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From another person:
Rams43
May 30, 2014 03:25AM
Here's junkman68...
OK, I've watched three halves of Tampa football now on NFL rewind, and I'm going to reverse myself a bit. I think Davin Joseph has a legit chance to start, and I think he puts Barksdale's spot at risk once Long comes back to take his LT spot.
I know Joseph's whole year PFF grade in 2013 was terrible (ranking him 80/81), BUT he put it together for the last 5 games of the year with a neutral PFF grade. "Neutral" for an NFL guard on PFF would rank him around 35/81 among Gs.
So I watched 3 of those 5 games on NFL rewind (first half only), against San Fran, StL and Carolina, chosen because of their stout DLs. What I saw from DJ was very consistent from game to game. On running plays, he's very physical and a bit nasty. He has a jolting punch which I can't believe is legal because it looks so high. He takes solid shots at the DTs before getting to the 2nd level where he just manhandes LBs (SF Brooks and Bowman, Ogletree and Laurinaitis, Kuechly and Beason). He also turns DTs and stays engaged on them through the play. On passing downs, the only player I saw who made him look bad was Chris Long who shot the B gap on a stunt inside, but the QB took a short pass to escape the sack. From the Rams, he took on Hayes and Langford. Both tried to get an inside shoulder on DJ and he just mirrored them out of the play. San Fran and Carolina didn't really challenge him, a sign of respect? On more than a few occasions, I saw players just stop playing once DJ engaged them. After watching him myself, I'm honestly not sure why he only had a neutral grade on PFF for those games, and I'm starting to understand the pro-bowl thing. Three halves of football against great defenses and I only saw one negative play. On occasion he let blocks go early and occasionally a player could get to a ball carrier by diving at DJs feet... but those are nits.
So I'm intrigued.
~~~
In terms of where DJ plays, he's been a RG his entire career (which also says good things about DJ, RG is typically the most important OL spot for running plays). Sooo... as a few previous posters said, if Long is not ready, I could easily imagine...
Saffold - Robinson - Wells/BJones - Joseph - Barksdale
But it gets interesting when Long comes back if they put him at LT. Barksdale would not be a good RG (not a good run blocker) and Joseph is not a RT. So that begs the question, are the Rams better with:
Long - Robinson - Wells/BJones - Joseph - Saffold or
Long - Robinson - Wells/BJones - Saffold - Barksdale
Hmmm....
SBrown add:
Long-Saffold-Jones-Joseph-Robinson
Rams43
May 30, 2014 03:25AM
Here's junkman68...
OK, I've watched three halves of Tampa football now on NFL rewind, and I'm going to reverse myself a bit. I think Davin Joseph has a legit chance to start, and I think he puts Barksdale's spot at risk once Long comes back to take his LT spot.
I know Joseph's whole year PFF grade in 2013 was terrible (ranking him 80/81), BUT he put it together for the last 5 games of the year with a neutral PFF grade. "Neutral" for an NFL guard on PFF would rank him around 35/81 among Gs.
So I watched 3 of those 5 games on NFL rewind (first half only), against San Fran, StL and Carolina, chosen because of their stout DLs. What I saw from DJ was very consistent from game to game. On running plays, he's very physical and a bit nasty. He has a jolting punch which I can't believe is legal because it looks so high. He takes solid shots at the DTs before getting to the 2nd level where he just manhandes LBs (SF Brooks and Bowman, Ogletree and Laurinaitis, Kuechly and Beason). He also turns DTs and stays engaged on them through the play. On passing downs, the only player I saw who made him look bad was Chris Long who shot the B gap on a stunt inside, but the QB took a short pass to escape the sack. From the Rams, he took on Hayes and Langford. Both tried to get an inside shoulder on DJ and he just mirrored them out of the play. San Fran and Carolina didn't really challenge him, a sign of respect? On more than a few occasions, I saw players just stop playing once DJ engaged them. After watching him myself, I'm honestly not sure why he only had a neutral grade on PFF for those games, and I'm starting to understand the pro-bowl thing. Three halves of football against great defenses and I only saw one negative play. On occasion he let blocks go early and occasionally a player could get to a ball carrier by diving at DJs feet... but those are nits.
So I'm intrigued.
~~~
In terms of where DJ plays, he's been a RG his entire career (which also says good things about DJ, RG is typically the most important OL spot for running plays). Sooo... as a few previous posters said, if Long is not ready, I could easily imagine...
Saffold - Robinson - Wells/BJones - Joseph - Barksdale
But it gets interesting when Long comes back if they put him at LT. Barksdale would not be a good RG (not a good run blocker) and Joseph is not a RT. So that begs the question, are the Rams better with:
Long - Robinson - Wells/BJones - Joseph - Saffold or
Long - Robinson - Wells/BJones - Saffold - Barksdale
Hmmm....
SBrown add:
Long-Saffold-Jones-Joseph-Robinson