From Pasta Belly: Wierd competition for the

[ganesh]

Everyone keeps talking about how Crowell might take away Poseys job and here in his article Pasta belly talks about competiion between Crowell and HAGAN for the Strong side linebacker job.

 

Training Camp battles

 

• Jeff Posey versus Mario Haggan (Buffalo Bills, strongside linebacker): Although he has been a steady defender for the Bills over the last three seasons, Posey never has quite lived up to expectations, as noted by just 9½ sacks during his Buffalo tenure. Haggan hasn't been much more than a special teams player but, with a new staff and a new scheme, he could challenge the incumbent. At 248 pounds, Haggan is the bigger of the two and it's time for him to step up his game or be little more than a "lifer" on the kick coverage teams. The wild card in the equation is Angelo Crowell, who played remarkably in 2005 when an Achilles injury forced Pro Bowl weakside linebacker Takeo Spikes onto injured reserve. There are some questions about whether Crowell could move to the strong side and be effective there. But new staffs are prone to shake things up and the sound Posey hears in the background might be a few younger players gaining ground on him.

[Bflojohn]

I think that Jeff Posey is one huge target for people, but I'm inclined to see how well he takes to the cover-2 defense first. Actually, this new defense might paly to his strengths more because he may be asked to rush the passer a bit more than under the old regime. The notion is that he could also play with his hand down at DE on 3rd down, so his value is being highly overlooked by these so-called experts! The Bills, however, are throwing positions wide open to competition, so anything is possible..... it might be Crowell making the move than Mario Haggan, in my opinion, though!

[udonkey]

Don Vito strikes again...

[Kelly the Dog]

I'm skeptical.  The Tampa defense is not known as a blitz crazed scheme.

 

Actually, the Bills under Jerry Gray were far more blitz intoxicated than your average dog.  The fact that Posey sucked in a defense that sent the blitz every down suggests to me that he has no strengths.

727278[/snapback]

He's not going to blitz, he would be a hand-on-the-ground pass rushing LDE on pass plays. I think that is where they are going to play him a lot, too. Crowell could beat him out for the starting job but the problem the Bills face is that they are not going to play TKO hardly at all in the pre-season, so Crowell will likely man that spot. They assume TKO is going to be ready for the season opener and then play the whole year there. But Crowell won't playing or practicing much at the position he could wind up as the starter. That's why Passthepotatoes is suggesting it's perhaps Haggan that will unseat Posey. My prediction is that Posey starts the frst two games or so, they see TKO is back by then, and then they shift Crowell over to start in place of Posey, who then becomes back-up OLB and the #2 or #3 pass rushing DE in the nickel and dime defenses.

[Kelly the Dog]

Thanks, Dick.  Any other position changes you got in store that you can tell us about?

727289[/snapback]

Most of that is stuff the Bills have already said publicly. I know it because there is this little thing called "reading", and when combined with "reading comprehension" and "memory", it serves as a good tool as substance for message board posts. What I think but don't know they are going to do, which I prefaced by saying "I think" and "What I predict..." are what are commonly known as "opinions". Although not facts, those things are good on message boards, too, especially when people know it is your opinion and not a fact, or a mistake, like, saying, um, Posey won't rush the passer a lot because the Tampa 2 doesn't have the LBs blitzing a lot.

[socalfan]

This dog has bark and bite.

[Pyrite Gal]

Most of that is stuff the Bills have already said publicly. I know it because there is this little thing called "reading", and when combined with "reading comprehension" and "memory", it serves as a good tool as substance for message board posts. What I think but don't know they are going to do, which I prefaced by saying "I think" and "What I predict..." are what are commonly known as "opinions". Although not facts, those things are good on message boards, too, especially when people know it is your opinion and not a fact, or a mistake, like, saying, um, Posey won't rush the passer a lot because the Tampa 2 doesn't have the LBs blitzing a lot.

727306[/snapback]

 

The thing which concerns me about Posey was that there were several plays I remember wherePosey seemed to come oh so close to getting to the passer but not get there. These anecdotes may mean nothing as who knows what the D responsibilities were and it may be more of a positive here that Posey pressured the passer than it is a negative that he did not get there.

 

In fact, as we switch to a Tampa 2 rather than a zone blitz, QB pressures will be as much the mark of success of the DL doing its jobs as sacks are in the zone blitz. The safties will need to make good reads to take advantage of this or the pressure will be for naught, but in essence there appear to be 3 layers of pass coverage (QB pressure or a potential sack, CBs or LBs reading pass doing tight coverage on the reciever, the safties and the MLB reading this pressure to come in and break up or pick-off the pass.

 

Posey has shown good skills in the zone blitz of 03 and 04 as he made very productive reads and judgments as to whether he should pinch up to stop the run or drop back to pass cover. However, as things fell apart it was hard to tell what the heck he and othe defenders were trying to do because it did not work out well at all.

 

I like Posey being a contributor this D as one of the big jobs of the LBs will be to read run/pass and determine whether they should be pinching in to fill in for DTs who are told to shoot the gap, or to drop back in oass coverage.

 

However, if his continual coming up short that I noticed was a sign that age has slowed him down to much it will not matter how good his reads are.

 

As far the article, the opinions sound logical. However, the big deal is we have little clear idea how the Cover 2 Jauron has announced publicly is going to be run.

 

The good news is that under TD starters seemed to be chosen in the front office based on their "superior" football wisdom and under the new regime a lot of this wisdom will be decided by who does the job in pre-season.

 

We'll see.

[Dan]

You should consider a job writing for ESPN, SI, etc. and I mean that in a good way.