burmafrd;2432777 said:
Perfect size for a NT is around 6-1 and 320. If possible find a guy with longer arms then a normal 6-1 guy. Smaller and he gets pushed around; bigger and they get gassed (all those guys 330 and so get gassed no matter how well they are conditioned- so unless you have two of them of equal ability you need to go smaller).
And he has to have a never ending MOTOR. More then any other position on the team, the NT ALWAYS has to be a full speed. In reality you need two guys playing the position unless you luck into a Wilford or the like.
I agree, or unless you can get a guy like Ngata, Wilfork, or Kris Jenkins.
But yeah, most big guys get gassed, and you are 100% right that in most cases you want the shorter guy who's more COMPACT, you don't want a 6'-6 330 pound N.T., I'd take the 6'-2 325 pounder everytime because they need to stay low and have that knee bend that taller guys just can't do, which is why you don't see many 6'-6 6'-7 Guards or centers cause they just can't BEND their knees like you need them too.
That being said, I think we can learn a lesson from when we had Ferguson and Ferguson only at N.T., he got hurt and then we were SCREWED cause we didn't have another big body on the D-line to replace him thus our run dfense suffered accordingly the way it's suffering thisyear having Ratlifff who I LOVE but he's too small and can get pushed around by double teams as the N.T. in the 3-4.
So, we need to get not jut ONE BIG GUY to play N.T. we need TWO, cause we need to move Ratliff to D.E. where he can be more effective which is scary when you think about how much bettter he can play if he wasn't playing N.T., and if we only get ONE BIG N.T., if he gets hurt, we're screwed and then would have to RE-SHUFFLE the whole D-line again, moving Ratliff back to N.T., and replacing Ratliff at D.E. with someone else, etc., so we need to grab a guy like Raji with our top pick, and the go out and grab another big N.T. later in the draft in round 5 or 6, I'd like to grab Raji's teammate Ron Brace, 6'-3 330 pounds to backup Raji, so that if Raji gets hurt, we have another big body to replace him and don't have to adjust the whole D-line plus we'd get another big body to help out on short yardage and goal line situations where you want and need bigger guys and to spell him on a few series during the game to keep Raji fresh also.
So I'd take Raji in round 2 and then go grab Brace in round 5 and if we miss out on Brace, go for Antonio Dixon in round 6.
BUT our off-season priority and draft needs should be to get TWO BIG N.T.'s so we can CUT Tank johnson and move Ratliff to D.E.!
I personally wouldn't mind if we used our top pick 2nd rounder on a N.T., used our 3rd rounder on a big pass rushing D.T. and convert him to D.E. and then use our 5th on a N.T. again, I wouldn'd have a problem with using 3 of our top 5 picks on the D-line since we are SET at all the skill posiiton players, can get through another year with all our current L.B.'s, and our secondary is pretty set with the improved play of Keith Davis, and all our offensive skill players are set in stone, so why not address a major problem and overhaul our D-line with 3 of our top 5 picks?
Use the other 2 picks in between for a safety and an O-lineman and I'll be happy.
This way, the following draft we'd have the luxury of going out and even moving up to get a STUD I.L.B. in round 1 to replace Zach Thomas to play behind a revamped D-line.
