What's the story on Stephon Anthony? (1 Viewer)

boutte

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Is he injured? Haven't seen or heard from him since game one.We need him to not be another bust. Ellerbe will never be a factor and Mauti has a lot of heart but he isn't some one you want playing full time.

Anthony was pretty decent at the Mike last year. i just don't get why he's just disappeared like this.
 
He's a huge liability in coverage and that significantly limits his playing time. I'm not calling him a bust yet...but it's not looking good.
 
Is he injured? Haven't seen or heard from him since game one.We need him to not be another bust. Ellerbe will never be a factor and Mauti has a lot of heart but he isn't some one you want playing full time.

Anthony was pretty decent at the Mike last year. i just don't get why he's just disappeared like this.

He's simply not an NFL caliber linebacker. He had a whole season and 2 off seasons to prove otherwise and hadn't done it. I am sure he is close but if he can't get playing time on this defense it is pretty well hopeless.
 
He's simply not an NFL caliber linebacker. He had a whole season and 2 off seasons to prove otherwise and hadn't done it. I am sure he is close but if he can't get playing time on this defense it is pretty well hopeless.

He's actually regressed. Pretty typical in a Joe Vitt coached LB.
 
Playing him out of position then replacing him with a player who plays the position and now Anthony is a bust, a liability and regressing.
 
He got a lot of tackles last year, so people failed to realize that he wasn't very good at any of the other aspects of being a middle linebacker.

Tackles for linebackers are like win for pitchers. A completely useless stat by which to judge a player.
 
He's simply not an NFL caliber linebacker. He had a whole season and 2 off seasons to prove otherwise and hadn't done it. I am sure he is close but if he can't get playing time on this defense it is pretty well hopeless.

I think that Anthony showed last season that he was an NFL caliber linebacker. My own suspicion is that he needs more time getting the mental aspects down and gaining a better understanding of technique, scheme and position. If I am correct, then hopefully he is putting in the time.

Speculative? Definitely! But it is the only thing that makes sense to me at this time.
 
I would imagine his lack of playing time is due to many cumulative reasons: scheme first and foremost as his strengths may not be what the DC is looking for in his LBs - quick, agile, and able to cover (actually, that doesn't seem to really describe MOST of our LBs!), sub packages geared mostly to coverage duties, a positional change to OLB that requires different skills in reading and different responsibilities, and the fact that James Laurinaitis was signed to be the primary defense-calling MLB. That hasn't exactly worked out either, as JL wasn't starting in that role today, so make of that what you will. Stephone had very good tackle numbers last year so I think he is an NFL player, whatever that means, but I do think his limitations are not well hidden in the current defensive scheme. There is no shame in having limitations, as most NFL players have some, but when your weakness can be routinely exposed and not shielded your playing time is usually pretty minimal. And I think that is pretty much what Stephone is facing right now.

You don't get 100+ tackles in a year if you are mechanical and non-instinctive; the primary issue for Dennis Allen is how to use those instincts and abilities to their fullest while minimizing Anthony's weaknesses from being exploited. I think it is a combination of lack of skilled safety coverage, lack of pass rush limiting TEs running a full route, and lots of new players who have not mastered Allen's schemes and calls yet which limits Anthony's production thus far. Disappointing? Yes. A death sentence? Hardly.

FWIW, Robertson has played well, but you still saw on the Rivers-Hunter TD pass that Robertson failed to get adequate depth on his coverage (due to the run play action that froze him) so even our best coverage LB gets burned when keying on a run.
 
Just take the guy completely off the field and give up on him seems to be the next story


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Problem #1 is Joe Vitt is his position coach.

Problem #2 is the DC position was handed over to someone with very little experience (1 year at Denver in which they were not that good) and decided not to center our defense around our emerging star.

He is now damaged goods. It's a real shame.
 
It's a shame because he had alot of potential and no doubt if he was somewhere else, he would be flourishing.
 

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