Roth pays dividends as beefy linebacker

He's been the biggest surprise for me so far this yr. He is what we would have drafted Chris Long for, and he comes cheaper and with a better feel for the team.

 

Is he really back down to 275? That's what he was at Iowa, and most likely why he's getting after it so much better now. The last couple years, he packed on so much weight to play on the line, he was waddling like a penguin getting on and off the field. I'd like to see what he can do if he got even a little lighter.

 

it would be nice to get a solid player developed out of him. If he can keep up how he played last week, that woudl be huge for our drafting strategy next year, it would allow us to look in the draft for a depth guy in the later rounds instead of a starting guy in the first few rounds.

It was suprising and refreshing to see roth all over the san diego backfield last week. I hope he terrorizes Schaub and Slaton too

 

If he can tighten and lighten up, he can be a beast. Get some more burst/explosion, if possible.

 

Looks like Sabans 05 draft is stepping it up.

 

Roth is looking great. He seems to be able to get to the QB even when a TE or a o-tackle get on him because he has nice speed for a guy his size. The whole D line looks better, and the goal line stand where they stopped LT on 4th down had me standing and screaming at my tv set (in happiness). Nice to see!!!!

 

I love his attitude, love that he's on our team, actually heard the word future star attached to his name a few times this week. and not just from our homie Gus Johnsson

 

True and False at the same time.
Saban drafted him to be a DE, at which he failed.

 

I do not care if he drafted him to be a kicker. If he makes the team as an outside linebacking starter, it is a success.

 

If he can have half the success of Duhe ... well then we got ourselves a player! Very pleasant surprise so far this season, great to hear hes really taken to his new spot and is playing tough with energy. The more punishment hes laying on tailbacks and TEs the better.

 

I would disagree that Saban failed in what he wanted from Matt Roth. I think the overall defensive collapse, and a temporary lack of key position for Roth made people doubt him much more than he should.

During late 2006, Matt Roth was looking good. He came up with a huge forced fumble with the Vikings where he threw down a Guard while lined up at DT and forced a fumble for a TD, and then followed that by a 2 sack performance vs. the Lions, then a 1 1/2 sack performance vs. the Patriots.

Where Roth fell by the wayside really was last year, IMO. He had nagging injuries like 3/4ths of the year, and was stuck on a defensive with massive injuries, no depth, and forced to play mostly 2-gap over tackle, which is rough for his T-Rex arms.

It's hard to say what Saban would have done with him. I think if he had moved into Vonnie Holliday's position in a bigger basis, we wouldn't be talking about his "resurgence", we'd be talking about a quality young player.

 

Matty gets a little more experience under his belt, he could play everywhere for us like Vrabel does for the Patsies.

Or Duhe did, but Duhe could play OLB/DE/ILB, I'd love to see him play inside a bit, he is more athletic then Akin, and produces as much as Channing C.

And he is 20 pds heavier then Channing.

 

Thank God he is off the line and finally doing some damage. Pretty nice to have a front seven that teams do not want to face. As Brett Favre said "these guys are heavy".