Inside Linebacker

Tartt is going to play in the middle plenty IMO.

Originally posted by Evilgenius:
Tartt is going to play in the middle plenty IMO.

I wouldn't mind seeing that, kind of like Arizona got going. I think Tartt needs to put on more weight, if he's to play any LB. Just my opinion.

Originally posted by 4ML:
I kind of agree. Didn't understand round 3 or round 4 picks on CBs who have started very few games in college. Just didn't make sense for our team. When talkin' about Buckner - Baalke talked about number of snaps and games played by him over his career at Oregon as a huge plus...and then goes on to draft guys who have hardly played more than a handful of games. Makes little sense.

Still don't think there is a clear draft strategy. I liked the first round picks and I liked couple of late round picks...but don't understand the strategy.

Buckner playing a lot of snaps was alluding to the fact that they won't have to worry about him being tired or having to be subbed out for rest. Which is possible with a Chip Kelly offense and as we found out last year in a Geep Chryst offense.

As to the cornerbacks, we know that different coaches have different schemes. Jim O' Neil may require a different style of cornerback.

Check out a more in-depth potential explanation of this in an article someone wrote on Niners Nation, point #2 talks about the cornerbacks

http://www.ninersnation.com/2016/5/1/11548550/the-49ers-off-season-so-far-reading-between-the-lines

Originally posted by Evilgenius:
Tartt is going to play in the middle plenty IMO.

I actually think this is what the 49ers are thinking. Our issue with being soft in the middle is mostly from a coverage standpoint. We got absolutely shredded in the middle of the field because none of our LB's could cover. Bowman just didn't showcase that speed he had. Hope a majority of it returns. A healthy Myles Jack would have cleaned that weakness up. I'm not worried about us chasing down RB's or defending screens. Wilhoite is actually pretty stout against the run... thought he improved alot before he got hurt. Hodges seemed to have issues picking up the scheme.

It would have been nice to pick up Kwiatkowski in the 3rd or 4th. I think Tartt will be playing that safety/LB hybrid role alot in 2016.

Originally posted by Derelict:

Buckner playing a lot of snaps was alluding to the fact that they won't have to worry about him being tired or having to be subbed out for rest. Which is possible with a Chip Kelly offense and as we found out last year in a Geep Chryst offense.

As to the cornerbacks, we know that different coaches have different schemes. Jim O' Neil may require a different style of cornerback.

Check out a more in-depth potential explanation of this in an article someone wrote on Niners Nation, point #2 talks about the cornerbacks

http://www.ninersnation.com/2016/5/1/11548550/the-49ers-off-season-so-far-reading-between-the-lines

I really like the way the author described JoN's scheme and I agree with it. All man coverage concepts. Lots of mixed fronts looking to cause confusion in pass protection. CBs must be on point. They mix up press and off coverage, mainly going off coverage.

As for the ILBs, they will pattern match on crossing routes, and be blitzers.

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:

Originally posted by 4ML:
I kind of agree. Didn't understand round 3 or round 4 picks on CBs who have started very few games in college. Just didn't make sense for our team. When talkin' about Buckner - Baalke talked about number of snaps and games played by him over his career at Oregon as a huge plus...and then goes on to draft guys who have hardly played more than a handful of games. Makes little sense.

Still don't think there is a clear draft strategy. I liked the first round picks and I liked couple of late round picks...but don't understand the strategy.

yeh this++. Baalke is a dumpster diver. That how he shows the world how good he is.

Nobody can figure out the CB overload when we are desperately trying to build a smashmouth d.

The mentality about ilb needs to be that there are 4-5 starters in every class and we have to go find them. happened last year. Will happen this year.

Plentry of guys available instead of redmond. we just didn't prioritize.

The tartt experiment will last about as long as the first time he gets trucked by a pro guard.

Well, spend less time whining and more time reading:

"Well, you can never have enough cover guys. As we know, in this game, 67-percent of what you do in this league is nickel and dime." ~ Baalke

Do you envision S Jaquiski Tartt playing some linebacker this year or are you in the market for a player at that position?

"But, I think they visualize that ability, especially in our dime for him to slide down and be in a position where a lot of times you're using a linebacker. I think that would be the game plan, but the coaches can help you with that." ~ Baalke



Guys that are hypersensitive to the ILB position don't understand the schemes. This is a passing league. The "defensive FB" has become, like the wide-bodied NT, a 2-down player only. Hodges will be used to free up Bowman on 1st and 2nd downs as the thumper and on 3rd downs or whenever we go nickel and dime, he will leave the field and all these DB's will come in...including Tartt for either Bowman or Hodges (more likely).

Now, we're still "thin" there as I'm not feeling too good about their backups in Wilhoite and Skov.

Lets give Hodges a chance for a year. He flashed at times when given the chance.

Originally posted by WoWwarkaster:
BTW Have you guys seen the mini camp pictures of Tank Carradane? He actually looks like a real OLB. Looking Trim and looking good, cant wait. I wonder if they may be thinking of doing that with Ronald Blair. Ronald don't have the size for a D-line but if he trims down like Tank, oh snap we got something special. Then, we can finally get rid of Brooks.

Blair's a perfect fit for the DL and a more natural 3-4 DE (284-290 pounds and will gain a tad more) who can slide down inside on nickel and dime sets. Carradine was always an edge rusher so it's great to see him outside at the WILL (finally).

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by Derelict:
Buckner playing a lot of snaps was alluding to the fact that they won't have to worry about him being tired or having to be subbed out for rest. Which is possible with a Chip Kelly offense and as we found out last year in a Geep Chryst offense.

As to the cornerbacks, we know that different coaches have different schemes. Jim O' Neil may require a different style of cornerback.

Check out a more in-depth potential explanation of this in an article someone wrote on Niners Nation, point #2 talks about the cornerbacks

http://www.ninersnation.com/2016/5/1/11548550/the-49ers-off-season-so-far-reading-between-the-lines

I really like the way the author described JoN's scheme and I agree with it. All man coverage concepts. Lots of mixed fronts looking to cause confusion in pass protection. CBs must be on point. They mix up press and off coverage, mainly going off coverage.

As for the ILBs, they will pattern match on crossing routes, and be blitzers.

Great read...these points are key and help explain the draft strategy (whether you likes the picks themselves is another story):

For a Cover One shell to work in a Ryan defense one needs (a) exceptional man corners who can press and (b) some unpredictability about who is actually going to rush the passer and who is going to cover who. No doubt influenced by LeBeau's zone blitz concepts, modern versions of the Ryan defense utilize two main elements to accomplish this goal: hybrid defenders that line up all over the place (Blaire/Tartt) and play different roles from play to play, and at least one really good corner on an island.

I mention all these recent traumas to the Ryan coaching clan to construct a 'why' for the urgency that O'Neil presumably has expressed to Baalke about upgrading and creating quality depth at CB. Although the first and fifth rounds went (very nicely) to the trenches (AA + Dial + Buckner), Trent was forced to use the only two picks between those rounds on corners — one a fast twitch guy for the slot (Redmond) (only Ward can currently do that job) and one long-ish press corner for the outside (Robinson) (the red-flag character-issue guy). It's not as if crowds of top CB talent are just loitering around there for you at 133 in the draft. Conversely the newly reduced emphasis on linebackers may have allowed Trent to ignore ILB altogether in this draft (Tartt).

I should add that Baalke did a tremendous job in acquiring players this week, given the urgent need to change personnel for scheme AND bolster the trenches. Most of his picks were outside the top 140. There are 32 teams out there.


http://www.ninersnation.com/2016/5/1/11548550/the-49ers-off-season-so-far-reading-between-the-lines

So what does that mean for our defense? It means Trent went out and tried to find the players that would best fit his DC's scheme, like he did on the Garnett for Kelly on offense.

Now you've got Reaser/Redmond competing at the slot CB position, you've got an insane DL who can move all over the place and now some excellent rotational players like Blaire and now you've got bigger cover CB's in Johnson and Robinson outside with other CB's who excel in off coverage schemes such as Brock and Acker.

It looks like we're going to be bringing some heat with Lynch/Brooks and Harold/Carradine this year utilizing pre snap confusion mostly with these front 5. So, who's coming and who's not?

Originally posted by SFBuckeye:
It still hurt when we passed on Scooby Wright in round 7!

Hes a thumper. I run stuffer. We need ILBs that can also cover in our system. He would be a huge liability in coverage for us.

Originally posted by ChipKelly:

Originally posted by SFBuckeye:
It still hurt when we passed on Scooby Wright in round 7!

Hes a thumper. I run stuffer. We need ILBs that can also cover in our system. He would be a huge liability in coverage for us.

Read above.

Last year we needed two coverage ILB's under Mangini's scheme. Not anymore.

Originally posted by SFBuckeye:
It still hurt when we passed on Scooby Wright in round 7!

yeah but whenver guys like that fall that far are swooped up in the later rounds, they usually dont have much of a career. Always turns out that they fell for a reason

Originally posted by WoWwarkaster:

Originally posted by Evilgenius:
Tartt is going to play in the middle plenty IMO.

I wouldn't mind seeing that, kind of like Arizona got going. I think Tartt needs to put on more weight, if he's to play any LB. Just my opinion.

did anyone see the muscle that Buchanan put on? He put on like 20 lbs. That guy is going to be beast. Would mind seeing Tartt take the same route

Originally posted by Kolohe:
Baalke and Kelly must really like what they have at ILB with Hodges, Skov....... Wlhoite. I think they could possibly add another in free agency. But I think it's really Hodges job to lose. IMO.

If need be, there's always Curtis Lofton and Donald Butler they could sign. And even DeMeco Ryans.

Agreed.. and I think these guys are better than what was available via draft, albeit I clamoured for Scoobey and Matekevich. This is probably the plan

Originally posted by WoWwarkaster:
BTW Have you guys seen the mini camp pictures of Tank Carradane? He actually looks like a real OLB. Looking Trim and looking good, cant wait. I wonder if they may be thinking of doing that with Ronald Blair. Ronald don't have the size for a D-line but if he trims down like Tank, oh snap we got something special. Then, we can finally get rid of Brooks.

Yeah i did see Tank. He looks lean AF. Harold looks bigger than him now haha. If those 2 guys show up, our defense can be scary good