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I remember everyone being super excited about him and even as early as pre-season games we could see incredible burst and first step quickness. But he was getting to 'half a man' on OTs and....just kept going. He was taking himself out of plays early in his career. But you could see him improving week over week. Once he learned how to dip those shoulders a bit and power around a corner, it was all over but the crying. |
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Another positive to note about Karlaftis is that he isn't out there making negative plays.
Skyy is directly responsible for like 3 turnovers and at least one busted drive because he let a punt get downed at the 1. I don't recall ever thinking "Wow, George left a gaping hole where is gap responsibility should have been" or anything of that nature. He's out there flying around, trying to make plays. |
George is a smart player and smart players have long careers in this league. Which is why we should be even more excited about the Toney acquisition. That kid plays smarter than he looks. He was very impressive last week. I thought of him as a physical freak who lacked IQ but this guy looked like a taller version of Tyreek out there. He picked up Andy's playbook in two weeks time. We don't lose that game to Buffalo with Toney playing.
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I may be in the minority here but I think he is having a great year, hard to explain but the best way would be to say he is a B to B+ for everything, he has looked solid against the run, he has put on a great pass rush causing 10 plus QB to rush their throws for nothing. He puts in 110% effort, if we drafted over again and we had the first pick and had to pick a DE this is the guy I would want. He is also healthy which is really important. Sometimes you can find a guy who has more raw talent but they get hurt all the time. I think this guy is a 8-12 year starter for us.
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He's a guy who's going to have to grind. He'll get better at chaining moves or setting guys up. He'll get a little stronger. He'll get more precise and more consistent with his technique. I mean the difference between a good player and a HoFer is literally finishing one extra play/gm. Hell, it's not even that much. Just getting that level of consistency up to where he's a threat to finish the play on 80% of his reps instead of 60% of his reps will yield significant returns over large numbers. He's a grinder and that's how grinders have to approach it, IMO. You keep doing the work, putting in the effort, racking up the opportunities and eventually the chips fall in your favor. He ain't Mike McDermott out there going all in in every tournament. He's Joey Knish banking his small scores and winning the long game. |
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What I'm saying is that Houston when 12 games without a sack and suddenly got 3 in one game. Do you see Karlaftis being able to do something like that? |
I don't really have an issue with how Karlaftis is playing lately. He did have a small "slump" in like games 2-6 but he's been really good the past few weeks. Just have to turn a few of those pressures into sacks and he'll be fine.
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It's a preparation meets opportunity thing. Sooner or later he'll have a game like that if he just keeps pressuring pockets. But it won't be because he unlocks some specific trait that makes him orders of magnitude better, IMO. |
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His improvement depends on him refining and learning new techniques. That won't result in exponential growth but it absolutely can lead to incremental growth. Higher floor, lower ceiling type of thing. |
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He's just not that guy. In many ways he's a more VALUABLE guy if he continues to develop. Or certainly a harder one to find. Guys who can play really sound football and also contribute 8+ sacks are massively important and are big time force multpliers in their own right. They allow you to do more 'straight up' stuff because you don't have to cover for them like you would a Bruce Irvin sort of guided missile. I don't know that it's fair to say Karlaftis has a low ceiling - just that his strengths aren't going to be flashy. |
Him, CJ and Dunlap are playing really well together right now. I really hope they don't tinker with that trying to get Frank back in the mix.
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