Carpenter vs. Lawson vs. Greenway: My take

[wileedog]

The reason people are jumping on the Manny Lawson bandwagon is because he is almost the spitting image stat wise of DeMarcus Ware a year ago.

ESPN is starting to jump on his bandwagon too. Mel Kiper Jr had a small spotlight on him at practice yesterday saying that he has the intangibles that you need in a Pro and reminded him of DeMarcus Ware.

BTW Manny Lawson intercepted a pass in practice on Wednsdays off a screen pass. That turned some heads.

Lawson is going to shoot up the draft charts, especially when the Underwear Olympics start. Given Ware's success this year I wouldn't be surprised at all if Lawson goes before our pick at 18 (to the Dolphins?), which would be great because I think it almost assures Carpenter will fall to us.

As others have said, I won't be upset at all if we wind up with Lawson, but I think Carpenter just compliments Ware better and will contribute faster. If Burnett can move inside and come close to his potential and James continues to progress, that is one scary good LB core, with solid depth in Shanle, Fowler and Fujita.

 

[AsthmaField]

I agree on Carpenter. He has pedigree. Something I always place value on.

Parcells places value on that as well.

Carpenter would make me very happy. I do like Lawson as well. As long as Bill signs off on the LB... I'm good with the pick.

 

[Clove]

Lawson is going to shoot up the draft charts, especially when the Underwear Olympics start. Given Ware's success this year I wouldn't be surprised at all if Lawson goes before our pick at 18 (to the Dolphins?), which would be great because I think it almost assures Carpenter will fall to us.

As others have said, I won't be upset at all if we wind up with Lawson, but I think Carpenter just compliments Ware better and will contribute faster. If Burnett can move inside and come close to his potential and James continues to progress, that is one scary good LB core, with solid depth in Shanle, Fowler and Fujita.

I disagree. Obviously no one has read the other Lawson recaps from the draft gurus talking about Lawson blowing up RB's in the back field, and pushing huge linemen around, and intercepting passes on screens....When was the last time we've seen a player do all of those things around here.

I think Lawson will be hands down, twice what Carpenter is (and Carpenter is damn good). Lawson is a once in a life timer, and we've passed on some of those before (Randy Moss). They say he's shown incredible instincts and reacts to the play quickly. He was clocked at a 4.43 last year, and a 4.5 recently, and you just can't teach speed and quickness.

Not to mention trying to throw over his head in the flats or on screen will be virtually impossible with his ability to jump 45inches, WOW! He would be a slam dunk champion if he were in the NBA.

We will regret the day if his name is on the board and we pass on this kid. But in a perfect world, we would package Ellis and a next years pick to get an early 2nd, and Carpenter would fall to the 2nd and we'd get both of them. That way, Carpenter could start as an ILB next to James, and Burnett would be there breathing down James neck or in case of injury.

 

[MiStar]

Just to throw another name into the mix, I think we ought to take a good look at Tamba Hali. He's freakishly quick and uses his hands extremely well, and I think that he's fast and agile enough to drop into coverage.

I really like Demarcus Ware, but the one thing that reallly stuck out when I watched him play this year is that he was always a split second too late in getting of his blocks in order to make the necessary play, be it a sack, or a tackle. Fujita was a little bit faster in getting of his blocks, on average, yet he was still wasn't good enough at shedding blocks.

I will be really disapointed if our linebackers don't get off their blocks faster this year because those missed opportunites will, more often than not, come back to haunt us. Take, for example, Ron Dayne's scamper that cost us the game against the Broncos.

Tamba Hali is hands down the best OLB prospect that I've seen this year when it comes to getting off blocks. Combine that with good passrushing skills, and the athleticism to cover backs and TEs, I think that he should be in the mix, when we talk about guys like Carpenter and Lawson.

 

[MrPhil]

That's the player we need right there.

Well, he'd have to find a new jersey # but, he sure does look good in a silver helmet........

 

[AdamJT13]

Mangold did get shoved in the backfield, but on that play Watson would have been called for illegal hands to the face. Watson had to nearly rip Mangolds helmet off and Mangold even then stallmated Watson before throwing his helmet off.

I was talking about a play during team drills -- the full-team, 20-play scrimmage. (You were talking about a play during one-on-one pass-rushing drills.) This was a running play, right after NFL Network showed Jay Cutler's stats in his final three games. Watson beat Mangold off the ball, turned him and might have been able to stop Whitehead for a loss of a few yards if they were tackling instead of just touching the runner.

 

[JIGGYFLY]

They showed that match up several times and he handled Watson pretty easily. It was one on one, but when you take into account that it won't be like that during the game Mangold dominated Watson.

I watched the one on one matchups also and mangold looked a lot like Al Johnson except he seemed to anchor better but both times he would have been in the lap of the QB. Now that guard from Pitt was the one that handled watson.

 

[50cent]

I was talking about a play during team drills -- the full-team, 20-play scrimmage. (You were talking about a play during one-on-one pass-rushing drills.) This was a running play, right after NFL Network showed Jay Cutler's stats in his final three games. Watson beat Mangold off the ball, turned him and might have been able to stop Whitehead for a loss of a few yards if they were tackling instead of just touching the runner.

I didn't see that play. I'm still high on this guy, because of their head to head match up during the regular season. A guy by the name Bentley comes from his scholl too.

 

[50cent]

I watched the one on one matchups also and mangold looked a lot like Al Johnson except he seemed to anchor better but both times he would have been in the lap of the QB. Now that guard from Pitt was the one that handled watson.

Its being said that Mangold has superior fundamentals. That guard from Pitt, they are saying (not me) is dumb as a box of rocks.

 

[JIGGYFLY]

Its being said that Mangold has superior fundamentals. That guard from Pitt, they are saying (not me) is dumb as a box of rocks.

I saw the fundamentals in Mangold he was very technically sound with that said
he got pushed into the backfeild by the NT several times so that makes me wary
from a physical standpoint. I heared the same about the guard.