Almost Harold Perkins Jr Time

It will be interesting so see what Baker does with him.

Starting in the Ole Miss game, he was the most disruptive defender in all of CFB...until the A&M game. In that one and vs. Georgia he was largely a non factor as it appears those two teams, with good OLs, were able to scheme around him.

Last year he had generally the same stats as 2022. But it took him nearly 300 more snaps to get them. He didn't have anywhere close to the same impact as he did in 2022. Many argued that was because House took him off the edge and moved him inside. But the reality is teams had started to figure out how to mitigate him as strictly an edge rusher at the end of 2022.

As a pure edge rusher he is WELL undersized. He's only about 6'0, 220lb. So he has to be able to play ILB to some degree to keep opponents from taking him out of the game.

After he gets 3 sacks and an INT against USC.

quote:

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Last year he had generally the same stats as 2022. But it took him nearly 300 more snaps to get them. He didn't have anywhere close to the same impact as he did in 2022. Many argued that was because House took him off the edge and moved him inside. But the reality is teams had started to figure out how to mitigate him as strictly an edge rusher at the end of 2022.

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House tried using Perkins in the middle, but didn’t get him properly coached up to play the role (and he was the LB Coach) and wasn’t all that creative in how he used him there. Then they moved him back to OLB and he basically ended up playing like a box safety. He did pretty well in that role considering how much he was forced to play in coverage. Because House wasn’t creative and wouldn’t take any risks last year, OCs could take Perkins out by making him play in coverage all game. And yeah, they would move him down to DE for some obvious passing downs, but like you said, he’s a lot easier to block lined up on the front 4 because of his size.

One thing we know about Baker is that he is creative in how he brings pressure. He coached that way at Mizzou. Commentators from practice have talked about seeing guys at every position blitz at different times and from different locations on the field, and we know that wasn’t happening last season. He’s going to make scheming around HP a lot harder than House did. I’m really interested to see what Baker does to turn him loose.

I might have to change my pants the first time I see a nickel or corner blitz this year. It’s been so long