I suspect Raekwon starts out at Sam. That allows a veteran to call the defense in his first year, and puts his athletics on display on the outside. I'm very torn though, because he's a natural Mike and he should be in our Nickel set as one of our two primary LB's. If he can handle it as a rookie, it makes the most sense to play him at the Mike. But the NFL is a big step up, he doesn't know the defense, and the poor QB's of the Jets and Bills will get an extra advantage confusing him.
Should we decide to play him at the Mike, everyone needs to pump the brakes and realize that he has a steep learning curve and he will not be as effective there as a rookie compared to playing Sam or Will. The decision and communication elements are a lot to ask of a kid who only has 3 years of college in a defense full of NFL prospects. We will learn a lot about how fast he gets it in the preseason, even against vanilla offenses.
Anyone who is high on Timmons really needs to look at last year's film ... for the last year and a half the guy hasn't been the same player he used to be. He was always bad at coverage, and now he's worse. But his trademark run defense skills seem to have eroded quite a bit too. I think Timmons starts at Mike only because of his experience so he can call the defense. Once Raekwon gets up to speed with that, he is the clear better Mike.
