Where's The Speed On Defense?

Ok, so first of all, I know I've broken my at least one post per weekday rule a couple of times recently.  Honestly, with work being as busy as its been and Eagles news being as NON-busy as it's been, it's just gotten squeezed.  Only another week or two of the dead NFL time before everything spins up all crazy again.

On to the post...

One of the themes coming out of minicamps this year was all the speed on defense.  A number of players and coaches mentioned it, with a good example being this quote from one of Rich Hofmann's stories:

It will be interesting to see what Reid is looking to emphasize. Because he has talked toughness, yes, but he has also talked speed. The two can go together, but there are limits and there are tradeoffs - because toughness matters but fresh legs matter, too. And he has built a defense that is all about speed.

"Right now [the defense] looks fast," Reid said. "I want to see how that works out when we put the pads on. It's all good with shorts on, but we've got a lot of work ahead of us. We're going to get out there in the grinder and see how they maintain that."

He's making a larger point there about how hard Reid typically pushes his guys in training camp.  We haven't quite been able to figure out why the Eagles are such notoriously slow starters, with Hofmann suggesting that it could be an issue of tired legs. 

Maybe, maybe not, but the point I want to focus on is the speed issue.  Are these guys really that fast?

Starting in the secondary, you have to say no, right?  Lito Sheppard is certainly quick -- when he's healthy -- but neither of the other two "starting cornerbacks" is known as a burner.  They may look fast compared to the rest of the defense, but they're not fast in comparison to the universe of NFL cornerbacks.

Brian Dawkins used to be a guy with great speed, but now it's more about awareness and years of practice with good angles.  And the one thing we know for sure about Quintin Mikell is that he's not fast.

So no, it's not a super fast secondary.

Moving to the linebackers, it's tough to see this as a unit with great speed either.  After all, that's what happens when you wait a few rounds to draft these guys.  All the workout warriors are gone by then. 

Just going by what I can find on the web, I see Omar Gaither at 4.78, Stewart Bradley at 4.71, and Chris Gocong at 4.70.  Compare those times to the top performances for LBs at the 2008 combine and you can see that they're hardly elite.

Now obviously, 40 time isn't the only measure of a guy's speed.  For example, Poz came out of Penn State last year without great straight line times, but he was a monster in the other agility drills that test short-range quickness and change of direction ability.  But as an easy-to-compare metric, it seems pretty obvious that this isn't a super-fast linebacker corps. 

Whether or not that matters is an entirely different question.  I tend to think that once you're "fast enough" -- which these three guys clearly are -- then what matters if is you can play football.  Furthermore, I like seeing a linebacking corps with a little bit of size.  I'm tired of the Matt McCoy / Mark Simoneau types who can't hold up at the point of attack over the course of a full season.

Nonetheless, it's not a fast unit (unless you mean in comparison to the past few years of Kirkland, old Trotter, etc. -- then it's faster if not actually fast).

Which finally brings us to the line.  And I think this is the group everyone's talking about when they're looking at speed.  Bunkley, Patterson, Law and Reagor are all quick, rather than big defensive tackles.  Cole and Parker are both fast, undersized ends.  All the new guys they brought in to rush the passer are in the same mold.  Even Darren Howard should be faster this year now that he's dropped all that weight to come in with more of a Michael Strahan type of frame.

So yeah, this unit is loaded with speed.  Which is great and all, but since in the mini-camps you aren't actually allowed to block these guys, how much does that even matter?

Comments

[shlynch]

I think the real issue is that every year, it seems, we hear how much faster the team is, that they look fast in minicamp. Then the regular season comes, and they don't look faster than the other team. Players get hurt, they get blocked, and it all balances out. Moreover, in general this is not a fast team. We now have a fast 3rd or 4th WR, backup RB and a couple of fast situational DEs. But our base personnel are not fast and won't be, either on offense or on defense. I think it is fundamentally spin, and spin without a meaningful purpose.

[Eagle Scout]

Stewart Bradley (1.56) and Chris Gocong (1.61) both had really nice 10-yard dash splits during their workouts. I read an article (I think it was by someone at FO.com) noting the correlation between 10-yard splits with explosive players. Anything in the 1.50 range is excellent. Desean Jackson ran a 1.53 for comparison purposes. Gaither gets by on instincts and angles - I think Gocong gets by on athletic ability at this point. Hopefully Bradley can be a nice blend of both. We'll see.