Kerry and Elliott both come off the field at times, Anzalone doesn’t. There is no player on defense that comes any where close to Anzalone’s snaps. Hutch is the closest with 872, 110 less than Anzalone. Even on offense only Goff, Sewell, Decker and Ragnow compare to Anzalone snap count and that is an elite group. Do you think Anzalone is comparable to that group in his talent and abilities? He is not that caliber of a player, yet he does not come off the field.
I am going to beat this drum every chance I get until everybody at least understands my position.
Anzalone plays because of his relationship with Glenn/ Campbell whoever, and not base on ability or earning a spot. The bias that is afforded to him by the coaching staff has cost and continue to cost other players, in terms of opportunity contract negotiations etc.
Coaches should not use previous relationships to determine who plays, and friendships with a certain player can lead and does lead to favoritism. It is obvious when it comes to the relationship between Anzalone and Campbell, there is no other reason for Anzalone to stay on the field. I am not buying the field general, locker room presence or green dot theories. All players should have a back up to what ever their role is on the team. Anzalone got injured at the end of the year, last year, so someone had to take the green dot. I don’t remember any issues with that last year.
Try to read my post before you respond. I said Kerby and Elliott come off the field at times not that particular game.
For the year Elliott has 804 snaps, Joseph 770, and Anzalone 982, see my point.
For that particular game Anzalone did not play well and he stood out, and Barnes has been playing the run well of late yet no adjustment was made 17 snaps, (1 on the kneel down at the end of the game), for Barnes compared to 68 snaps for Anzalone.
You tell me why the coaches don’t at least try the combination of Barnes and Rodrigo. That has not happened all year after 16 weeks of football and it won’t.
My initial thought is that Barnes is still terrible in coverage….
can’t get off a TE block at Carolina…
doesn’t have very good gap discipline at times…
and the coaches see it every day in practice…
so they don’t trust him.
Steal your high school sweetheart?
Take the last krispy Kreme doughnut just as your were getting ready to order?
Give you a “hot” tip that caused you to lose your entire 401K?
Elliot has missed time due to injury and he was benched at one point. Joseph didn’t start until week 5?
Anzalone wears the green dot and is the communicator. This staff obviously feels that there isn’t another LBer in the room that can do that job nearly as well as Anzalone. If you think we have communications issues in the secondary just wait until Barnes is out there trying to make it the calls.
So I had to edit this post. The article I took this data from left out Goff for some reason who was actually the third graded top offense of player last week
And that knocked Decker out of the top five. Everything else tracks
Have you seen this happen, when? You just flapping your jaws with no proof or data to back it. If the coaches can only communicate through Anzalone, as soon as he get’s injured the season is over, no use in attempting to play defense with Anzalone gone. Let’s just pack it in and go home.
But they trust Anzalone with the green dot and he is arguably the worse LB on the team, oh makes perfect sense.
You keep talking about what happens in practice, the competition is over, practices now is just prep for the next game. Players are not losing or gaining at practice. What happens in the game weekly is suppose to be the gauge ie Houston. Barnes has played well enough to earn more playing time especially if one of theguys in front of him is having a bad day TEACHER’s PET DON’T COME OFF THE FIELD.
Just for clarification - Do you REALLY think that Campbells Chunky Soup national non-profit charity is Dan Campbells charity? Because that is what it sounds like. Would Anzalone be Campbells pet if he donated $100,000 to the Red Cross?
charity of Campbell’s choice and therefore also Anzalone’s choice. My point is they are attached at the hip get it. I am obviously not knocking giving to charity, I have made several mission trips to Haiti through my church donating time and financially, my son followed my lead and went there also. That is the kind of connection I am pointing out.
I am only pointing out another example that speaks to their ( Campbell and Anzalone) relationship outside of football. I have stated before that it compromises Campbell’s ability to COACH Anzalone. I have also constantly given examples of evidence of that compromise, for example this past game and the inability to take Anzalone off the field when he is playing bad.
All this arguing about Barnes vs Anzalone, but the bigger concern to me is us playing with 5 db’s and only 2 linebackers 90% of the snaps when the Panthers were running the ball down our throats in the freezing cold. When the other teams has over a 120 yards rushing in the 1st quarter, maybe try something different.
Why not use 3 linebackers and force Darnold to throw. Put Barnes, Rodrigo and Anzalone all on the field together and try to stop the freaken run. That’s what drove me nuts watching the game. It’s like AG thought Darnold was Dan Marino.
Just googled the chunky charity. I think framing it as Dan’s charity is a stretch. I also think it was 100,000 worth of meals AA and the Lions raised. I don’t think it was AA writing a check to Chunky
“…As part of its pledge to donate one million meals, Chunky is partnering with 11 teams across the NFL to host events in their communities. At each event, Chunky will be partnering with a star defensive player to help drive awareness of food insecurity. The list of teams and players include:
Calais Campbell, Defensive Lineman, Baltimore Ravens
Eddie Jackson, Safety, Chicago Bears
Sam Hubbard, Defensive End, Cincinnati Bengals
Alex Anzalone, Linebacker, Detroit Lions
De’Vondre Campbell, Linebacker, Green Bay Packers
Kayvon Thibodeaux, Outside Linebacker, New York Giants
Jordan Davis, Defensive Tackle, Philadelphia Eagles
This is why it’s interesting that people keep pointing to talent as the missing ingredient. If the game plans were solid, and adjustments were on point - yes, you can infer that increasing talent would lead to a big jump. But AG has given us a lot of reasons to have pause outside talent. The constant miscommunications on the field along with what your wrote above are concerns that may exist even with talent upgrades.
Exactly, it’s like how guys like Tavai and Van Noy can look like the worst busts in the nfl and then have success with a real defensive coach when they leave. Coaching, strategy and adjustments matter so much. I gave AG credit when the defense played better for several weeks, but I’m also going to call it out when I see extremely dumb strategy, like we saw last week. And of course we need more talent, but more talent doesn’t fix horrible play calling and adjustments.
