League leaders in missed tackles.

[*SHRacerX*]

(07-30-2020, 09:12 AM)fredtoast Wrote: I don't know about PFF, but based just on production the most dramatic change over the second half of the season was the development of Pratt.  He barely played the first half of the season.  In the first 8 games he only played  101 snaps on defense (app 20%) and never more than 38% in any game.  Then in game #9 against Baltimore he played 50% of the defensive snaps.  After that game Preston Brown released.  Pratt saw a lot more action, but still did not play more than 68% of the snaps until the final 4 games where he played over 70% in 3 of them.  Here is how his season broke down


Game..snaps...tkl...solo..asst..blitz..TFL
1-4 ........ 25... 4..... 1..... 3..... 1..... 0
5-8 ........ 76...12.... 9..... 3..... 6..... 0
9-12.......148...22...14..... 8..... 7..... 0
13-16.....187...34...23.....11....14..... 4


He had 38 tackles and 0 TFL over the first 12 games, but 34 tackles and 4 TFL in the last 4.

Project that last quarter of the season over a full 16 games and you get 136 tackles and 16 tackle for loss.  That would be an awesome year from any of our LBs.  I know 4 games is a very small sample size, but those numbers were not just a fluke spike in production.  Instead you can track consistent improvement throughout the entire season.

As much asI like the rookie LBs coming in I believe Pratt is more likely to have a major impact on our defense than any of them.  In fact he is my predistion for "Break Out Player" this year.

Got to give you credit here (even if it may have been a deflection attempt) on breaking down Pratt's development.  Pretty cool that they even had the stats of how many times he blitzed.  I know that they seem to think pretty highly of ADG as a pass rusher that doesn't fit the mold of a traditional 3-4 OLB at all.  You could see Pratt's confidence soar and he was "all over the field", much like Burfict in his prime.  Was always near the ball.  Seeing it quantified like this is awesome.  Thank you.

I think we will see a lot of Pratt and Bynes early on, but a steady diet of Wilson and ADG being eased in over time.  Great thing is, unlike in the past, we don't need them to start day 1.  They can be developed exactly as Pratt was and could be major contributors by mid-season.  

With no pre-season games and limited padded practices, the acquisition of Bynes is looking even more logical.  Dude has seen a lot of football, especially in our division.  

When I look at big-picture and how the LB corps finished last year (mostly just Pratt and Vigil) but showed tremendous improvement, and even Vigil's numbers in pass defense improved, it gives me so much optimism towards the defense as they add Reader, a stud like Vonn Bell, and solid tacklers on the perimeter in Waynes and Alexander.  Heck, I remember hearing that WJIII played almost all of last season with a torn labrum.  
 
If this defense is even mid-pack, this team will be competitive.  Very competitive.  Add Burrow, Green, Jonah Williams, Tee Higgins, and healthy pieces around them on offense, I think they will be able to put up points on anyone.  New England's defense was the class of the league last year and I think they seem to be sitting this one out.  The division will be a bee-otch with Baltimore and the steelers, but I have a ton of faith in Burrow.