Geoff Hobson

[Whatever]

(03-22-2024, 02:40 PM)Jpoore Wrote: Not necessarily…. Do you think hill is gonna be a rotational player now? Or that rankings is gonna play every snap? Rankins is a pass rush specialist type of DT. Rankins played less than 600 snaps last year… a 3-tech this year would be a rotational yes, but next year would be a starter, or at least be getting starter level snaps… BJ hill played almost 800 snaps which is insane…. You would like at LEAST a 3 DT rotation played 650-700 snaps. In this scenario Newton would be the 3 down DT, and rankins would play a lot at the other DT spot. Also I believe we tag Higgins next year too. Why do y’all think rankins isn’t gonna decline? Much more faith in him than I have.

Rankins played nearly 60% of the defensive snaps last year, far from simply a pass rush specialist.  And I highly doubt Hill is going to see 71% of the snaps again due to having another quality 3 tech to rotate with.  You don't usually want to dress 3 3 techs on gamedays because an edge rusher can take up a lot of the obvious pass rush snaps, if needed.  Particularly true if you have an edge/3 tech tweener like Sample that can do both.  

But even arguing that Rankins will experience a big fall off in the 2nd year of his deal and Newton will overtake him and start as a sophomore, there's another problem.  An OT plays 100% of the snaps, when healthy.  A WR plays 70-90% depending on if they are a 1, 2, or 3.  A 3 tech, even having to slide to NT on passing downs, is still only playing like 70%, at best, as evidenced by Hill. And with Rankins still on the roster, they won't sniff that kind of snap share.