The Birds are set at the starting defensive tackle position with Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley. They should be since they invested two first round draft picks in them, but these guys matured to be true professionals this season, especially Bunkley.
Patterson has always been a mature player. He's taken the bigger and more powerful Bunkley under his wings. During the training camp if you saw Patterson, you saw Bunkley. No longer was Bunkley majoring in being the best video game player on the football team, he was intent on doing his job at defensive tackle. Both of them were focused and they worked hard throughout the mini-camps and the Lehigh training camp.
Patterson who plays low to the ground and is as quick as a cat, uses his quickness to beat offensive linemen to the punch. He had 4 sacks and 66 tackles on the season. There's room for improvement in Mike's game. You can see that Patterson's wrestling background helps him tremendously. Whatever an offensive lineman does, Mike counters. They did a good job of keeping him fresh by not leaving him on the field for too many plays. Mike isn't that big so that's something the Birds have to watch.
Brodrick was like a child in his first year. He had no idea of the importance of being a first round draft pick. They should give Patterson a bonus for the job he did in helping Bunkley mature and grow up. Last year Brodrick was more focused on playing video games and getting his local home built. This year he was intently focused on football.
Bunkley is a bigger man and he uses his brute strength more than Patterson. His upside is huge. He can become a much better pass rusher if he will learn to not running straight into the blockers. He's got to better develop his pass rush moves and utilize a strategy on his way to the quarterback . That means he must go into the game with a strategy to set an offensive lineman up by utilizing a certain move early because it sets a different move for later. They've got to teach him that this off season. The Big Fella had 3 sacks and 32 tackles on the season.
As a duo, they bottled up opposing running games so well that there’s no longer any concern about the Eagles run defense. The Birds finished the season 7th in the league against the run, despite not having a big dominating middle linebacker. Gaither did a good job but the improvement against the run is more about Patterson and Bunkley than Gaither.
LaJuan Ramsey was inconsistent as a backup. Something happened with Ramsey so the Eagles soured on him late in the season and didn't activate him. LaJuan will have to battle somebody for his job when he comes in next season. Whatever got him in the doghouse at the end of the season will have him in a disadvantage against the draft choices and/or free agents he battle during the off season and training camp.
Veteran Montae Reagor was a disappointment and won't be back. Reagor doesn't have the quickness he had in Indianapolis. Monte isn't a power player. His game was all about quickness and speed, so the fact that it's gone, means he will be gone.
Veteran Kimo Von Oelhoffen came in and made some key stops on the goalline in those last few games. Von Olenhoffen and Reagor will probably move on and
07' Grade – B
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