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Three linebackers might prove to be equalizers to emerging tight ends
By Rob Rang | The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com
The emergence of tight ends Rob Gronkowski in New England and Jimmy Graham in New Orleans as virtually unstoppable weapons in the passing game surely has started a trend that every team the NFL will try to emulate if they can find size-speed freaks to attack defenses down the middle.
Even as Gronkowski and Graham demonstrate Sir Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion -- that the velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force -- NFL defensive coordinators are trying to apply Newton's Third Law of Motion, which says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
"I believe the defenses are changing," Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff explained to the media at the combine. "I think the matchups are very, very important for the defensive players now. We talk about that all the time. You need to match up speed and athleticism and you need to match up power-to-power along the front. When you get into building a football team or coaching a football team we always talk about matchups and how incredibly important that is."
h, matchups. Although Newton predated American football by a couple of centuries, that is surely what he was hinting as a solution. Alas, there is a modern day challenge finding a matchup with the size and speed to create that required equal and opposite reaction.
This year's free agency and draft offer little as a salve for the burns created by such big, fast tight ends as Gronkowski and Graham, as well as San Francisco's Vernon Davis, Green Bay's Jermichael Finley and others who are sure to follow in this copycat league.
Read more:http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/...prove-to-be-equalizers-to-emerging-tight-ends
By Rob Rang | The Sports Xchange/CBSSports.com
The emergence of tight ends Rob Gronkowski in New England and Jimmy Graham in New Orleans as virtually unstoppable weapons in the passing game surely has started a trend that every team the NFL will try to emulate if they can find size-speed freaks to attack defenses down the middle.
Even as Gronkowski and Graham demonstrate Sir Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion -- that the velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force -- NFL defensive coordinators are trying to apply Newton's Third Law of Motion, which says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
"I believe the defenses are changing," Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff explained to the media at the combine. "I think the matchups are very, very important for the defensive players now. We talk about that all the time. You need to match up speed and athleticism and you need to match up power-to-power along the front. When you get into building a football team or coaching a football team we always talk about matchups and how incredibly important that is."
h, matchups. Although Newton predated American football by a couple of centuries, that is surely what he was hinting as a solution. Alas, there is a modern day challenge finding a matchup with the size and speed to create that required equal and opposite reaction.
This year's free agency and draft offer little as a salve for the burns created by such big, fast tight ends as Gronkowski and Graham, as well as San Francisco's Vernon Davis, Green Bay's Jermichael Finley and others who are sure to follow in this copycat league.
Read more:http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/...prove-to-be-equalizers-to-emerging-tight-ends
