They probably aren't doubling him there. Vaccarro has coverage responsibility on Austin in all likelihood while the other safety has deep zone responsibility.
I hate to nitpick, but they're playing 2-man on 3rd and 9. I'm not sure thats indicative of anything other than the situation.
From the way Vaccaro played it, I'm not sure that is the case. He had his head (and presumably eyes) locked on Austin the whole way (and away from the QB or anyone else who might have come into his zone, if he was playing zone), and he followed austin to the sideline after his break (albeit ineffectively).
The only threats possible would be from the strong side of the formation. The weak side CB has man responsibility, so that WR isn't a consideration for. Vaccaro needs to identify which player he needs to maintain depth with, while maintaining his inside leverage. He needs to take away anything broken to the inside. He should follow on an out-route, but you can't expect him to make a play there. Really it was a play that Byndom should have made. Austin does deserve credit for adjusting to what well-placed pass. But he didn't own Vaccaro or anything like that there. EDIT: #17 (not sure his name), also deserves some blame on that play. He has zone responsibility, but does a terrible job getting depth. Considering it was 4th and 9, thats just bad situational awareness.
Again, that all assumes that it was zone on the strong side. Vaccaro didn't play it like zone coverage. He was locked onto Austin from the snap and never even looked to see if anyone else was coming into his "zone." There were two backs in the backfield who easily could have gone right to the short middle of the field, and although they didn't, Vaccaro would have never seen them if they had. If Vaccaro was playing the short middle zone, his job wouldn't have been to follow Austin on the out-route. Doing that would have left the short middle wide open for one of the backs to take a short pass a long way down the middle. I don't think there should be any expectation that Byndom make that play, especially since his primary concern was the outside receiver going deep. I also don't think it is a stretch to say that Vaccaro, as good a cover S as he is, simply can't stay with Austin on those kind of routes. His slow reaction to that cut is not excused by saying he was playing zone. And the previous play (at 5:26) similarly shows Austin getting ample separation within a second or two on a quick out in man coverage. Vaccaro was fortunate to get that shoestring tackle, as Austin has a fair amount of open field ahead of him.
I am pulling for the development of Yeatman. Given his athletic ability I would love to see him get a shot this year. If Winston or Vollmer are signed, I expect Yeatman to be the understudy and I would like to see him get into a few games. That probably wouldn't be a good reflection of how the year is going however. I have some serious reservations about whether Jerry makes it. Saying all of this, I would not invest a first round pick on a OT. I would consider it in rounds 2 through 4. ps. sorry I attempted to move the discussion away from Austin and Vaccaro.
Vaccaro is absolutely not tasked with simply covering Austin in man coverage. There is no way he can't be when he's lined up 5 yards to the inside of Austin and giving up that kind of leverage on 4th and 9. At worst they're matchup/pattern-reading, which still doesn't make Vaccaro responsible for the out there. Depends on what happens, and which is why flooding is a good way to beat zone coverage. Byndom also has help over the top. The QB's drop also gives it away. The more I watch it, the more I'm convinced this was matchup-zone/pattern-reading.
Darlington mentioned on twitter that he's heard some preliminary draft stuff out of Miami, and that if they do what he's hearing, it is going to be wild. Now, wild to some of you may be the idea of drafting a guard with the 12th pick. To me, and a few others, the first thing that I thought of was adding Tavon Austin's speed to Mike Wallace's speed.
That was the most ambiguous statement ever. He said he found the draft plans that he's heard to be "interesting".
If one of the top 3 OT drops in our lap at 12 and no one wants to trade up for him, I might have to agree with taking him.
The bottom line of the comment is this. He's heard something that is intriguing considering what the Dolphins have done and the direction they are going in. Now, some may think taking a cornerback or a defensive end is intriguing, but those are moves that most would expect the team to make. To me, intriguing is something that many will not expect the team to do. They just signed Mike Wallace to a big contract and Brandon Gibson to what is essentially a one year deal. Intriguing to me is taking Tavon Austin, who the organization has spent a lot of time scouting to this point, and adding his explosive element to the offense. Just a touch less intriguing would be drafting Tyler Eifert and adding him and his explosive ability to the offense.
With 3 picks now in the 7th, I'd use one a kicker. Carpenter isn't anything special, but is paid like he is.
He's one of the best kickers available. Watched him at that skills challenge and he gets good elevation on his kicks, so hard to block and has good rotation so they don't drift as badly as kicks that tend to knuckle. Raul Allegre was the guest analyst for the kickers, and he liked Hopkins' skill set. The challenge for the kickers was how many FGs they can make in 60 seconds, starting at 40 yds and progressively back to 53. They had to hurry more than usual, and Hopkins didn't win. The winner was Brett Maher of Nebraska. The other two kickers were Caleb Sturgis and Brett Baer. Baer actually has the best FG pct of all the kickers in this draft that I'm aware of. Both for in 2012 and for career. Any one of those 4 though would suit me completely to take in the 7th. Hopkins: Sturgis: Maher:
You know what would also fall under the "intriguing" label besides drafting Tavon Austin?---> if Ireland used the draft to redo the DT position just like how he used FA to reface the linebacking corps. Perhaps he spends a few picks on DT so Soliai & Starks can be jettisoned after the season (granted they'll be FAs, but still, I like jettisoned better). We pushed a chunk of salary contracts forward to leave room for a handful of 1 year contracts this year; therefore, in order to maintain cap balance next year and thereafter w/o any cap repercussions I'm guessing we'll likely draft a few players to groom behind those 1 year players and perhaps contract year guys this year so the draftees will be ready to go full time next year, hence no need to re-sign expensive veterans at those respective positions. Voila, rookie contracts on the cheap save the day. So essentially that leaves us looking at S (Clemons), G (Incognito), TE (Keller), DT (Solia), DT (Starks), SAM hybrid (Misi, unless Vernon can step into that role), slot WR (Bess), K (Carpenter). Obviously we'll still be looking at other positions but the above should be strategically looked at for future cap relief.
I think this is a bit of an underrated idea. He can line up in the slot without being exclusively a slot guy, and he adds an element the team doesn't have from pretty much any of its receivers. We don't have any bigger, taller, stronger receivers who can get up and compete for passes. Dustin Keller doesn't really do that for you.
Much like Tavon, many LBs wouldn't be able to keep up with him, and any safeties and corners who cover him won't be able to high point the ball over Eifert (as evidenced by Milliner covering Eifert in the NC game). Plus he can line up in-line (not that he is real good blocker, but he may be better than Keller), in the slot, or out wide.
I agree. I don't think most casual fans would consider OL or DT "intriguing". IMO the tone of that statement and the article made me think it was either about offense or about multiple trades.
Im not sure I agree that many LBs couldn't keep up with him. I don't think he is that dynamic, at least not as dynamic as the few special TEs in the league, but he does have special ability in terms of being able to high point the ball.
He may not be as dynamic as some TEs (not saying I agree or disagree), but I don't think keeping up with him is a matter of straight line speed. They have to be able to turn and run too, and there just aren't that many LBs who are great in coverage like that IMO.
I'm saying that Eifert is not particularly quick (or fast). I would say that Keller is better at creating separation from LBs. Eifert is just not special in that regard and won't be anymore difficult for LBs than your middle of the road starter at TE. The area where Eifert is special is in his ability to catch high passes over the defender.
This would give us a similar set of weapons to the Pats with their TEs. That too would be a great set of weapons. Eifert is very tempting. His slot capabilities were pretty obvious at ND with his size and athleticism. This also makes sense with Keller only under a one year deal. They still would be looking for a long term solution at TE.
I know he played with an injury this year. But I'm skeptical of the insinuation that he's falling down draft boards because of it.
I guess the question with Eifert is this then. Can you get a tight end similar to him later in the draft? Can you get a player that is similar to Tavon Austin later in the draft? I think if you take that angle, Austin is definitely a more unique player. You could possibly justify taking Denard Robinson as a developmental slot guy for down the road, but he definitely would not have the early impact that Tavon Austin would have. With Eifert, I think you could justify Travis Kelce or Gavin Escobar as guys who are not that far off him. Escobar in particular because of his ability to catch the football away from his frame. As far as other receivers go, I've been a big Ryan Swope fan, but he's getting some medical red flags due to concussions that he has had. His style of play makes him susceptible to that, IMO. I've always said that Quinton Patton was a perfect fit for the offense. I don't think he can do what Austin does on the field, but he is a receiver that is an excellent route runner that brings the ability to play any and all receiver positions.
True. I wonder, though, how much Ireland is married to the Parcells philosophy of kickers. From what I recall, Bill preferred finding his kickers from schools with colder climates, with the thought process being that they're used to kicking in less-than-ideal conditions. They found Dan Carpenter from Montana, for instance, and Bill got Adam Vinatieri from South Dakota.
Ahh, now we know the true reason of Ireland's interest in watching West Va. It's not Austin. It's not Bailey. He was scouting their kicker, Tyler Bitancurt. Seriously, I think those two kickers coming from cold weather schools is a coincidence as much as anything. During the Giants Super Bowl years of the mid/late 80s, their kicker was Raul Allegre. Born in Mexico, went to college at Texas. If Parcells had a pattern regarding kickers, which may or may not mean Ireland feels the same, it is he looks for free agents rather than draft them. Carpenter is an average FG kicker, and I'm thinking Ireland feels he can get equal for about 20-30% of Carpenter's salary, whether it is a 7th rounder or a UDFA.
I'll see if I can find something online, but I'm almost positive I recall him saying as much. As for Allegre, he was an injury replacement for Ali Haji-Sheik, who Parcells drafted out of Michigan.
I think Austin is more rare than Eifert, but I'm not sure the gap is that huge and I'm not sure you have to put them on equal ground. Escobar and Kelce might be good options as that safety net type guy, but I'm not sure they add up. Or if they do(in Kelce's case), it might be a bit of a different path so to speak.