We know how good the defense is. Before you hit me with “Defense wins championships,” and the like…
This is my one concern heading into the playoffs… Who is our stalwart leader on the offense this year?
Last season we had a wealth of veteran leadership at every position group which catapulted our offense to huge games in the first and second round, followed by stout performances in the semi and final. Will Howard, Treveyon Henderson, Donovan Jackson, Emeka Egbuka, and Gee Scott. You could even point to Seth Mclauglin (from the bench) if you pleased.
That was a generational team as far as vocal, and productive verteran leadership goes, and I didn’t even touch on the defense.
This year:
- QB has amazing arm talent but hasn’t yet shown leadership chops in the realm of Howard.
- RB’s are talented, but young. Donaldson being the most veteran hasn’t been in the brotherhood long enough to be looked at as a leader, and his production has been good, but not close to the boys last year.
- TE Will Kaczmarek is easily the most veteran of the entire offense. Silent leader perhaps? He likely knows the path better than anyone else.
- Montgomery is fiery, and still relatively young. Hinzman is probably the leader at this point. He’s come a long way from being benched two years ago before this very game because of some very un-leader-like pregame comments. Sierveld’s play has been pretty damn good, but his bald spot seems louder than his voice.
- Carnell Tate has been a well-documented silent guy. He really should be looked at as a leader this year, but for some reason we’ve played TE’s before him for the second half of the year. He just can’t come off the field in my opinion for him to be the kind of vocal leader we need.
- JJ Smith. We know the talent. We know he plays w/emotion. What we don’t know is if he can raise the level of play of his teammates. And true sophomores aren’t usually the dudes people look to for veteran leadership.
- Keinholz? Let him play a little. He’s not going to supplant Sayin, and shouldn’t, but he plays with fire. Iron Buckeye. Can create a wrinkle we can use to put defenses on their heels and make them think more and prepare for more than they can handle.
What do you all think?
