Aj Edds

Chris Chambers wound up being traded twice and hasn't ever really produced on his promise. Randy McMichael was traded and hasn't done anything. So we have one player who is halfway decent out of all the ones they drafted.

 

PFW had him projected in the fifth to sixth round in their publication.

 

Nice try at moving the bar. The person in question was arguing that people in the FO get paid to make draft picks and we don't, so our opinion is by definition not as good as theirs. I refuted that argument.

 

Hell, from the looks of it, he could play safety

 

AJ was a potential pick of mine a few weeks ago ... the only thing that made me change my mind at that time was his bench press ... he needs to get stronger - otherwise he seemed like a nice latter round OLB pick.

IF we get him in the weight room and improve his strength -- he will be an asset to this team.

 

I can speak from experiance, the bench press is over rated.

 

from
Mike Mayock, NFL Network
119 -- Miami -- LB A.J. Edds

http://chat.nfl.com/front/index/883

 

Seriously. From watching the clip, he's got pretty good closing speed, a ball hawk, good pursuit angles.

 

hey guys, i joined your board to give you some info on your pick of AJ Edds

1. Dont listen to what ESPN or CBS has to say about Iowa guys. They regularly get things wrong. Mel Kiper was saying that Tony Moeaki's(our 3rd round TE) weakness is blocking. In actuality, that is one of Tonys best strengths. They also had Pat Angerer ILB as a 5-7 rounder and Indy picked him in the 2nd. They either never take the time on iowa guys or suck.

You guys made a great value pick for a 4th in AJ Edds. Edds played Strongside OLBer at Iowa for all four years and was good each year. He is 6'4 246 lbs on a very lanky frame. I could definitely see him be able to hold an additional 15 lbs. At his pro day Edds ran a 4.67 40 yard dash, 35.5 vertical, and a 10 foot broad jump. Dude is athletic.

Dont hold the bench press against him. The strength and conditioning staff at iowa is one of the best in college football. Our S and C coach, Doyle, does not value the bench press as a tool. Iowa players rarely train using it and generally for draft prep, its the first time they have trained for it since high school. Iowa players since Doyle got here regularly underperform on the bench. Edds is by no means a weak guy.

He rushed the QB maybe 3 or 4 times in the 2008 season and i dont remember him once rushing the QB in 2009. Do not look into his sack stats whatsoever. He was never given the chance to accumulate them. Iowa rushes 4 down linemen and may blitz 10 -15 times all year.

Strengths
1. His awareness. He picks off a lot of balls. He is always in position and he is a very smart guy. Not your usual interdepartmental studies kind of guy. I believe he is graduating with a finance degree. He reads QBs very well. He gets a lot of easy picks because QBs are unaware of him, but he is of them.

2. Coverage skills. Guy can cover. best cover LBer in the draft. At iowa, instead of blitzing or playing on the line, he dropped back into coverage. He easily can cover TEs but can cover WRs and RBs very well. When Anthony Gonzalez played against Iowa in 06, Edds did quite a good job of keeping up with him, stride for stride for 20-30 yards at times. He also has very soft hands for a guy of his size. He played TE in high school and was recruited to Iowa as a tight end. LBer was actually considered his second position and played because of an Iowa need. Wont drop easy picks.

3. He is a sure tackler. He was taught well. He wraps up guys. He puts himself in good positions and takes good angles to get to the ball carrier. Good sideline to sideline movement leads to easy tackles. When he did go up to the line to make the tackle, it generally was outside the hashes.

Weaknesses
1. Shedding blockers
2. blitzing the QB

These are really hard to call weaknesses too. He rarely ever blitzed. Its something very foreign to him. Has he proven to be able to blitz the qb? not really. Do i think if he was finally given the chance to do it, could he? Yes.

He rarely played the middle of the field. He was never really given a chance to shed blockers. He generally only played the outside for run plays. He never really played up the middle. Just by his lanky frame I could see him struggle with it at first, but the guy will get it.

What is Miami getting?
Miami is getting a leader. A guy who imo will start for you and start for awhile. He is not flashy. He wont make the huge hit or make the ridiculous TD return, but he'll make sure Miami is rock solid at one position for awhile. You wont have to worry about missed tackles, blown coverage, dropped picks,etc. He will be one of those guys that will not get much credit when the defense is playing well but when hes out/gone, people will miss him. This was a good pick.

 

He's like a big Zach Thomas

 

Nice summary HH ... oh and welcome to the board.

 

Bro thank you for stopping by!!!! Excellent write up!

 

Thanks for the info herkyhawkeye, appreciate it

 

We can only hope that he is.

 

Heres a few reasons why he dropped to the 4th.

Like i said earlier, he doesnt have much experience in blitzing the QB so his status dropped a little bit in the mock draft guys eyes

One other reason why I think he dropped is because he kind of got lost in the shuffle. He was on one of the best defenses in cfb this past season. That defense returns 8 starters and he was drafted third of the 3 departing defenders. ILB Angerer was drafted the second to last pick in the 2nd round and CB Amari Spievey was the 2nd pick in the 3rd round.

7/8 of the 8 guys returning will be drafted guaranteed. The other, FS Brett Greenwood may be drafted but if not, will be picked up as an undrafted free agent. If you guys really want to see some players, you should look at SR DL Adrian Clayborn or JR SS Tyler Sash. Future draft monsters on that defense.

I can say with certainty that if he was needed to step up and make more plays, he would have. He just wasnt needed to. He will listen to what the coaches have to say, and is a guy who leads by example. His demeanor is very similar to another hawkeye, Dallas Clark.

 

Adrian Clayborn is scary good. Top fifteen pick next year IMO.

Agree on the write-up of Edds. Welcoem to the boards man!

 

He's already being projected as our starting inside backer on passing downs. My hope is that we will replace Crowder completely!

 

sorry not trying to pad post count, want to post video i need 5 posts

 

AJ

 

Edds

 

heres some additional video on Edds

Here is a INT he got against Wisconsin in 07. Watch his(#49) backstep on the extreme right of the stage. Watch him shift his hips another direction and come out of nowhere to pick this ball. The QB cant even believe it.

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/sports/watch/v1293042RmRgrywd#

some clips of his game versus Iowa State in 2008. He can clean up a lot of plays as well.

http://sports.yahoo.com/video/player/nfldraft/Linebackers/19214910#nfldraft/Linebackers/19214910

 

Hey are you his agent!? Just kidding I love this info!

 

Great stuff bro!

 

naw, but i would love to be a sports agent

No, Iowa doesnt have a pro team so we love our hawkeyes. I have a few teams i follow(bears and colts) but mainly root for hawkeye players and other players i liked to watch play. No real allegiances. I tend to go to teams that have drafted hawkeyes and give them info from someone that has seen every play of these players careers. Tend to have to educate quite a few fans who automatically talk the pick down because its a guy from Iowa and they have never seen him. Since hes not from Bama, Texas, or USC and they havent heard of him, he has to be bad right?!?!?!? A lot of people dont watch much iowa football but Kirk Ferentz produces nfl talent as good as all but a select few.

I now have a reason to watch dolphin football

 

That is always a good thing!

Not to many people talked our picks down. Most of us trust our FO, but I have to admit that AJ had me scrambling for more Information. He looks awesome in coverage and appears to be a very solid tackler as well as a team captain which Bill holds very high.

I'm not sure if you watched Jeff Irelands press conference or not but he is already projected in our nickle package. I would love to see him start along side Karlos Dansby as our future MLB.

There is also an interview with him up there check it out if you haven't!

 

When one hears news they have to consider the source. The source in thus case is a Hawkeye fan.....the spectrum of sleezy fans goes something like this...


Jets/Pats/Hawkeyes (most sleezy)----------------------Dolphins/Cyclones (class act)










Sorry, couldn't resist (ISU fan). I have high hopes for Edds. We need a coverage backer BADLY as was apparent from the Colts game last year. Edds should fit in nicely when Dobbins gets tired :P





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It is all a matter of opinion.

 

The next A.J. Duhe anyone?? Eh??

When I say we picked this guy and learned he's a coverage LB, I put two and two together.

 

He was recruited as a TE but switched to LEO or strong side backer his freshman year. He played his true freshman year at OLB. Those stats must be HS stats as he never caught a pass at Iowa.

In Iowa's defense, he played LEO or strong side backer. Iowa rarely blitzes, maybe 10 times throughout the season, so their LB'ers are rarely attacking the QB. They typically rely on 4 DL to apply pressure and use LB's to cover WR's and TE's. His position also requires him to take on TE's and FB's in their defnese to allow the Mike to flow to the ball carrier and make tackles.

Make no mistake about it, the kid can cover. He was routinely asked to cover slot WR's and he's a big part of the reason their pass D was ranked 4th in the country. He's very instinctive in coverage and does a great job jumping routes. I'm sure his background as a TE really gives him an edge here. He's a really sound tackler, takes good angles and has a high motor.

The thing with Edds is you get a high character, smart football player with great work ethic, a good frame and some very good athleticism. He was a team captain, was on the leadership committe since his fresman year, is a 3 time academic all big ten, carried a 3.7+ GPA and was a workout warrior. He may not be ready to be an every down LB'er yet but will be an immediate asset in pass coverage. We all saw our middle pass D get torn to shreds last year. He had 6 picks last season(including senior bowl) and 4 pass break ups. I think with some work and weight lifting he could eventually be groomed into a starting role at ILB.

 

His main concern will be stack-and-shedding inside at ILB. If he can do that at his height we'll have two ILBs that can cover with the best of them. That's a rarity and a major boost to keep your formation in tact regardless of the spread offense.