What's the story on Stephon Anthony? (2 Viewers)

I figured as much. He's not grasping the game on a mental level.

Whereas James Laurinaitis can probably be a coach one day, but isn't athletic enough to make the plays based off what he sees.

If fusion were a thing, Jamthone Anthonaitis would be Luke Keuchley 2.0.


...which is why I've shifted my draft attentions to three names.

Anthony Walker from Northwestern
Rueben Foster from Alabama
Zach Cunningham from Vanderbilt.

Anyone got any other 3 down linebackers in college to keep and eye on?
 
I figured as much. He's not grasping the game on a mental level.

I think you're right, but it makes me ask myself how he started at MLB last year. I guess he was smart enough for Rob but not DA. :scratch:


I still think it's worth it to keep him because of his athleticism. I think he can eventually be coached up enough to learn WILL or SAM.
 
To me, this isn't even mathematics, it's arithmetic.

You have a bottom-three defense, you take a defender in the first round, and the next year you still have a bottom-three defense, and have essentially turned the player personnel at that position over completely, and this first-round defender can't get off the bench, then either (1) the coaches have no idea what they're doing, OR (2) this guy just can't play, period. And, unfortunately, none of the data allow you to safely rule out "both".

It feels nice to talk about him grasping things, and needing to develop, or learn what the coaches want from him, but this is football, which is pretty much all this guy's been doing his whole life -- this is not a med school grad starting an internship.

It would be one thing if this was the Patriots, or the Steelers. But year in, year out we're just about the worst D in the NFL -- 31-4(?)-28-32-32 since 2011. And he can't even get on the field.

Not only is he not starting, we don't even have a situational role for him -- he can't even get on the field for what is close to the worst defense in the league, playing behind a street FA. And if you're expecting him suddenly to have a Helen Keller-like epiphany about how to play pro linebacker, please at least consider a back-up plan.

It's just another giant whiff by the FO. Re-watching the game, you can see why guys like Stupar and Mauti are available -- even lined up perfectly, and assuming they're smart, they're just too slow to ever make any kind of an impact play. They just barely have the athleticism to hold their own, with no prayer of making a difference.

I love Loomis, but that buck has to stop eventually.
 
I figured as much. He's not grasping the game on a mental level.

Whereas James Laurinaitis can probably be a coach one day, but isn't athletic enough to make the plays based off what he sees.

If fusion were a thing, Jamthone Anthonaitis would be Luke Keuchley 2.0.


...which is why I've shifted my draft attentions to three names.

Anthony Walker from Northwestern
Rueben Foster from Alabama
Zach Cunningham from Vanderbilt.

Anyone got any other 3 down linebackers in college to keep and eye on?
May I inquire as to your preferred brand of glue?
 
I'm confused. They fired Rob cause the defense was too complex. Promoted DA to make the defense simple so that players can play faster. Now we have a fast, hard hitting, 1st round LB that is to dumb for the simple defense designed to think less and play fast...:idunno:
 
http://saintsreport.com/forums/f2/why-you-should-excited-about-stephone-anthony-341386/#.V_aQ6_krKUk

As I studied Anthony more I became nitpicky. I noticed that he is fidgety almost hyper active vs the patience of players like Dawson/Kendricks who maintain gap integrity.

Anthony is so aggressive he can be PA faked or led astray. He wants to make every play and it can be worked against him. He will leave open cut back lanes for RB's (Gurley Run against Georgia) that end up being big plays and that's one of the negatives I have.

He also isn't ALWAYS physical. In that same Georgia game I saw him get man handled at the POA on several occasions. Instead of working leverage he allows blocker to get into him and then he gets on skates. He must learn to leverage and use his hands better. He has the tools to do it but he needs to be properly coached on it. At times he almost plays like a Will.

Lastly he takes bad angles especially against speedier backs. He knows he has wheels but he is also bad at judging the wheels of other players. He took horrible angles on Gurley on more than one occasion.

The Biggest positive I have on him is that I watched him as the game progresses and you won't fool him twice. He began to get back in coverage faster at the snap of the ball, and he became more decisive. He learns the game as he goes. If you can get him lined up where he is more sure of himself earlier in games due to good film study during the weak he can have even bigger impact in games.

In other words he's instinctive in game. I however don't think he's film study instinctive just yet ie knowing the plays before hand and automatically attacking and being sure of himself.

It appears that he gets more comfortable with what he's seeing as the game progresses. If we can line up his presnap reads with his in game prowess he should get that much better as once he realizes what's going on he's there in an instant.


I'm always aware of the other side of the coin. I talked him up in the 1st paragraph but by the time I got to the nitpicky part of my thread you can see all of those deficiencies still exist.

I wanted to believe he could be coached up but sadly enough not all players take to coaching. Redeeming factor is that 3-4 years down the line it may click. It just may not.
 
I'm confused. They fired Rob cause the defense was too complex. Promoted DA to make the defense simple so that players can play faster. Now we have a fast, hard hitting, 1st round LB that is to dumb for the simple defense designed to think less and play fast...:idunno:



They fired Rob because the defense couldn't line up correctly, players didn't know what there roles were, where to line up, or what their responsibilities were. Same as every other place Ryan has been canned from. To say anything different is simply wrong. Anthony was part of the problem. With Allen it's obvious that he demands organization and clarity. His defense isn't "simple" by any means. He's not going to tolerate someone lined up wrong and not knowing his responsibility if another player knows it better. After all a slower player will lead to gains. A player totally out of position allows TDs


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Football is not complicated. Coaching is complicated, not everyone can do it. Since DA did not hire his staff, he gets a pass currently. BUT! Let's make sure that we are not witnessing SP trying to match out D to Seattle when we clearly don't have their personnel.
Stephon Anthony may be confused -- look to the coaches, Joe Vitt included. IT ticks me off to think about benching that boy behind second string players.
 
Football is not complicated. Coaching is complicated, not everyone can do it. Since DA did not hire his staff, he gets a pass currently. BUT! Let's make sure that we are not witnessing SP trying to match out D to Seattle when we clearly don't have their personnel.
Stephon Anthony may be confused -- look to the coaches, Joe Vitt included. IT ticks me off to think about benching that boy behind second string players.

Football at this level is absolutely complicated for a player. When you have QBs like Brees and many others you can be burned by taking 1 wrong step. The play books these guys have to learn are 6" thick along with all of the in games reads and audibles. If NFL football is not complicated for players then I don't what is.
 
Football is not complicated. Coaching is complicated, not everyone can do it. Since DA did not hire his staff, he gets a pass currently. BUT! Let's make sure that we are not witnessing SP trying to match out D to Seattle when we clearly don't have their personnel.
Stephon Anthony may be confused -- look to the coaches, Joe Vitt included. IT ticks me off to think about benching that boy behind second string players.

huh? even at the pee wee level it's probably the most complicated of the games - i mean think about it - it's the only game that breaks so they can call new plays
it's the most specialized of all the sports (if it was just the 7v7 version, it would be more similar to other sports - once you put the lineman in, the complexity escalates pretty quickly)
 
One more time -- football is not a complicated game! Many of the players are poor students.
It is up to the coaches to TEACH as many. SA needs to be better taught and that is on DA and SP. JMO
 

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