Nobody deserves the packers game more than MM. Can't give that honor to a rookie safety. That gaf belongs to the one and only Mm. Game in hand tossed away by our "brilliant" OC.
He will either learn how to play smart or injure himself in a meaningless HUGE hit Either way I'm sure it will be worth standing up for.
Pryor was not bad at all this year. To many people look at one play a game and judge a players whole game based off of that one play. Sure Pryor screwed up at times, he's a rookie, it happens. His coverage skills arent that strong but but he has potential there and he played well in run support. He's going to be a solid player for us.
Only 7 first round rookies finished with a higher grade than Pryor, and all of them were picked before him. My take on him, having watched all the games, is that he has been excellent this season running downhill, basically when he runs up to the line of scrimmage and tackles a WR or a running back. He shows excellent closing speed in those situations, and the ability to diagnose the play correctly. Where he has struggled is playing in space. His overall speed is nothing to write home about, so I think it's very important for a guy like him to diagnose a play quickly and make a decision, because he can't rely on his speed and athleticism to make the play. The good news about that is that he is only a rookie, so that might still improve, although only time will show. I also think playing in Rex's defense as a rookie was bad for him. He needs to get his bearings first, get used to NFL speed and angles and all that. Having a really complex defense doesnt help that.
He took some really troublesome angles in run support and also on pass breakups. Hopefully he gets that cleaned up next year.
Yes he did. Right up to the last game. But he also seemed to improved quite a bit the second half of the season - right up to the last game. He was actually making tackles all over the field that last game until he took a bad angle and gave up a 167 yard rushing TD.
There is no doubt the kid loves to hit. Sherry Rhodes dreams of Pryor tackling ability. Now if only Pryor had Rhodes cover ability. Last man, must make the tackle. You have to think he will improve.
yep, this is a huge concern with any big hitting prospect. toughness to give and take hits. plenty of hof safties gave these hits for years and kept on hitting. then you have other cases, like john connor the terminating fb, dude was giving major hits and all of a sudden took one and that was the end of his big hitting days. got cut by a few teams before we brought him back but don't hear about big hits anymore.
I'm surprised to see how many rookie offensive tackles played so poorly. It looks like almost all of the first round ones were downright bad, and that makes me a bit hesitant to jump on board with everyone who says we should draft one with the #6 pick. I'm definitely annoyed that we didn't get OBJ - just our luck that the Giants happen to get what looks like a ridiculously great playmaker, and we just got a potentially good safety who will mostly help us in run support (which is already the defense's biggest strength anyway.) It's also interesting that Sammy Watkins was rated so low. I had the impression that he was a borderline Pro Bowl player based on how Buffalo fans talk about him, but I haven't looked at his stats. If Buffalo ended up losing their 2015 1st round for a mediocre WR, they will be in serious trouble because now they can't get a quarterback. They have nothing to trade up with in the first round to grab Mariota or Winston. Orton is done with football, their HC is gone, I think they might be getting a new GM- and EJ Manuel looks no better than Geno Smith. What is Buffalo going to do at QB? Maybe Chicago will give them Jay Cutler just to get rid of his contract. His QB rating is in the mid to high 80s, which is not terrible at all, and in a small market like Buffalo I don't think the media will care as much that he is unemotional. I think he's their best bet, if they can fit him into their salary cap. Johnny Manziel is another option, since it looks like the Browns don't want him. Pettine seems to be fed up with him, but maybe Buffalo will be willing to give him a shot, and bring in an OC who can tailor the offense around him and his strengths. Maybe use a lot of read option, and hope that he takes things seriously enough to show promise and have some success. But realistically, it looks like Buffalo is going to have a rough time in 2015. Back on topic though - hopefully Pryor takes a step forward next year and becomes a genuinely great player. He seems like mostly a liability in coverage, but maybe he can become that guy Rex envisioned, patrolling the middle and laying down heavy hits. If he can do that, it could help the defense a lot by forcing offenses to take that into account, especially ones that rely a lot on smaller possession receivers (like Wes Welker.)
Not to use Francesa as a source of support, but even HE has been empathetic to Pryor's mistakes. He constantly reiterates that Pryor should be playing closer to the line, i.e. he's playing out of position. It's encouraging to see this ranking. With a season and a full Offseason underneath him, I think he'll be fine heading into 2015.
I am not a subscriber but if you look at the game by game ratings (for free) PFF has three of our safeties rated in the top 29. From what I can gather Landry and Jarrett are rated even higher than Pryor is. Our corner backs may be even worse than we think.
So Idzik arguably goes BPA in Pryor then our savant HC plays him out of position. Meanwhile our QB had been awful 3/4 of the season and improved the last 1/4 of the season. Certainly not a sure thing going forward. The above is the post child scenario for not BPA but need based BPA as long a the reach is within grasp. Now I know hindsight is 20/20 but Bridgewater is certainly a name we should have given very serious consideration to IMHO rather then a SS which was far from a need and which AA seemed to have had under control. 32. Teddy Bridgewater, QB, Minnesota Vikings: 3.5 (#15 of 39 QB's)
I liked Teddy and thought he was the best QB last year by far but he wasn't a realistically draftable prospect for the Jets. Maybe drafting Geno was a blunder, probably was, but he was still a 2nd round investment from the prior year with some rookie flashes of potential to muddy the waters. No way can you pass up a mid first round talent to double dip on a sliding QB prospect even if he was the better prospect than the sliding QB the Jets just took the year before. Jarrett had that one impossibly good game so PFF probably gave him like +100.0 that day. Landry is hot garbage but he got burned a few times less than his fair share this year and made a few more lucky tackles/PBU's than his fair share so I can sort of see him having an inflated PFF stat this year too.
Well to me, until you KNOW you have your QB you should be taking one early and often in the draft. Bridgewater was the best QB in the draft by many accounts and the chances of his being there in the 2nd round like Geno were non-existent. I think it was a reach within grasp to have taken Teddy. I wonder how the season would have played out Teddy v.s. Geno in fare competition as opposed to Vick's non-competition clause. Better yet, I wonder how the 2015 season how would be looking with both these QBs on the roster. Again hindsight is 20/20 and Teddy could have been a bust, but I'm in the pick till you find one school myself.
But with the Jets coaching staff in place -- He would have been. They have already proven they cannot develop QB talent.
He'll have to understand that he can't get the knockout blow EVERY single play. Sometimes he just has to square a player up and make the tackle, instead of running to the line of scrimmage like an out of control missle (the Lamar Miller 97 yard run comes to mind).
Mike knows his football, that is one thing that can be said about him, love him or hate him. He's right about Pryor. He needs to play closer to the line - more as a SS than a FS. One other poster mentioned that Pryor's strengths are going downhill towards the line - I have noticed this myself with him on many plays. I hope that the next regime will be aware of this.
