DT Development

[dadmg]

Originally Posted by da Bull

dadmg,

Of the older players making the pro bowl at first glance they appear to be the "water buffalo" type (Sam Adams) vs. the quicker "gap shooters". Haynesworth, although a very large man appears to be more of a "gap shooter". In your opinion (having researched the position) which type makes up the majority of the data, if either?

I was going to continue my research in this exact direction but two things stymied me. One was that its more difficult to quantifiably separate the two groups then I'd guessed. I was going to do it by a weight cutoff, but that was stymied by team practices. According to official listed weight, Pat Williams (316) weighs only five more pounds than teammate Kevin Williams (311). As anyone with eyeballs knows, there's no way on this earth that is true. Kevin Williams, at one point in his career, was so much a gap-shooting type that he played more often at DE. While he's more of a tweener between the groups now, I Pat and Kevin are not the same type of DT by any stretch of the imagination. I also considered sacks as a measure but some DTs do both or switch roles depending on the year and the scheme. The second thing that ended my pursuit of that line of research was that I realized I'd already done far too much procrastinating for the day and needed to get some vital homework done

IMO, I think that the gap shooters develop quicker. The adjustment from the college game to the pro game isn't that great if you're role on defense is to charge indiscriminately up field. I think it takes awhile longer to figure out how to control gaps. Then again, it could just be that we recognize the gap shooters success sooner because they rack up the big numbers that stand out even if we didn't see a game and the big lugs don't. By most Buffalo fans accounts, Pat Williams was a Pro Bowl DT throughout a good portion of his tenure with the team but wasn't recognized as such until he became the key cog in a Minnesota D that did an absurd job of stopping the run the last few years.