It's interesting how things can change. After the first two years of Mafe, and at the time, the first year of Hall, I felt Mafe had the higher ceiling and was a lock to be our next star Edge.
It just hasn't clicked under MM unfortunately, while Hall seems to be growing into a better fit.
I was pretty resistant to signing Lawrence initially (clearly, very wrong) as I thought his upside was low and he would take snaps away from the young guys, but I'm seeing now that it seems you need really high field IQ to play in Mike's defense as an edge, which could be why Nwosu and Lawrence are the starters.
I’ve been waiting for Mafe to flip the switch from potential to production. The fact that I’m still waiting after 4 years says a lot. He has ALL the tools to be an AMAZING edge, but just can’t seem to put it all together.
So I guess it’s time to move on. Bummer it turned out this way.
I have to agree on your assessment of Mafe even though it REALLY pains me, bc I thought he was the real deal -- such a physical specimen and an aggressive attitude, sets the edge etc. But he really has plateaued and if we sign him, he has to be a really good bargain since it's likely he'll still only get ˜35% of snaps here.
Where I may disagree is on Derrick Hall, I'm more optimistic on him. I realize he hasn't popped a 10-15 sack season yet, but he has (to me) been quite disruptive and he MASSACRED the left side of the Pats line -- as you would expect a great edge to do. In fact for me the defensive MVP was between Spoon and him (I also thought Murphy II was absurdly good against the run, unsung as always but man, what a force. Philly you can keep Carter and Mitchell).
But your write-up was about Mafe not Hall and I agree, unfortunately it's time to try to fill Mafe's slot with someone more productive -- esp since Uchenna and Lawrence aren't long for this world (we are REALLY going to miss Lawrence, he's one of one). It's just really disappointing to agree on this.
It's interesting how things can change. After the first two years of Mafe, and at the time, the first year of Hall, I felt Mafe had the higher ceiling and was a lock to be our next star Edge.
It just hasn't clicked under MM unfortunately, while Hall seems to be growing into a better fit.
I was pretty resistant to signing Lawrence initially (clearly, very wrong) as I thought his upside was low and he would take snaps away from the young guys, but I'm seeing now that it seems you need really high field IQ to play in Mike's defense as an edge, which could be why Nwosu and Lawrence are the starters.
I’ve been waiting for Mafe to flip the switch from potential to production. The fact that I’m still waiting after 4 years says a lot. He has ALL the tools to be an AMAZING edge, but just can’t seem to put it all together.
So I guess it’s time to move on. Bummer it turned out this way.
I have to agree on your assessment of Mafe even though it REALLY pains me, bc I thought he was the real deal -- such a physical specimen and an aggressive attitude, sets the edge etc. But he really has plateaued and if we sign him, he has to be a really good bargain since it's likely he'll still only get ˜35% of snaps here.
Where I may disagree is on Derrick Hall, I'm more optimistic on him. I realize he hasn't popped a 10-15 sack season yet, but he has (to me) been quite disruptive and he MASSACRED the left side of the Pats line -- as you would expect a great edge to do. In fact for me the defensive MVP was between Spoon and him (I also thought Murphy II was absurdly good against the run, unsung as always but man, what a force. Philly you can keep Carter and Mitchell).
But your write-up was about Mafe not Hall and I agree, unfortunately it's time to try to fill Mafe's slot with someone more productive -- esp since Uchenna and Lawrence aren't long for this world (we are REALLY going to miss Lawrence, he's one of one). It's just really disappointing to agree on this.