onefellswoop7 Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 David Veikune-LB-Browns May. 2 - 6:19 pm et Hawaii DE David Veikune won money off Eric Mangini at Cleveland's rookie minicamp Friday by diagramming "acomplicated blitz formation in front of the entire team." Veikune knew every player's assignment on the play. We pass along the small story to point out Veikune's football intelligence. He reportedly is moving like a natural linebacker rather an a conversion end, and could contend for a starting job at OLB right away. Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer Link This REALLY says something about this kid! He is going to prove his 2nd round spot... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballpeen Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 David Veikune-LB-Browns May. 2 - 6:19 pm et Hawaii DE David Veikune won money off Eric Mangini at Cleveland's rookie minicamp Friday by diagramming "acomplicated blitz formation in front of the entire team." Veikune knew every player's assignment on the play. We pass along the small story to point out Veikune's football intelligence. He reportedly is moving like a natural linebacker rather an a conversion end, and could contend for a starting job at OLB right away. Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer Link This REALLY says something about this kid! He is going to prove his 2nd round spot... Nice to hear. If this guy has anything he should push for early PT...there isn't anybody worth a salt at the position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffer X Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 looked all world in t shirt and shorts *cough* northcutt *cough* Kevvy Kasp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl34 Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Bottom line: I think our defense will be better than the Jets were last year because we have better DBs. And if that's true, if we rank in the top half for once, we'll contend. Who, exactly, is better than Darrelle Revis (Pro Bowler)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaygroundLegend Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 He's growing on me everyday, but I still am hung up on him vs. Rey. If Rey has a better career I will be disappointed. Veikune seems like a great athlete but somethings missing, how hard can he hit? I saw the vid of that one block he threw in college, but will he be a game changer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaak Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 You know, I was talking to my friend the other day, and we were discussing the draft. I live up here in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, so obviously he's a Vikings fan. He hated the Harvin pick. He hates low character, stupid players. Harvin, for all his athleticism, is a low character, stupid player. I was saying that I was very excited about our draft, despite the fact that we didn't get anything flashy. He says to me, "Yes, but you are excited every year going into the season, so your credibility is fairly low with your excitement." I couldn't disagree with him there. I am excited going into every season. But this year... its a little different. Going into 2007, I was excited, but cautiously so. Then the season turned out to be very exciting. Going into 2008, I was extremely excited, and then was horribly let down. But my excitement was more because of what happened in 2007, and then the addition of Rogers mostly, but also Williams. I was like, "Yeah! finally a D to go with our O!" Despite my excitement, the regimes of coaches, GM's, and presidents always left me a bit perplexed from 1999 until present. My excitement this year comes more from the fact that the attitude of the team is being changed. Smart, intelligent, high character, good athletes who love football! Believe it or not, other than Bernie Kosar, my favorite historical Brown (from the era I actually remember watching football--as I was too young for Brown, Sipe, et. al.) was Mike Baab. Why? Because hew as a hard nosed, blue collar, work horse, intelligent center. And he was a comic book geek like me... I'm excited this year, not because the browns will break out and be contenders so much, but because finally they will play my brand of football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aloysius Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Those pass defense numbers are skewed because teams passed against us 128 fewer times than they did against the Jets. If you look at yards per passing attempt, the Jets ranked 18th and we ranked 26th. Darelle Revis and Kerry Rhodes are better than anyone we've got, plus they had a much better pass rush (41 vs. 17 sacks). And unless Veikune emerges or Wimbley & Hall drastically improve, that's the one part of our defense where we might not significantly improve. Hopefully, it'll happen, but I wouldn't guarantee that we'll be better than the Jets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aloysius Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 And if you look at the components of QBr, you'll see that the Browns rank higher because of a better TD/INT ratio. The completion percentages are about the same, with the Browns giving us less yards but - as I already mentioned - giving up more per passing attempt. The Browns gave us four less touchdowns, which could be a function of teams running all over us. After all, we gave up six more running touchdowns than the Jets did. As Mangini mentioned in last Saturday's presser, the Jets' run defense was so good that teams didn't run a lot on them: that's why Kenyon Coleman went from leading all d-linemen in tackles in '07 to having rather average stats in '08. As for the picks: yes, we had a fairly opportunistic secondary last year, though I don't know if that means we had a good one. After all, we're expecting/hoping that Abe Elam will be an improvement over Sean Jones, but Jones had higher pick totals both last year and all previous years. And I don't doubt that the Jets had problems in their secondary last year. Because Darrelle Revis is converging on shutdown corner status (something we don't have), teams threw a lot at the Jets' #2 cornerback. Mangini wasn't happy with rookie Dwight Lowery's play, which resulted in him bringing in Ty Law. Rex Ryan traded for Lito Sheppard because he wanted to solidify that second CB spot and he signed Jim Leonhard because he wasn't content with how the safety next to Kerry Rhodes was playing (which was Abe Elam for part of the year). That said, I think it's a mistake to completely separate run & pass defense, saying we'll have the Jets' run D and our pass D. If the Jets' run defense was as bad as ours was, its secondary wouldn't have been exposed nearly as much. And if they were playing in more blowout losses, they may have had more opportunities to get their hands on those lazy mistakes some QB's were chucking at us last year. I think our run defense will be significantly better next year, and - because of better CB depth and a little better pass rush - our pass defense should be somewhat better. But I don't see how we're somehow already better than the Jets were last year. Yes, we added some good veterans and a few promising rookies, but it's not like we completely raided the Jets' defense. If you had to rank the Jets' defenders last year in terms of how valuable they were to that defense, I'm not sure any of the guys we added would rank higher than 7th or 8th. Maybe the New York guys will correct me here, but it seems like Kris Jenkins, Shaun Ellis, Darrelle Revis, David Harris, Kerry Rhodes, and Calvin Pace were the real linchpins of that defense. Yes, Barton had a lot of tackles, but he played poorly late in the year (esp. in the Buffalo game). Coleman was stout in the run game, but he didn't push the pocket nearly as often as Shaun Ellis did. I like the additions, but I don't think we have an elite, top ten defense just yet. Some young guys still have to develop and, hopefully, next year's 1st round pick will bring us an elite DE or safety. I see a much more respectable defense, just not a finished product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Aloysius Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 Could be. But for every Indy and New York game in which our secondary looked impressive, there was a Dallas, Denver, or the second Ravens game in which, as Emmitt Smith would say, they got blowed up. I like the potential of our young corners, but I don't think either played like a pro bowler last season. And we'll see about our safeties; I suspect we'll be taking advantage of the good crop of young guys available in next year's draft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mz. Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 I suspect we'll be taking advantage of the good crop of young guys available in next year's draft. I don't know whether to call it optimism or pessimism (y'all decide), but I see one of those Browns draft "spoiler" years coming up in 2009. Like a 8-8 or 9-7 half-clunker, knocking us out of Mays/Berry territory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClevelandFanForLife Posted May 3, 2009 Report Share Posted May 3, 2009 i like this guy's football knowledge, but let's not start getting ready for him to be named defensive player of the year. we still need to see his ability on the field, not just his smarts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernietheKid Posted May 4, 2009 Report Share Posted May 4, 2009 He's growing on me everyday, but I still am hung up on him vs. Rey. If Rey has a better career I will be disappointed. Veikune seems like a great athlete but somethings missing, how hard can he hit? I saw the vid of that one block he threw in college, but will he be a game changer? Well you need to get over that fact real quick. Do you think Rey would have came here would he have been productive? I don't think so but in the end it doesn't matter what I think or you do. It's what the coaches think and what's best for the team and building a winner. They didn't think he would fit in the system so we didn't draft him. I'm not trying to be an a-hole but I'm sick of the Cleveland media saying we should of picked him when he didn't fit our scheme. Didn't we have enough of that for the last ten years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OconRecon Posted May 4, 2009 Report Share Posted May 4, 2009 I don't know about you blokes, but I wasn't sure how to say his name. Apparently, the Warriors have a program pronunciation guide for slow/non-worldly types like me. I'm sure most here have heard it on the FM dial, but I hadn't. Hawaii Warriors Pronunciation Guide 2008 PRONUNCIATION GUIDE ... 94 David Veikune ....vay-KOO-nay http://www.nationalchamps.net/2008/pronunciation/hawaii.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sisky fringo Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 the character transplant Mangini is presiding over... they always had pretty good character IMO...it's the intelligence that got upgraded. Hey, the bombs were absent for Anderson last year anyway. Teams figured him and the offense out. There really isn't anything to miss. maybe it was Chud teams figured out...and Anderson was just running plays. just sayin'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy Fan Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Whoops. I was stuck on Vay-COON. Ha! Good to know, I was giving him an extra syllable (Vay-i-koon-yay) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sisky fringo Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 if the Jets were in the AFCN, would they have fared so well? facing the Steel and the Rats twice a year will be a real test of Mangini's "D" mettle. although some contend Veikune was projected for the LOLB, the reports i've seen have shown him an ambidextrous player that is adept at either side. if he doesn't dethrone the current incumbents he will no doubt push them all to another level. a quality pick by the new regime with tons of upside in my mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl34 Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 they always had pretty good character IMO...it's the intelligence that got upgraded. I'm going to respectfully disagree. There are plenty of chuckleheads in the lockerroom who really aren't "team first" guys. Not only that, but some bad attitude guys who have influence over younger guys. Some of these dudes roll in a really bad way. Mangini isn't done yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaygroundLegend Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 The headline on OBR said that Veikune will be an ILB! I also read another one stating that Mangini wants him to play both ILB and OLB. We know how much Mankok emphasises versatility. I think he can definately play ILB, his combine was very similiar to Rey's. He's big enough and fast enough, Im just still worried about his aggressivenes.... and by that I mean if he has any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CLEVELandMILIDH Posted May 5, 2009 Report Share Posted May 5, 2009 Mangini said he's gonna start him at inside backer and depending on how he picks up the system and how he performs he could be moved to OLB but for now ILB is his starting point. That could be his exact words if I remember correctly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sisky fringo Posted May 6, 2009 Report Share Posted May 6, 2009 I'm going to respectfully disagree. There are plenty of chuckleheads in the lockerroom who really aren't "team first" guys. Not only that, but some bad attitude guys who have influence over younger guys. Some of these dudes roll in a really bad way. Mangini isn't done yet. care to name drop? you've piqued my interest Earl. are you referring to some Dline FA pickups they've added the past couple years? still, on the whole, you must agree they are in the top third of the NFL for "decent Joes". if not i'd say you're probably nitpicking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sisky fringo Posted May 6, 2009 Report Share Posted May 6, 2009 Mangini said he's gonna start him at inside backer and depending on how he picks up the system and how he performs he could be moved to OLB but for now ILB is his starting point. That could be his exact words if I remember correctly considering the origin of this thread seems like his performance will probably be the decider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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