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09-23-2020, 07:33 AM | Topic Starter |
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Threat Level Midnight: the Hitchens problem is getting worse.
How closely did you watch the first series from the Chargers game?
First snap, Hitchens is right where he needs to be and squares up Ekeler, they collide for what could have been a 1- or 2-yard gain but instead Ekeler just bounces off Hitchens and gains about 9 yards on first down. Next snap, same issue. Hitchens can't seal the deal. Couple snaps later, a screen to that one RB Kelly in the flat, who is completely uncovered because Hitchens doesn't see him and is actually running deeper into coverage, away from the dude with the ball. Kelly eats up so much space so fast that Hitchens can't even get to him despite the fact it's his side of the field. We're all used to Hitchens not playing very well, but this is reaching a critical mass, particularly because we don't really have a valid replacement for him going forward. He wasn't playing this poorly in 2019 or 2018. This is a new level of suck. |
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09-23-2020, 07:57 AM | #2 |
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He's here 2 more years so....hopefully it's just the lack of preseason etc.
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09-23-2020, 08:51 AM | #3 |
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We can cut him next year. We're not going to get much cap relief, but we also won't take a hit.
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09-23-2020, 09:04 AM | #4 | |
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I'd have tried hard to do it this year but without camp I understand why they didn't. Next year his base actually drops to $5.8 million so you might be able to stomach that. If not, you can post June 1 him and save about $6.5 million (with about $4.4 million in dead money the following year).
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09-23-2020, 09:09 AM | #5 | |
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09-23-2020, 09:14 AM | #6 |
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Yes and no.
Weirdly, Veach was pretty far ahead of the curve for the price-tags on off-ball linebackers. They jumped exponentially almost immediately after Hitchens deal. There was some potential for that to actually be a really nice contract for the team with some surplus value there. And even where it is, if he could just be an average player, the contract wouldn't be a real boat anchor. The bar for that contract to be fairly forgettable isn't really THAT high, especially since the structure made the first two years quite cheap (so forward paying a bit on the deal through the rollovers). When you consider the cap credits created through rollovers rather than any individual cap year, his average cap hit over the first 4 years will be right at $8 million. That's a little high for an average off-ball backer, but it's not something we'd care about if the guy was playing at, say, Marvcus Patton's level. The contract isn't REALLY the problem - the damn level of performance is. He just absolutely HAS to be better than this.
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09-23-2020, 05:58 PM | #7 |
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This is what I think a lot of this is IMHO. When you are severely limited in getting any real live game snaps as you should it takes a while to get your eyes, brain and body on the same page. Granted he is not the ideal but remember we won the SB last year with this defense. I know the play Direckshun is talking about because his eyes and brain interpreted correctly but his body did not respond in being to take the runner down. It will take time BUT remember every team is experiencing the same issues.
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09-23-2020, 07:57 AM | #8 |
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Hopefully we can just chalk it up to lack of preseason reps. He was definitely better than this in all phases at the end of last year.
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09-23-2020, 08:07 AM | #9 |
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Hopefully at some point Gay can step in and be a dominate LB to help cover for Hitch’s weakness.
It’s our weakest position group on the team, but it is what it is. There are no teams with zero weaknesses. |
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09-23-2020, 08:09 AM | #10 |
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knocking the dusty rust off.
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09-23-2020, 08:09 AM | #11 |
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He just doesn’t seem to play with anywhere near the physicality that he did when in Dallas.
You started to see it more in the playoffs from he and Wilson and that’s part of the reason why they were able to limit the hottest running teams in the league at the time, but now things look lethargic again. |
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09-23-2020, 08:16 AM | #12 | |
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It sounds like HB needs to get up in some players' faces
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09-23-2020, 08:24 AM | #13 | |
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09-23-2020, 09:01 AM | #14 |
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Yeah - they're both really bad but I'd say Wilson's fallen further from his 2019 performance than Hitchens - in part because Wilson played better than Hitchens in 2019, IMO.
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09-23-2020, 09:05 AM | #15 | |
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It's also interesting that they didn't try to clearly upgrade Hitchens or Niemann but brought in a guy in Gay that actually will play Wilson's position. |
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