Nink finished with a nasty little run as a pass rusher, and they've tried to play as much 4 man fronts as possible since then. I think they wanted him as a pass rusher after that rather than a LB.Super Nomario said:Rob Ninkovich, too, who started at 4-3 OLB in 2011 and even played there last year when Hightower was hurt. And in today's NFL, you don't even need a 3rd LB most of the time.
Better as far as talent? I don't think that's very debatable. Regardless I don't want to debate the analogy. It doesn't really matter.Super Nomario said:"Better" is debatable. Spikes was clearly more accomplished at the same stage in their careers. I guess maybe drafting Vereen in the first place when they already had Woodhead was a pretty good analogy. Vereen stepped in this year and has done well but he basically didn't play his first two seasons.
Super Nomario said:But this goes back to the "how are they going to use him?" question. If he's ultimately going to be a 4-3 MLB, a 3-4 ILB, or a 4-3 OLB, how many reps is he going to get blitzing? In general Belichick defenses haven't been huge blitzing Ds. The ceiling on ILBs or 4-3 OLBs blitzing is about 33% league-wide, leaving aside Von Miller. Hightower's blitzed on about 20% of passing downs for his career; did you expect that to be significantly higher? I wouldn't, personally. Unless he's a 3-4 OLB or a 4-3 DE, he's going to be dropping into coverage 60-90% of the time. If he sucks at that, he's got to be an awesome blitzer to make up for it.
Depends what you think is significantly higher. Is 5% significantly higher? I could conservatively see a 25% blitz percentage. That would put him on par with Daryl Washington and Brian Cushing - two players I've compared to The Good Hightower™.
Washington
2011: 23.9%
2012: 26.7%
2013: 25.7%
Cushing
2011: 35.1%
2012: 25.7%
2013: 28.1%
You have to put players a position to succeed, and the one thing he's been always been able to do is blitz. His 17% PRP is near the top for both inside and outside linebackers since he came to the NFL. I'd call him an awesome blitzer.
In coverage I wouldn't say he sucks, he's certainly not good though. In zone he's maybe average, but probably a little below it. The main problem is again his man coverage. It's so awful that it that it ruins all of his coverage numbers. What is messing with him physically is one thing, but until that is fixed his man coverage assignments can and have to be schemed around.