purpleneer":3pgysj04 said:
Recon_Hawk":3pgysj04 said:
vin.couve12":3pgysj04 said:
[tweet]https://twitter.com/NFLFilmStudy/status/572432229839872000[/tweet]
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Really the only positive for him on this play is the quick first step. His technique is poor and he actually gets blocked just fine considering. That play was stuffed because they left a guy unblocked and nobody else missed an assignment. From my limited viewing of him, I like the first step and he could improve technique, but I'd be concerned that he never does anything else well and the shorter arms make it more rare that he he can take advantage of it. Unless I felt the coaching was just that poor and the hand use was a quick fix, I'd wait til the 4th.
Of course, it wouldn't the first time for me to be wrong and I'm far from firm on this opinion. It wouldn't take a whole lot of better film to make me like him more.
Couple things:
1. That first step is just unique. Seattle looks for unique talents, and even as a critic, you'll agree that it just leaps off the screen at you.
2. If you can, watch his 2013 footage. He doesn't exhibit that same quality at all. In fact, if that were this years' tape, you'd barely consider him draftable.
I like that. Because that tells me this is a guy that gets better. And in our development system, it suggests that he would take famously to our ability to develop players at a higher rate than most.
3. Fit. Yeah, he looks like he blows up plays, but nobody else is there and he gets blocked aside and leaves the defense exposed. If you're a team that wants to control your gaps (2 gap scheme), you're not going to take Cooper. Seattle is a simplified 1 gap scheme. We give our players one gap and tell them to win it. And Cooper can do this about as well as any DT in this draft. Maybe last draft too. We want our DTs to create crazy penetration and disrupt plays. Because we rely on our LBs to clean up and be gap sound.
It's why Wagner is so vital for us. And what happens when we don't have a Wagner being in the right place at always the right time (KC game for example), our gap fits are compromised and we get gashed.
For what Seattle wants from our DTs, Cooper is a perfect fit. We want disruption, to cause hesitation. It doesn't really matter that he gets blocked/OL recovers to wash him out. We have the complementary pieces on the DL and at MLB to clean up and destroy the play.
I actually could very well see us taking him in a trade down situation to the 35/40 range as our first overall choice. Based in large part to his unique abililty (explosive first step win) and fit within the construct of what we want our defense to be. He could easily be in a small group of players we consider as our straight up choice at 31 if we don't find a trade down opportunity we like.
Just imagine if you had that kind of disruptive quality to force QBs to bring the ball down -- giving Irvin or Avril or Bennett or Hill an extra half second to get to the QB. Cooper is a player who wins on the LOS immediately. Those kinds of prospects are really rare.
I'm not worried in the least about his length or the current inability to get off blocks and finish the plays. His is already right now a functional rotational fixture in our pass rush package as is. I would expect he would continue to develop and improve at fighting off blocks.
From a development standpoint -- his warts can be corrected. Doesn't mean they will. But I think there is evidence that he can visibly improve and do so rapidly. But his speed off the ball -- that you can't develop. That's just innate talent. And his movement skills at the combine were so fantastically fluid. He looked like a quality linebacker at times. His explosion and fluidity are just ultra rare -- and his footage on tape doesn't belie his outstanding combine efforts. If anything, they confirm one another.