Running Back Toughness = Safety Toughness?
May 13th, 2018
College and NFL players are often reminded that everything is on film and scrutinized, including practice, so 100 percent effort when the ball is snapped is in the best interest of their careers.
Listening to Dirk Koetter yesterday truly reinforced that point.
Koetter was asked about fourth-round safety Jordan Whitehead, Darrelle Revis’ cousin out of the University of Pittsburgh. He’s super-athletic and a little undersized for the position at 5-10, 198 pounds.
For Koetter, that’s a non-issue.
Why? Turn on his college game film — at running back.
“He carried the ball a lot on outside running plays and he really showed toughness. Just because a guy is maybe five or six pounds off for what the ideal position weight is, that doesn’t mean he’s not tough enough to play,” Koetter said. “So, we’ll see what happens.”
For the record, Whitehead carried the rock 43 times in college for 362 yards and three touchdowns. Impressive totals. But he is here to play safety.
Joe thought it was interesting that Koetter was looking at the running back toughness and applying it to safety.
We’ll see what happens when the pads come on, which is just 10 weeks away.
May 13th, 2018 at 11:14 am
10 looooooonnnnnnggggg weeks away. Thanks Joe now I am depressed again.
May 13th, 2018 at 11:37 am
How is he in pass pro… just saying
May 13th, 2018 at 11:48 am
The kid’s a good FOOTBALL player. That’s what Koetter is saying.
If he’s teachable and can become a contributor for this team – whether as a Safety, slot nickle or special teams standout – it was a 4th round pick well spent.
Word is that Whitehead plays more “physical” than his 200 lbs would indicate – so thats a good thing obviously…
May 13th, 2018 at 12:05 pm
@ Joe,
When I heard Koetter say that in the post practice press conference, I thought the exact same thing. I had never thought about that before, but if makes more than enough sense. We shall find out though!
May 13th, 2018 at 12:07 pm
It’s not an issue in college he is correct
May 13th, 2018 at 12:18 pm
Punters need to be tough also…..I’m sure Brian Anger is pleased he wasn’t replaced by the 3 punters Joe wanted instead of DBs……
May 13th, 2018 at 12:47 pm
The kid’s film look pretty good to me.
May 13th, 2018 at 12:47 pm
Can you cover, can you tackle, can you anticipate and react? Tough safety doesn’t mean good safety. Darelle revis wasnt called tough he was called an island. You can’t take snaps away Chris Conte just by being tough.
Personally I don’t think we’ll see runners busting up the middle on long runs this year with the same regularity as last year so yeah umm can you cover
May 13th, 2018 at 1:24 pm
TBBF give it up it wasn’t funny the first 30 times you said it and it’s is just annoying now
May 13th, 2018 at 1:25 pm
I can’t believe we let Gruden pick up Eddie Pineiro as an UDFA.
May 13th, 2018 at 4:14 pm
a two-fer 🙂 I always liked multi-taskers
May 13th, 2018 at 5:07 pm
At SCBucsFan
It wasn’t funny when Joe said it either…..I’ll ease up but when one of our CBs ball out you can expect me to remind Joe how foolish the statements were.
May 13th, 2018 at 5:15 pm
Never a bad idea to have at least 1 or 2 offensive minded guys on your defense…Whenever he gets his hands on the football he’s a threat to put points on the board…I’m pretty excited about having Evans and Whitehead back deep at safety…add in Davis, Stewart and hopefully an improved Hargreaves and we have the makings of a talented young secondary…
May 13th, 2018 at 7:45 pm
Funny that is the EXACT same size as Ronde Barber who in his 16th year in the league had 92 tackles and 4 Int’s as a safety. Also a couple sacks and 13 passes defended.
May 14th, 2018 at 7:53 am
Aliquippa…There’s something in the water there imjs