Updated: Will Hill Reinstated & Activated

[acranfor]

Since you're on the subject, how did Elam do yesterday? I couldn't watch the game so I'll watch tonight at 9p on the replay on NFL network. Just wondering

 

Secondary as a whole had its best game. They left 3-4 picks on the field. A lot of it had to do with the pressure our front was getting.

 

Good breakdown of our defensive play in the game: http://russellstreetreport.com/filmstudy-defensive-effort-reminiscent-of-2006/

 

Is there a possiblity that we could see Will Hill play Strong safety alongside Brooks at FS?

 

It seems (myself included) we have all assumed that the safetys are being geared towards Hill FS and Elam SS, however the snap counts from yesterday indicate that Brooks role is increasing:

 

"Of the #Ravens' 66 defensive snaps, Terrence Brooks and Darian Stewart each played 44 snaps. Will Hill and Matt Elam played 22." @baltimoreluke

 

It looks like Hill is pretty useful at attacking the LOS in the run game, and along with his coverage skills could we see 2 safeties with good coverage skills? Contrast to weeks 1-3 where we basically had 2 SS's both of whom pass coverage isnt a strong point

 

I am not by any means suggesting Elam is done, but it is interesing that a rookie in Brooks was on the field twice as much as him yesterday

 

Yes, I think a lot of people assumed Will Hill would be the single high guy. However, it seems more and more that when we do go Cover 1 or 3, Brooks is the single high guy. We then rotate the robber safety position underneath. Cover 2 seems to be a mix of players. Interesting to note that Hill and Stewart were never on the field together so they probably have similar responsibilities. Would love to see a breakdown of pairings. The link above shows that for 12 snaps it was Brooks and Hill and for 10 snaps it was Elam and Hill.

 

I think we should expect a heavy rotation of Elam, Stewart, Hill and Brooks going forward. Hill has pushed Miles out of this rotation.

[GrimCoconut]

Secondary as a whole had its best game. They left 3-4 picks on the field. A lot of it had to do with the pressure our front was getting.

Good breakdown of our defensive play in the game: http://russellstreetreport.com/filmstudy-defensive-effort-reminiscent-of-2006/

Yes, I think a lot of people assumed Will Hill would be the single high guy. However, it seems more and more that when we do go Cover 1 or 3, Brooks is the single high guy. We then rotate the robber safety position underneath. Cover 2 seems to be a mix of players. Interesting to note that Hill and Stewart were never on the field together so they probably have similar responsibilities. Would love to see a breakdown of pairings. The link above shows that for 12 snaps it was Brooks and Hill and for 10 snaps it was Elam and Hill.

I think we should expect a heavy rotation of Elam, Stewart, Hill and Brooks going forward. Hill has pushed Miles out of this rotation.

The article didn't really tell me much about Elam. I just wanted to hear how he played based off of what others have seen. That's all. I'm going to watch the game tonight to see for myself. Just curious.

It is interesting that Elam has lost playing time.

I think the play of Brooks really leads us to not need a safety as much in the draft. I'm really happy he's preformed as well as he has. It's a steep learning curve for a rookie to play single high but he's done very well. I liked him better than Dix and I thought he was close in skill to Ward. Both of them were first round selections. Brooks has performed exceptionally well so far.

[BSHU_Miami]

I wonder how Brooks will fare at SS, while keeping Hill at FS. Brooks can provide help for his side of the field and wont be a one dimensional, run stuffing SS. Brooks has really surprised me with his tackling. He is already a better tackler than Elam is right now. I don't want to give up on Elam so quick, but Brooks and Will Hill on the field together gives us alot of versatility.

[The Raven]

Is there a possiblity that we could see Will Hill play Strong safety alongside Brooks at FS?

 

It seems (myself included) we have all assumed that the safetys are being geared towards Hill FS and Elam SS, however the snap counts from yesterday indicate that Brooks role is increasing:

 

"Of the #Ravens' 66 defensive snaps, Terrence Brooks and Darian Stewart each played 44 snaps. Will Hill and Matt Elam played 22." @baltimoreluke

 

It looks like Hill is pretty useful at attacking the LOS in the run game, and along with his coverage skills could we see 2 safeties with good coverage skills? Contrast to weeks 1-3 where we basically had 2 SS's both of whom pass coverage isnt a strong point

 

I am not by any means suggesting Elam is done, but it is interesing that a rookie in Brooks was on the field twice as much as him yesterday

 

I think we will indeed see the Brooks/Hill combo.

[beasy2487]

I wonder how Brooks will fare at SS, while keeping Hill at FS. Brooks can provide help for his side of the field and wont be a one dimensional, run stuffing SS. Brooks has really surprised me with his tackling. He is already a better tackler than Elam is right now. I don't want to give up on Elam so quick, but Brooks and Will Hill on the field together gives us alot of versatility.

Elam is officially a luxury. I think you've switched the disciplines in your post. Imo, another way to think about it is that both Brooks and Hill are true hybrids with Brooks leaning slightly free due to a small speed advantage and Hill leaning slightly strong based on a small strength advantage. Similar to what Seattle does with Thomas and Chancellor respectively.

The problem for Elam now is that we don't need a backup SS. Trawick and Stewart fill that role just fine. His only saving grace is that he's on a rookie contract but even then...if things keep trending the way they are, I could see Elam being trade bait for one of those sorry NFCS teams.

[gabefergy]

Since you're on the subject, how did Elam do yesterday? I couldn't watch the game so I'll watch tonight at 9p on the replay on NFL network. Just wondering

He wasn't on the field very much. Only 22 snaps. Almost had a pick on a deflection, but he didnt really do much to stand out either positively or negatively.

[arnie_uk]

He wasn't on the field very much. Only 22 snaps. Almost had a pick on a deflection, but he didnt really do much to stand out either positively or negatively.

im watching it here. Suggs just got the safety. Ive only noticed him once or twice. Almost pick being one.

For me that's a good game for elam. No mistakes

[CalvinSmoke]

brooks at fs will at the ss would be a very nice tandem actually

[The Raven]

brooks at fs will at the ss would be a very nice tandem actually

 

I think the same thing. While I don't hate Elam at SS, I think his role is very niche. Hills offers much more to the SS position than Elam does. Elam is good as a roving safety, but he's mediocre or slightly above average in others roles. Hill is a more well-rounded safety. Brooks is also a well-rounded player. Going off of scouting reports and some film, I thought Brooks might be a bit finesse without a lot of physicality to his game. After watching him the past few games, I realized that was a misguided opinion. That dude is fearless and tough.

 

I'm all for Brooks/Hill as the starters with Elam coming on in Big Nickel packages. 

[acranfor]

http://russellstreetreport.com/tale-of-the-tape-will-hills-ravens-debut/

 

Will Hill review on Sunday

[Hey Diddle]

Let Mr. Hill run wild!  He is something special in the making!  Love the way he plays with all that swag!

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

Huff failed at STs because he fears contact. Hill embraces contact. Also, as others mentioned, he has played on STs before.

However, I don't think he'll play STs for us. I think he'll take the starting job at FS and run with it in about two weeks time.

Where this leaves Brooks concerns me though. I have high hopes for Brooks but it'd be hard to get him on the field with Hill being active. Perhaps we convert Brooks back to nickel corner. He's played well as the nickel/dime in the few times he's lined up there for us, and he may prove a better option as the third corner than Franks has.

I actually see us using Hill and Brooks on passing downs with Elam losing some snaps, and like you said, stealing snaps from Franks and other cbs in nickel and dime looks.

I think Brooks played twice as many snaps as Elam against Atlanta. Until he improves his coverage and communication, Elam may continue to see his snaps diminished.

On a side note, I didn't really like the carousel of safeties at first thinking it was hurting our coverage due to communication issues and lack of continuity but I'm starting to think it's really effective. Offenses can't seem to figure out what coverages were in and what responsibilities each guy has. Safeties are coming up to play man while a corner drops back to play safety. We've taken the trend of having 2 interchangeable safeties and taken it 3 steps further to having an entirely interchangeable secondary and it's proving to be incredibly effective and difficult for quarterbacks to read and figure out - id even go so far as to say the success of this "experiment" is largely responsible for the pass rush getting to the QB 10 times in the past 2 games.

That extra split second qbs have to take to figure out what's going on with our secondary is letting the boys up front hit home. It's been a thing of beauty. As much criticism as Pees has received from a majority of fans, myself included at times, he and Spags really deserve credit for their creative use of the safeties. It's made one our biggest weaknesses into a huge strength.

[Static]

Where da HECK was Hill and Brooks , you know those safeties that can actually cover.

 

Except we had Matt 'greased up deaf guy' Elam and Darien ' Free TouchDowns'  Stewart playing. 

 

So on top of terrible playcalling we can't even put in proper personnel. Nice one Peas. 

[Cillmatic]

Brooks looked like an idiot on that final pass. Hill didn't even play.

[JetLife94]

Are his snaps decreasing or are they "easing" him into action?

[The Raven]

Probably easing him into action.

[757RavensFan]

How do you ease him into action by cutting his defensive snaps?  Don't get me started.  Why his snaps decreased when Jimmy Smith went down during the first series is beyond me.

 

22 snaps vs Falcons

12 snaps vs Bengals

[JetLife94]

How do you ease him into action by cutting his defensive snaps? Don't get me started. Why his snaps decreased when Jimmy Smith went down during the first series is beyond me.

22 snaps vs Falcons

12 snaps vs Bengals

That's what I'm saying!!!! It's odd honestly he'd be my starting FS. Just rotations for SS

[rmw10]

We played a lot more zone when Jimmy went down, which could be a big reason why.  It takes a greater understanding of the playbook and good communication with the other members of the secondary.  With it only being his 2nd week, they may have felt like he didn't have the chemistry yet.

[Static]

brooks at fs will at the ss would be a very nice tandem actually

 

Yes, I think Brooks has higher potential at FS than Will does but right now we don't need Brooks making Rookie mistakes up top.

 

Will at Fs Brooks at Strong to finish out this year. Then Brooks at FS to start next year. 

[BmoreBird22]

We played a lot more zone when Jimmy went down, which could be a big reason why.  It takes a greater understanding of the playbook and good communication with the other members of the secondary.  With it only being his 2nd week, they may have felt like he didn't have the chemistry yet.

Beat me to it. This is the biggest reason. He's been on the field for two weeks. The players in the secondary have been together for months. There is a big gap in the chemistry with Will Hill

[Tank 92]

So I have this theory.........

 

In preparation for the squealers game, the staff teased Will with a few plays on successive Sundays and then locked him in the weight room all week, throwing him raw meat every few hours. Time to unleash The Beast!