Nevermind. Stupid question. Please disregard.
It’s not a stupid question. There’s a lot of talk that James is gonna test top 5 worthy. Blow up the combine
In terms of pure bpa I think he’s better than any lb in this class. But as I’ve said all along you have to have a plan to get the full return on the pick and it can’t be plain old strong safety.
But it really depends on what they think of kiko. If they draft Roquan that will tell me Kiko is kicking inside to mike. I think tremaine Edmunds will be the top lb on their board. He still has a lot of upside in terms of recognition and awareness he has the size for the scheme and the poa/fill ask and he gives miami as an add another year to look at Kiko at weak before they have to decide to cut bait or not.
But it also should be said that miami has multiple 2 down strong options in house what we don’t have is multiple nickel weak options. Roquans range and speed would be a welcome addition. If you add him he’s a every down weakside lb. so in terms of finding snaps it’s easy. But the poa play is a weakness same for the size relative to the scheme ask. 6 foot ish and 230 isn’t the prototype for the scheme ask wise at lb not does it in just about any class validate a top 12 pick. he gets washed out at the 2nd level. I can hide that most at weak admittedly though. Allow him to run and chase more separate from the fill assignment ask.
The easier fit in terms of what we have now and kikos money for 2018 would appear to me to be adding tremaine Edmunds as the 2 down strong and nickel mike essentially Lawrence Timmons role in 2017. With much higher level consistency of play expectations and better perimeter range.
What that does is give us Edmunds and Kiko in the nickel as starters with a year to gauge Raekwon’s range and athleticism as a 2 down mike and plan b nickel mike so come 2019 we could move away from Kiko get him off the books and pair Raekwon and Edmunds as the 2 nickel backers.
I refuse to believe that they are paying Kiko $10 mil in 2018 as a going into the season plan a pine rider they are gonna want a return on that money plus I also believe they are higher on kikos play than this board is.
Of course with Kiko you get more playmaking at mike the offset being poa play with him at weak his carry coverage weakness shows up and it limits his box instincts which are above average.
There’s nothing to say come 2019 Edmunds couldn’t show enough to be a nickel weakside option either.
It’s just a matter of scheming coverage on carry stuff vs asking a man to do a lot of it in the hip as a lb. Ie more help from the safeties or drop lbs more carry coverage with less help pressure on the corners unless the sticks allow for it. Miami plays a lot of zone at the lb level by design anyways but the sticks always predicate coverages played.
The thing that always needs to be remembered here is this d won’t stop anything if it doesn’t stop the run. The lb level reads run reacts to pass. The corners and safeties have gap fill assignment accountability.
This d is built to stop the run paramount but secondary get leads and pin ears with the pass rush. The run d will suffer with Kiko kicked inside and Raekwon’s thump not between the tackles. The run d will fare best with Raekwon at mike gobbling up things between the tackles Edmunds at strong providing high level poa and fill and Kiko at weak.
Kiko at mike and Roquan at weak and you are asking for teams to run the ball downhill on you in the nickel. Yeah the range will be elite level but I’m lining up and getting to your 2nd level and washing out your lbs.
Again this all comes down to Kiko way I see it. At $10 mil he’s a plan a something and I bet ya it’s more than just base. No one pays $10 mil for a base backer
