jstadvl said:
to a degree Vince, my man. However, after talking with a couple of teammates from the D I get the impression that he has great tools. It appears that the mental aspect of the game was what was holing him back and he was finally getting "unstuck", making the right calls etc.
He is also considered to be a vicious hitter and relentless in pursuit.
Many of our guys are very young and need just a bit more time to shine.
I think Hayes will.
I agree with this too. Like I've said before I want the damn team to do well. I hope Hayes develops into a good player. He had a few good plays in preseason before he went down that showed flashes (unfortunately we've all seen that before with guys like Pace, Stoney Case, Clyde Simmons, Parsons, etc.). I hope he does well, but the core of my frustration is that we have lackluster players manning some of the most important jobs on the field. You can't, just can't go into a season without a powerful nose tackle and strong, run-stopping MLB and expect to do anything. You have to be able to stop the run. You HAVE TO.
On the same line of thinking, you can't go into the season with an undersized, underpowered guard (wells), a series of injured centers, a rookie guard, and a matador for a right tackle. This offensive line, give 'em credit, they're not bad as pass blocking (unless it's 3rd down), but they're terrible and disgusting at run blocking and sustaining blocks. It's like no one ever taught them leverage.
Like Jeremy Green said yesterday, we need one more offseason to build our guts, our middle. We need a NT, MLB, OLG, ORT, one more year of development for Step and Brown (who I think will dominate when he finally gets the NFL game), and we need Leonard Davis to reach into his butt and pull his head out. He should dominate, but he doesn't. He's one of the 5 biggest men in the NFL, yet plays without fully utilizing his strength & size.