Urban's Tuesday statements are wrapping, and the Ozone's Brandon Castel tweets, "Starting to believe you will see Simon, Noah Spence and Nathan Williams out there together on D this week."
This brings up an interesting scenario. Williams has brought energy on the edge when healthy, and Spence has been arguably the best pure pass rusher when he sees action. Simon has the strength to shift inside, but Hankins and Goebel are both being very disruptive on the interior. I find it hard to believe that John Simon is somehow less athletic than Zach Boren, as he is believed to be a tweener at his position, and he has years of experience reading offensive schemes, or at least recognizing them.
So what are the odds that Simon is dropped back into a linebacker role, or possibly a "viper" type versatile player. Obviously no one wants to see him pick up on pass coverage, but he has the leadership and experience to be a field general, and god knows he can tackle. Thoughts?
Disclaimer: This is not a proposition, nor a suggestion to a staff that knows vastly more about defense than I. Just some extrapolation to kill some time before saturday.
Personally, I would love to see Simon back there. I think he would be able to get the defense in the best position to succeed on any given play, and as you stated he has years of experience reading all sorts of offenses so his ability to recognize a run or pass play before the ball is even snapped would greatly benefit this defense IMO.
"Do not pray for an easy life. Rather, pray for the the strength to endure a difficult one" - Bruce Lee
i would love to see a dime defense. front four - williams, hankins, simon, spence. linebacker - shazier. put in two extra DBs. throw out the idea of using klein or boren. goebel would still see plenty of time rotating in. doran grant has proven he's a strong starter on defense, we need more space tacklers.
Think Simon would be another A.J. Hawk or Andy Katzenmoyer if he understood the position. No idea if he ever played linebacker but I can't see him having a problem with it. With 5 games left in his career, not sure it would be fair to him when he has been an anchor on the line his entire career.
I would have to guess that if one of those guys was going to play LB it would be Williams. He has more speed than Simon and we have already seen him used in the past at LB as well as dropping back in coverage from the end position.
I agree with Jrich is we see anyone at Linebacker it will be Williams. He has been dropping into pass coverage more than Simon.
What makes Simon so dynamic is in a "box" his strength/power/speed is extremely disruptive. In space he will not be as an effective player. But with him on the line either playing a 2 or 3 technique combined with Williams and Spence would quaify the OSU line as a terrorist organization with the DHS.
Yeah imagine having to double team both interior guys. Scary
Simon would be a better DT than LB....
Urban said in his presser that Williams would play some linebacker but wow that would be neat to see Simon back there for a few obvious run plays. He would blow people up!
Seems like they drop Spence IMO coverage a lot too. If anything I would expect to see Williams at Viper/LB, and maybe some Spence at Viper. I think Spence has some speed. Really hope Williams is better and can't play out the year. Don't forget he was out this past Saturday as well.
Spence is horrible at coverage not to mention I hate it when they drop what is probably the best outside pass rusher.
Nate should become the Viper and rush on the same side as Spence. Keep Simon at end next to Hankins. That way there is Spence and Nate on one side, Hankins and Simon on the other. If they can't get a pass rush on the QB with that, then I am at a loss!
Who are the best players?
It's a little late in Simon's career to start moving him around, and he is a beast right where he is!