OkieHawk":2m2e9hf0 said:
TDOTSEAHAWK":2m2e9hf0 said:
Count me in the mildly surprised group that we elected to extend him. He was a borderline guy who I thought could go either way, though the most likely of the borderline guys to be resigned, albeit.
I thought we would wait until after the draft to see where it fell before we extended anyone else but I suppose safety is no longer a priority.
I don't understand how people can consider Kam borderline. He has one bad season due to
injury and people are saying he isn't a key person on the LoB. Everyone talked mad smack on how T-Jack played hurt, so why not Kam, who is still on the team. I can't wait until he shuts all the naysayers up. Go Hawks!
So he had a rookie season where he didn't play much, a pro bowl season and an average season. In other words, he had *one* good season. Not quite the sure thing.
More than his on-field performance, a strong safety who doesn't play much deep coverage isn't the hardest thing to replace schematically. Add to this fact that his general man and zone coverage skills are, at best, above average and he isn't a must sign player who makes our defense go.
That being said, he is definitely a specimen and his run support and hitting are well above average.
Though overall if we compare to a MUST sign player like ET the differences become clear.
We play a 1 deep safety most of the time and it is ET over the top. His zone coverage range at FS is probably the best in pro football. Remember the one deep pass against us in Atlanta, guess who was playing over-the-top (it wasn't ET). In other words, we NEED ET to play the defense that we do.
Furthermore, although Chancellor hits like a ton of bricks, ET runs circles around him in run support range, closing speed and tackling. ET can get from 12 yards deep to the backfield in no time. Once again, a player who is unique at his position among the whole league.
Anyway, don't take my surprise as a knock on Kam per se, just think of it as extreme praise for a guy like ET.