'11 NY OLB Ishaq Williams (Signed ND LOI-EE)

[Zwidmanio]

I like the idea of him moving to DE. If I recall correctly, some of the criticism of his play these last few years was related to his lack of aggressiveness. Perhaps he was a bit out of place playing at OLB and this move would let him get back closer to what he was doing prior to coming to ND. It seems that, particularly in ND's system, a player has more responsibilities and a lot more to think about while playing at OLB as compared to DE. Hopefully the move to DE will allow him to think less and to just utilize his physical assets to get at opposing offenses.

 

[koonja]

I say we go with a 6-1 defense.

From left to right, have Ishaq, Jarron Jones, EV, Nix, Day, Shembo. Have Grace be the roaming LB. What do you say?

 

[Old Man Mike]

yeh. just bench Tuitt that bum......

 

[Sherm Sticky]

yeh. just bench Tuitt that bum......

Haha ^ this.

 

[vuirish]

I say we go with a 6-1 defense.

From left to right, have Ishaq, Jarron Jones, EV, Nix, Day, Shembo. Have Grace be the roaming LB. What do you say?

No Jaylon?

 

[Whiskeyjack]

This is great news for Okwara. His path to major playing time is now pretty clear.

But we're deeper at DE than OLB. I hope this frees Ishaq to become the pass-rushing monster we all thought he'd be, but the danger of him getting lost in the shuffle is greater too.

 

[koonja]

Whoops, forgot about big nasty. Sorry Tuitt!

 

[Emcee77]

This is great news for Okwara. His path to major playing time is now pretty clear.

But we're deeper at DE than OLB. I hope this frees Ishaq to become the pass-rushing monster we all thought he'd be, but the danger of him getting lost in the shuffle is greater too.

Kelly said something about how this was a way to get Ishaq 15-20 more reps. I assume he meant just in each practice session? I'm not totally sure what the plan is but I agree with some others that Kelly seemed pretty excited about Ishaq. Someone asked if Ishaq would have to gain weight if he were going to play more DE, and Kelly said nope, we love him right where he is. He's got great hands, etc. and he's just fine for a cross-training CAT/DE. So I'm not quite sure what to make of all that except that I think Kelly really wants to get him on the field more one way or another.

 

[Old Man Mike]

I'm pretty sure he meant in games. 15 reps as a DE on top of what he gets spelling Shembo.


Diaco seems to have [finally] had the revelation that you don't have to be 300+lbs to rush the passer, and, in fact that unless you're Stephon Tuitt, it probably detracts from your passrush speed. So here we have Justin Utupo tearing it up with his great burst and Samoan thunder, and Ishaq "transferring" into a demon passrusher at "only" 265. [and again, to say nothing of what Shembo does all the time at 255].

We need Tasmanian Devils at the edge and Diaco's finding some. Okwara will probably be another. I have a vision of both edge rushers acting like threshing machines terrorizing the TEs and tackles, to say nothing of helpless RBs. MANY prone QBs and "floating duck" passes heading to guys with vicious nefarious Leprechaun intentions. OOO-WEE good days comin'.

 

[yankeeND]

I absolutely love this move! Get that hand in the dirt, get off the ball, drive that hand into that ugly SOB in front of you and knock the QB on his arse! Besides I had already moved him to DE on Playstation!

 

[Grahambo]

I'm pretty sure he meant in games. 15 reps as a DE on top of what he gets spelling Shembo.


Diaco seems to have [finally] had the revelation that you don't have to be 300+lbs to rush the passer, and, in fact that unless you're Stephon Tuitt, it probably detracts from your passrush speed. So here we have Justin Utupo tearing it up with his great burst and Samoan thunder, and Ishaq "transferring" into a demon passrusher at "only" 265. [and again, to say nothing of what Shembo does all the time at 255].

We need Tasmanian Devils at the edge and Diaco's finding some. Okwara will probably be another. I have a vision of both edge rushers acting like threshing machines terrorizing the TEs and tackles, to say nothing of helpless RBs. MANY prone QBs and "floating duck" passes heading to guys with vicious nefarious Leprechaun intentions. OOO-WEE good days comin'.

First thing I thought of after reading that was Michael Strahan. Years ago he was 275-300 lbs and was a beast on the line but as time wore on he struggled and started to get hurt. I remember him coming back at around 255ish and thought he was gonna have a hard time but he became such a disruptive force. He became too fast for OT's to handle him but still retained most of his strength so could still bulldoze.

 

[Luckylucci]

IMO, we still wont see a lot Ishaq playing DE in the 3-4. I think a lot of this is to improve his physicality which is great

 

[Irish Insanity]

I really want him to have a big year. I think he actually has more potential than that Ben Koyack guy.

 

[BleedBlue&Gold]

I'M READY FOR TEMPLE!!!!

 

[DillonHall]

IMO, we still wont see a lot Ishaq playing DE in the 3-4. I think a lot of this is to improve his physicality which is great

Why would you say this? He was a great pass rusher in high school (including his all-american game).

 

[STLDomer]

Why would you say this? He was a great pass rusher in high school (including his all-american game).

He doesn't fit the proto type for a 3-4 DE, I agree with Luckylucci, I don't think he will play DE in the 3-4, ecspecially if there is any chance they run the ball.

 

[Luckylucci]

Why would you say this? He was a great pass rusher in high school (including his all-american game).

Exactly what STL said.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

He doesn't fit the proto type for a 3-4 DE, I agree with Luckylucci, I don't think he will play DE in the 3-4, ecspecially if there is any chance they run the ball.

If he never sees the field in our odd-fronts, how would that be any different than what we did last year? On most obvious passing downs, Ishaq and Shembo were coming off the edges to pass-rush. So now he'll be designed as a ROLB/ DE instead of a just the #2 ROLB?

 

[DillonHall]

He doesn't fit the proto type for a 3-4 DE, I agree with Luckylucci, I don't think he will play DE in the 3-4, ecspecially if there is any chance they run the ball.

Did you watch Kelly's press conference? He said Ishaq was plenty heavy and strong enough to play on the D-line and Kelly was extremely with Ishaq's natural ability. I don't understand why the coaches would put him at D-line instead of continuing to coach him up at OLB if they weren't seriously pursuing the idea.

Any good coaching staff tailors to their players' abilities instead of relying on "prototypical" measurements. Not to mention we're almost 50/50 in terms of 3-4/4-3 fronts.

 

[Luckylucci]

My personal opinion is this is a way to get him more reps during practice and increase his physicality which again IMO has been his only down fall. Play physical every play without taking any off. That leads into my next thought which is they need him to ready to play every down next year and this is a way to get that repetition down. I could be wrong but what stood out to me was Kelly said this is a way for him to get 20 more reps and Ishaq was on board with that. I'm not saying he won't ever line up at end in the 3-4, just saying it won't happen very often. Lastly, they want and need Ishaq engaged and this increases that.

 

[STLDomer]

Did you watch Kelly's press conference? He said Ishaq was plenty heavy and strong enough to play on the D-line and Kelly was extremely with Ishaq's natural ability. I don't understand why the coaches would put him at D-line instead of continuing to coach him up at OLB if they weren't seriously pursuing the idea.

Any good coaching staff tailors to their players' abilities instead of relying on "prototypical" measurements.

Yeah I watched the press confrence and he never said Ishaq would play 3-4 DE eithier. Shumate cross trained at CB/S last year, did he ever play the real CB position? No. Cross training will improve Ishaq's skills, doesn't necessarily mean he will play DE.

The only situation I see him maybe playing DE is if the staff plays 3-4 in passing situations instead of nickel, which I doubt. Maybe we get more exotic with our Nickel and Dime packages and he moves in more inside there.

 

[DillonHall]

Yeah I watched the press confrence and he never said Ishaq would play 3-4 DE eithier. Shumate cross trained at CB/S last year, did he ever play the real CB position? No. Cross training will improve Ishaq's skills, doesn't necessarily mean he will play DE.

The only situation I see him maybe playing DE is if the staff plays 3-4 in passing situations instead of nickel, which I doubt. Maybe we get more exotic with our Nickel and Dime packages and he moves in more inside there.

What? Shumate played CB/nickel all season. He never played safety.

 

[STLDomer]

What? Shumate played CB/nickel all season. He never played safety.

He also never played CB. He played Nickel. Staff is calling that a CB, fine. Plenty of others teams have their backup safety play Nickel.

He was cross training CB/S because of depth at CB even though the coaches knew his real future was at safety.

Ishaq cross training at DE/CAT was brought up in what situation? depth at DE.

Similar situation the way I see it.

 

[DillonHall]

He also never played CB. He played Nickel. Staff is calling that a CB, fine. Plenty of others teams have their backup safety play Nickel.

He was cross training CB/S because of depth at CB even though the coaches knew his real future was at safety.

Ishaq cross training at DE/CAT was brought up in what situation? depth at DE.

Similar situation the way I see it.

Yeah, but thanks for helping to prove my point. Regardless of the original intentions behind cross-training a player, there's a possibility (as shown by Shumate's extensive playing time at a position other than his originally intended one) that Ishaq will play significant minutes at DE.

Lucky's original comment is unfounded and closer to being merely a random opinion.

On the other hand, we still have more depth at DE than we had last year. So I'm tempted to dispute that argument as well.

 

[Luckylucci]

Yeah, but thanks for helping to prove my point. Regardless of the original intentions behind cross-training a player, there's a possibility (as shown by Shumate's extensive playing time at a position other than his originally intended one) that Ishaq will play significant minutes at DE.

Lucky's original comment is unfounded and closer to being merely a random opinion.

On the other hand, we still have more depth at DE than we had last year. So I'm tempted to dispute that argument as well.

That is exactly why the first three words of my post were "my personal opinion"

 

[STLDomer]

Yeah, but thanks for helping to prove my point. Regardless of the original intentions behind cross-training a player, there's a possibility (as shown by Shumate's extensive playing time at a position other than his originally intended one) that Ishaq will play significant minutes at DE.

Lucky's original comment is unfounded and closer to being merely a random opinion.

On the other hand, we still have more depth at DE than we had last year. So I'm tempted to dispute that argument as well.

Okay, u were right, u win congrats. I don't think u really understood my point or Lucky's earlier post which I thought was a better worded version of my thoughts.

Shumate never played CB, he played Nickel. There's a difference.

 

[DillonHall]

That is exactly why the first three words of my post were "my personal opinion"

Thanks for sharing, but what's the point of throwing out random opinions?

Save that for May, when nobody's on the site.

EDIT: I also find it ridiculous that the coaches would move a player just to improve his physicality.

What I think happened is that the coaches wanted to try out Ishaq after Hounshell's injury and they were pleasantly surprised. As Kelly said today, Ishaq has been on the D-line for only two practices. However, in those practices, he's been impressive, and there's no reason to think that he can't continue to play on the D-line, especially considering the rushing the QB was his greatest strength as a high school player.

 

[Irish Insanity]

Without opinions, we wouldn't have any discussion, nor a site......

 

[Redbar]

I am really pulling for Ishaq and think this will be his year regardless of position. I think with some people they have the ability to play this game and more important than whether he is a DE or a cat he just needs to see how dominant he can be. As he has added strength to his frame his confidence will grow in proportion and once he has that first dominant performance it's Katie bar the door. He will be a problem for anyone across from him.

 

[Kak7304]

I'd love to see a front 4 of Ishaq, Day, possibly Vanderdoes, and Tuitt on obvious passing downs.