Kemoeatu a Panther

The Ravens were a 4-3.

Uhm ... no. Wasn't there a story recently that said Peppers played more of his team's defensive downs than any other DE in the league? Jenkins and Rucker play almost constantly as well when they're not dinged up. Kemoeatu is going to play a lot fewer snaps, but as noted by Cosmik, stopping the run in our division is a pretty big deal.


But guys, seriously, getting pass rush up the middle is critical and we weren't able to do it at all last season. If you don't get that push, OTs can wash the DEs around the QB and give him an indefinite pocket. If there is pressure, the QB can't step up, which allows Peppers and Rucker to crush him. A healthy Jenkins was giving us that pressure and was the main reason our defense seeemed so much more dominant then than it does now. That's not to say that the Kemoeatu signing doesn't help us, because it does, but it doesn't help us with what we needed the most from a DT.


finleye:
You can compare it to other deals this off-season, which I already have. We gave Kemoeatu $23 million over 5 years, whereas Arizona gave Kendrick Clancy $8.1 million over 4 years. They're the same age and are both considered up and coming run stopping DTs. Kemoeatu is considered better, but probably not $2.5 million a year better.

 

Theres no problem if Jenks can come back healthy and STAYS that way. If he does, there's your inside pass rusher. Good depth with Moorehead and the pig farmer. Would be one helluva DL, just pray that Jenks can recover and has a couple good years left in him.

 

fair enough, but you really can't look at the per year average as a measuring stick. You really have to have all the terms of the deal before you can compare. It may average $2.5 million a year sure, but it may (and many times is) structured in a way that there will almost certainly be a restructuring or a waiver before the player gets a chance to cash in on the back end of the deal. The agent for Kemoeatu could have maxed out the back end of the deal (despite knowing that his client would most likely never reach that part of the deal) just to be able to claim $23 million over 5 years. This type of thing is done, i presume, fto appease the ego of the player and/or help the agent advertise to other potential clients his ability to get "good deals". If I were negotiating the fifth year of a contract that had zero chance of making it past year 3, why they hell not ask for the highest possible base salary?

I dont know, there is just always more than meets the eye when you hear of contracts only by their length and "total value".

 

We may have paid a bit too much but it is hard to judge that sometimes. I thought we overpaid for Lucas last year but that worked out pretty well. I am just glad to have a big run stuffer in there. I have thought we needed a guy like that for a long time. With this guy inside taking up a bunch of blockers other guys should be free to make plays. If Jenkins gets back healthy I look for him to have a monster year. If you can stop the run then you have a chance to win most games. We should do that really well now. On paper our defense looks really good, if everyone is healthy, even if Spoon is gone.

 

Shit, that's right they did switch back to a 4-3. Way to kill my wet dream.

 

No problem, I was confused about that too for a minute. In fact, he's probably best suited to be a 3-4 nose tackle.

 

Most consider him a NT, partly because that's the guy that generally comes off the field in a 3-4 to go to a nickel look, and partly because he was there when Nolan brought the 3-4 in. But he didn't play much in the 3-4 at all. Actually, he only started one year.

FWIW, I do expect him to creep up into A gap a little more than Buckner did. And yeah, a runstopper is very important. We do face numerous potent RBs, and I don't think we were as good as our ranking. I'm happy we got him. But it's a lot of money for a guy that addresses one concern and not both.

 

Excuse my ignorance on this matter, but might we now use some 3-4 sets? Other teams go from one to the other (Dallas, Pats), perhaps now with a guy who can play the NT pos we can put in some situational 3-4 sets. If that were the case would it be Morehead, Kemoeatu, Jenkins as the D-line with Rucker and Pep becoming ILBs and Morgan and Davis on the ends? I have no idea if this is the plan but it would lead to some interesting matchups/problems for offenses to deal with.

 

Probably not, but we'll probably move Kemoeatu inside and have him play less gap control and tie up blockers with him, not unlike a 3-4 would, or not unlike a two-gap 4-3 would. Some teams run hybrid schemes at times, that draw off of that (not unlike Tampa did for years, with Sapp playing "under tackle" and either Brad Culpepper or later Anthony McFarland pulling a NT-style between center and guard), and I expect we will do some of that.

But he'll also play in gaps, I'm sure. I don't think they'd have signed him to change their entire philosophy. If he couldn't play gap control, he wouldn't be here.


There's the alternate thought of how our personnel would look in the 3-4, but that's bound to come up again later.

 

No. We occasionally go with a 3 DL look just to get some extra DBs on the field, but we don't have the LBs or the DLs to go with a 3-4 look with any sort of regularity. And for what it's worth, the heavier LBs play on the outside in the 3-4. The ILBs are the lighter 230-245lb guys.