Matt Birk Appreciation Topic

[mgridda]

Playing center is one of the most cerebral jobs in the NFL. There's a lot of mental chess being played, a lot of scheme, communication, understanding, comprehension and mental execution that needs to go on to get the whole o-line playing right. 

Over the past four games there was a big drop off from 15 year pro Harvard Graduate Pro Bowler top 3 center Matt Birk, and 2nd year pro from D-II Delaware Gino Gradkowski. I think Matt Birk was criminally underrated even during his time here in Baltimore. The guys at Pro Football Focus ranked him in the top 3 each year during his duration here in Baltimore, but I'd keep reading posts on this board about how he's "Old man Birk" and how he's lost it, how he's getting pushed around. I didn't think any of this scape-goating was really accurate then, and I feel vindicated now.

 

 

 

 

Let's twitter-bomb Matt Birk with compliments and begging until he picks up his helmet and gets out of retirement! https://twitter.com/BirkMatt

 

[TDubbs]

This is the truth. Far too many people don't actually understand how much of the onus of calling out protections and diagnosing pressures falls on the Center. Matt Birk was the best at making these calls, one of the most intelligent Offensive Linemen ever. We've definitely seen the drop off on our line, and a large percentage can be attributed to the loss of his command of that unit. 

[pitchblack_20]

Lol he's gone bro

[nk02442]

Matt Birk was by far the weakest player on the O line.

 

He got knocked off the ball and man handled by just about everyone.

 

Wonder why the middle of the pocket would always collapse.

 

 

His value was in calling protection and reading Defenses. For years, he was doing Joe's job for him, and now we are seeing a combination of:

 

Weak Center

Joe not having Birk to do his job for him

Rest of the line playing like shit, making it even worse.

[PerpetuallyBored74]

Riiiiiiiight...because in the 5+ years he's been here with Birk, Joe never paid enough attention in the meetings, film room or practice field to Birk or the coaches to learn how to read a blitz himself.

 

(smh)

 

Birk did a decent job of calling protections, but half the time (in road games) he wasn't allowed to make blocking adjustments reportedly because the line had "communication issues" when not playing at home because of crowd noise or something.

He also played much better after getting those varicose veins in his leg taken care of finally. Which was last year (his best with us).

[pep_meister]

Matt Birk was by far the weakest player on the O line.

 

He got knocked off the ball and man handled by just about everyone.

 

Wonder why the middle of the pocket would always collapse.

 

 

His value was in calling protection and reading Defenses. For years, he was doing Joe's job for him, and now we are seeing a combination of:

 

Weak Center

Joe not having Birk to do his job for him

Rest of the line playing like [profanity deleted], making it even worse.

not the sharpest tool in the shed are ya?