We'll just have to agree to disagree. I'm thankful we had both, but imo McNeil was a better pure RB and football player.
Wanted to bump this up to talk about how Lee has looked so far. He's been every bit the speedy LB we've needed for YEARS. He's obviously not "there" yet but he's well on his way. Last night he was making plays everywhere, and that just doesn't mean tackling. They mentioned it a few times on the broadcast... we was spying Taylor which limited his ability to take off and run, which is where Taylor makes his money. I'm tempering my excitement, but he's looking good.
He flashes here and there but he's still very young/raw I think he's going to be great just maybe not this year (although he will make some wow plays)
He's gotten crossed up a couple times (passing play against Cincy, couple rushes last night) but he's shown flashes of his talent. One play last night I was proud of was a couple plays after he made a bad read on a running play and McCoy busted loose. They tried to get him again and he absolutely crushed McCoy lol
He had a nice night. Crushed shady and got a good pop on taylor when he tried to escape the pocket. Nothing really discouraging about him yet
He's going to get a lot more snaps with Henderson in a boot apparently. Good because we are going up against Alex Smith and soon Russell Wilson.
Dude looks good so far. Love that speed at lb we've been lacking for what seems like forever. Probably Vilma
Taylor hurt us when he broke contain - or when contain broke down. I'm not sure how much of that was on Lee. It's also hard to measure what didn't happen, so we can't be too sure how effective he was at keeping Taylor home. But it's nice to have that kind of speed in that spot. He'll get better and so will the defense at using his speed. Anyone notice how he was in coverage? That's usually the acid test.
I get the Lee love here, but how about Henderson? That dude seems to play on the opponents side of the LOS. He always seems to knife through the line to, at least, slow the RB up so we can rally. Hope his injury isn't too bad, we have a nice rotation with him and Lee in the middle, and of course Iron-Man Harris
Just a quick note about the youth we have on D... the average age of Mo, Sheldon, Leonard, Pryor, Lee and Mauldin: 23.5 years. If we play our cards right we could have our D set for the next decade-ish.
I don't think Lee is to blame for Taylor breaking containment unless he was supposed to be playing spy, and it never looked like he was to me. Catapano was guilty one time and Stanford on Salas' TD.
Very happy with how he's looked so far. Dude lights people up. Small for a MLB but makes up for it with quickness..
Have absolutely loved the drafting of Darron Lee dating back to draft day. I'm thankful we passed on Lynch and drafted an LB with speed, quickness, coverage ability & athleticism during the 1st round in order to re-vamp our linebacking core. His play recognition is top notch. His pursuit within the open field is beautiful. He also had a nose for the ball making plays behind the L.O.S. Not sure how many people noticed (my order brother pointed it out during the game) but last night we used Lee as a QB spy on Taylor. In return Taylor was only able to run the ball two times (he was contained as a running QB). Can't wait to see Jordan Jenkins take the field as well.
Just realized that Lee ranks 3rd on our team with 7 tackles (behind Wilkerson & Revis with 8 a piece) and Lee also ranks 1st on our team with 4 assists. Kid is going to become a tackling machine.
Agreed. According to Cimini, Jenkins was having a better camp than Lee too and was probably going to start before the injury. Love to see him in that already solid rotation.
I see the good and the bad for sure. I'm not sure I'm totally on board with him at 20, but he has certainly flashed some ability.
Taylor only broke contain to the outside, the one time he stepped up lee hit him, thats what lee was there for. Its not on the spy to keep him from escaping out the edges. Thats on the d.e.'s maintaing their rush lanes. The td to goodwin mauldin spun in allowing taylor to flush out and throw deep. While revis should have had coverage, mauldin should have kept rushing up the field forcing taylor to step up in the pkcket towards the spy not away from him.
Good call. Stanford did the same on the Salas TD. Very concerning that a guy like Mauldin can't execute his fundamentals. It's a flag. It's keeping him out of the lineup. He also threw a shit fit after he jumped off sides. Nothing wrong showing anger about a mistake, but he flew off the handle Gotta play with poise. And sound fundamentals. Something Milliner couldn't grasp..... Guy's got a way to go....