For the past 2-3 days, Chad Lavalais' name has been all over the papers here in Atlanta--and none of them are ever really good. Seems as though the Falcons head coach is looking for more from Chad. In today's paper, Mora specifically mentioned a couple of the DT's that have impressed him thus far and then he said, "I specifically left out Chad Lavalais..." I know they (the Falcons) must be pretty high on him (otherwise they wouldn't bother making so many comments day-after-day about their disappointment in him), so my guess is that they are trying to light a fire under him (which is also really surprising to hear because I've always thought of Lavalais as a "non-stop-motor" of a player...) I think if the season started tomorrow, he would be the starter, but it definately sounds like he needs to shape up....literally. They mentioned that his backup has been impressing coaches with his dedication to the offseason program, etc.
Yeah, Len Pasquerelli mentioned the same type thing recently in his Falcons preview. He said that Lavalais has been having problems controlling his weight and that he needed to get his act together.
well, I don't know how up to date it is, but Lavalais is listed around 290-something. Now, I know you don't want your DT to be more wide than they are tall, but, I dunno, in my mind, in today's NFL, if you're a DT and weigh LESS than 300, then it's almost considered under-sized.
I think we saw in 2003 the evidence of a new era of Defensive lines throughout the world of American football, based around the concept of speed over size. I remember very fondly how the commentators were noting how the 2003 LSU squad had a defensive line that was slightly smaller than most lines, but was so fast it rendered size insignificant. I'm not being so arrogant as to say we started the era, but I think it's a signal that things are moving in that direction in today's defensive lines.
It depends fully on the type of defense and the style of tackle a coach wants on the team. If he wants tackles that shoot the gaps (4-3) he needs them to be lighter and quicker. If he wants his tackles to be huge and occupy space (3-4) then Gilbert Brown and Sam Adams are a good fit.
Bengal, did they mention T.J. Jackson at all? He went undrafted but was signed by the Falcons as a free agent so I was wondering how he was doing at DT for them. He was one of my all-time favorite Auburn players as I had several classes with him and he is a great guy.
Are you sure about that? It looked to me like we smothered offenses with our two big DE and fairly sized DTs. I mean we had the luxury of being able to rush four and still apply tremendous pressure without a speed rusher. On top of that that we still shut down the run with not out of this world LBs.
One thing I'm certain of, our starting dline in 2003 was not small, not with Spears and Hill as starting DE's. They were bigger than many teams DT's.
