense.
Can he become a SS/LB hybrid? Well, if that's the case do you take out your natural SS to allow a true nickel cornerback to stay in the game? But then, why? Your natural SS *should* be better than your SS/LB hybrid when it comes to coverage. And against a passing formation, you'd ideally want the guy who covers better.
You can move him around, blitz him, drop him, let him play edge. Whatever.
You. Still. Need. To. Take. Someone. Out. For. him
Until you can answer that question, you really can't be coming out and spouting off "you simply don't understand the concept of tweaks".
Thus goes back to the original statement you questioned. The best way for Myles to get snaps, and consistent snaps...is for him to beat out Poz. Because Myles is the prototypical MLB in today's game.
That or we make a decision early enough for him to drop weight and make a conversion to SS. But even that doesn't make sense because we'd need a replacement for Poz anyway long-term.
So yeah...let's keep it simple.
Beat out Poz, put Myles at MLB. And when he's there at MLB starting, guess what? Then you can do all the tweaks that you want.
To truly answer, we'd have to know if we're going to stay playing a bunch of off Zone, or play more aggressive Press and Man coverage. Him being able to come up and jam a smaller, shifty slot receiver will make it easier for him to cover them from time to time. If they stay playing that pure boring off Zone, then I agree, good luck covering them in space.
Using 3 Safeties in Nickel is nothing foreign in the NFL. Does Hooker have the range to come up and cover the slot from time to time? Or is he just a pure deep Safety? That would play into it if we were to draft him in this scenario. We also don't really know how much Jack would, or wouldn't struggle in coverage at the NFL level. He was great in college at coverage and yes this isn't college anymore. It's the big time now. We'll never know unless he gets a shot to show what he can do though.
Of course him taking over the MIKE is the key and long term out look, but what if he doesn't? You're really going to be into Jack sitting on the sideline for another full season. Waste the first 2 full seasons of his career sitting on the sidelines with minimal snaps? Talk about a huge waste of a special talent and a waste of a high draft pick.
Good coaches find a way to get their players on the field. That's what these coaches are getting paid to do. Put the best players on the field and win, win, win. I'm just trying to look outside the box here, but I guess we'll find out about the quality of our Defensive coaches this season.
There's no point in tweaking things for Jack, if he's on the field at the MIKE. Because like you said, he's your prototypical MIKE in today's NFL. If he beats out Poz, great, awesome. The point of some tweaks would be to get him on the field, in case Poz continues to play at the level he did this past season.
At the end of the day, hes got to play, period. That's the only way he's going to truly learn. He can only learn so much watching from the side lines.
Edit: After thinking about it some more, I'm pretty sure Perry Fewell has a lot of experience running a Nickel, which uses 3 Safeties.
