So I'm currently confined to the homestead due to a pretty painful ankle injury. While this sucks, I'm using my free time to do anything & everything football I can think of. I was watching complete games from last season on youtube, and I found this guy who has pretty much posted the entire Redskins 2011 season. You can see some footage of Laron Landry playing on here and I thought it might be a fun (read: time-killing) to watch his play and assess him. I figured we could try to establish a running list of what people have noticed. I've already watched the Redskins play against Carolina, but I wasn't really paying attention to Landry specifically. I'm starting to do that now, here's what I've taken away... -He' got GREAT straight line speed. He consistently gets to the perimeter very quickly. -He can lay the lumber. When he uses his aforementioned great speed to get to the ball-carrier, he arrives with bad intentions. -He's strong at the point of attack, I like how he can plant his foot in the ground and not get washed away in running plays. -He has a tendency to be overly-aggressive. He'll bite on pump fakes and double-moves (or just general route feints) while in coverage. -He does not seem to know where his defensive help is coming from at times. I've seen a few running plays where he did not funnel the runner back into his defensive support (he let the runner bounce to a free rushing lane instead of holding that lane closed) -I don't think he uses his underneath help very well while in zone coverage. I've seen him play zone almost as if it were delayed man coverage; he closes and runs in a trail technique instead of playing over the receiver. -His man coverage technique in and of itself is actually better than I thought. He can run with most assignments and I don't think being afraid of the opposition's talents is going to be an issue with him. -His ball skills seem lacking. I've seen him in position but simply mis-time his jump or not track and defend income passes as well as his positioning might allow. -His tackling technique is pretty good while in traffic. He breaks down well and wraps up. He tries to hit, as opposed to wrap up and take down, when he's built up a head of steam/sees the opportunity to smack an opposing ball carrier. Overall I think you're getting what many posters have already pegged him as; an athletically gifted safety with flaws in the mental aspect of his game. The positive to take from this is that Ryan has the talent to either coach these out or put him in a position to minimize these mistakes. The negative is that he's a liability in coverage and shouldn't be expected to slow down the increasing number of pass-happy teams the league is currently breeding. Anyway, I know this is kind of stupid and time consuming, but I thought it might be fun for some. At the very least, it gives me something to do. Have it at! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu96mezATAY&feature=relmfu
Good stuff. The bit about him hangin' in man coverage is what I wanted to see. This guy's health is the main problem.
Good read. I think Landry is mainly hear to knock gronks head off his shoulders but if he can bring more, GREAT.
Watched the whole thing. Main thing I gathered is that Cam Newton is a savage. Looking forward to seeing what Landry can do for us though, sick athlete.
That was an excellent read and review, It's a breath of fresh air to see fan from another team provide such analysis on another teams player..especially when it doesn't benefit their own team in anyway! Thank you for that analysis, it was very well done. I'm hoping Laundry can work on his coverage skills, but I have confidence when healthy he will be a big improvement over Smith. Besides coverage, that's his main flaw though -- Health. That's the obstacle I'm waiting for this guy to overcome. Then...you know...THEN I'll flame him for his lacking of coverage ability.
Amen to that, man. Not only is he ahead of his years as a passer, but he has athletic skills that you simply don't see outside of a videogame.
I'm glad you liked it. I'm also glad this gives me something to do. In a way I think I actually like analyzing non-Giants players more than players on the Giants. I think this is because it's a lot easier to be objective and I can actually just look, think, and write. It's hard to do that with Giants' guys because I'm either overly optimistic (I really liked Lance Legree for a while) or overly critical (In week 16 of 2007 I declared I would only watch Giants' games with detached interest if Eli was still QB. In my defense, I was not sober).
I rewatched every play from both Jets/Patriots games last year and it was interesting because we actually had the Patriots tightends covered on every play. The problem came because we COULD NOT tackle them for shit, numerous times eric was on the ground grabbing onto Gronkowsi and he would just break free and keep running. Our other big problem was that Green-Ellis ran all over us, that was the majority of the Patriots offense. The safeties could not tackle him, again Eric Smith would run right at him, catch him at the line but Green Ellis would break free and get at least 3 to 4 more yards.
Just the fact alone that Bell, Landry and the 2 rookies have a hell of alot more speed than Leonhard and Smith should improve the safety play.
Awesome analysis. Nice job man. So long as he's healthy I'm looking forward to this guy playing. He's obviously a gargantuan safety that can hit with the best of them. Just hoping he's as competitive in pass coverage as you mentioned.
I don't think lack of effort is an issue, if that's what you mean by "competitive in coverage." If anything it might be that he's a bit TOO zealous in coverage (hence his tendency to bite on fakes). He looks like a pretty good effort guy though. I forgot to mention this before, but he was sent on the blitz a handful of times and seemed to have contain responsibilities. I think he did a pretty good job of staying outside and not giving Cam running lanes.
Great post, definitely good to get some insight into a guy I don't know a whole lot about, especially as it seems you were very objective in your analysis (both positive and negative information). If you have more time feel free to do more Jets players p.s. hope your ankle feels better
Thanks for the well-wishes. I've got multiple compression fractures and LOTS of soft-tissue damage. It's going to be a long time in healing, but I'm happy that I (somehow) managed to not rupture anything. Thankfully I don't have to go under the knife. Landry is an interesting player and I'm curious to see what Rex can do with him. He's easily one of the more physically gifted safeties in the league, but the mental aspect of the game has caused him some trouble in the past. This will be a great test to see if Rex really is the greatest defensive mind in the game. Based on what I've seen from Landry and from Rex, I think you're going to see Bell play deep and Landry play up. I've said before, but I'll say again, that I think we'll see Landry used in some of the ways the late Jim Johnson used Brian Dawkins. He would blitz an LB and have Landry play the vacated zone. He would then add wrinkles and have the LB feign blitz and drop while Dawkins (who had been coming down hill from the safety position for much of the game) would be the true blitzer. Dawkins got pressure that way because he often became a missed blocking assignment. i can see Landry playing downhill and blitzing quite a bit. I don't think we will/should see him deeper than 15 yards off the LOS. I think he's going to be a zone guy only, I think Gronk would wreck him in man. And hey, I'll do some analysis of other Jet players if you guys will do some analysis of Giants' players. I'm curious as to what people think of Kenny Phillips, Linval Joseph, and Corey Webster. Are there any Jet players you (or anyone else) would like to see a breakdown on? I understand secondary & WR play best. I think I have a solid knowledge of LBs, RBs, & special teams. I've got a pretty good working knowledge of the ins and outs of QB play and DEs as well. Interior DL and OL play are not my strength, but I've got enough knowledge to try and assess. Let me know if there's anyone you want to highlight/would highlight yourself.
