The article in 'The Post' which is posted in a thread below prompted my inquiry.
This off season we signed McClain off the Ravens roster and lost Rivers.. basically we traded one for the other.
My question..or questions to the more knowledgeable.
Did we improve ourselves. Both are veterans Rivers never lived up to expectations since being a high draft pick of the Bengals(?) What about McClain..did he benefit from being part of a togh Ravens 'D' or was he an important part of thet 'D'.
Can we expect McClain to be better than what we had in Rivers?
If you must, go ahead and mentally swap the WILL and SAM positions to fit Fewell's D.
Paysinger as back up or #2 Mike (made plays last year)one can assume that he is more solidly built than he was as a rookie.
allowing Williams more time at left (most peoples Sam but more of a play in space and chase position like Will with us) due to his speed.
look for williams to have his head into the position in pre-season.
paysinger/paysigner/herzlich
(5 active, above)
anderson/fox/kennard
but keep in mind, moore is, or was, only marginally bigger than herz/maclain and has not shown much pass rush yet.
but this is what you could do with a 5-1-5
or even
rolle/herz/taylor
on passing downs
Will is weakside and Sam is strong where the TE makes the side he lines up strong.
Coming back to McClain vs. Rivers...
In the base 4-3, the starters are likely to be Paysinger, Beason and McClain. Comparing McClain to Rivers might not be meaningful, since it appears that Paysinger is swapping over to Rivers's old position. So the question becomes:
Paysinger + McClain > Rivers + Paysinger?
I'd say neither combination is anything special; but with a healthy Beason in the middle Paysinger and McClain are probably good enough to hold the fort on first and second downs if the line and secondary play well.
Rolle..Beason................Demontre Moore
......Steve Brown.....
DRC.....Thurmond.................Prince
not a fan of linebackers covering tight ends much less wrs
I thought Rivers would get it with the change of scenery but in reality, he is just not very good.
however, if its a big, slow thumper at our version of 'will',
then demontre moore might provide a nicer pass rush next to JPP on 3rd and long, and may be more athletic that maclain and herz
same with williams, admire his speed and coverage, but i dont think it equals rolle or taylors or another DB
and. if you only have one LB, let it be a savvy vet leader like beason
you can shift the DL gap assignments that way,
making the extra DE at LB on the right/weak, non TE, side more useful, as you have moved your right DE in a bit, more over the OT.
Could Moore line up with his hand out of the dirt sometimes? Sure, but does that really make him a linebacker in any meaningful sense?
My view of Rivers was that he had above-average speed but that never translated into making plays at all. In fact, it seemed as if his only "tackles" were running players with the ball out of bounds.
Hoping McClain at least provides more of a presence on the field.
In short, Rivers was a better lateral player but McClain is a better straight ahead run-stopper.
I don't think McClain is that much of an upgrade but he is certainly more physical and will be a good compliment to Paysinger on the other side on 1st and 2nd down.
to me, the discussion is how best to run with less than 3 true linebackers on any down,
because it is getting less and less clear that 3 true linebackers is a good formation
in a passing league with huge athletic OLs, you need huge DLs 2 attack extra gaps and speed / instincts out back
Rolle..Beason................Demontre Moore
......Steve Brown.....
DRC.....Thurmond.................Prince
This alignment looks like it could be a disaster. Is that supposed to be a 4-3 with Rolle and Moore at the LBs and Thurmond playing cover 1 safety? formatting on here is kinda hard to do so its a bit confusing.
steve brown free safety
3 corners vs 3 wrs
the DL is shifted left
moore pass rushing
obviously vs long type set
I'm not particularly excited about McClain. He gets juked a lot and because he looks to strip the ball every time he tries to make a tackle, he ends up missing a lot of tackles. He's not particularly athletic, does not shed blocks very well... And heaven forbid you see him in coverage...
I don't think he was a stregnth in the Ravens D. I can see Dan Fox stealing his candy in camp.
Ten Ton Hammer : 9:46 am : link : reply
He was incredibly invisible on the field for a guy billed as athletic.
Rivers is one guy I really paid some attention to, and calling him "invisible on the field" is probably too kind. He really was an awful football player in every which way as an LB, which means a whole lotta ways.
Watching him tackle was like watching ladies' mud wrestling; I don't think I'd ever seen another LB with less pop in their tackling - and that includes Bryan Kiehl.