Raekwon was slated to be an upgrade at Middle Linebacker…
…So far Raekwon has played without positive impact
One of the players I was most excited to see in 2018 was Raekwon McMillan. He’s a good kid at a position of need. The fact he went down on his 1st play last year made me itch to see him even more.
But after just a few snaps of the 1st Preseason Game, disappointment set in. Still, it was his first game against NFL competition, so the 2nd Preseason Game was always set to be a bigger indicator for me.
The big problem is: McMillan was a liability in the Panthers game.
Adam Gase said this: “After watching this game, you saw things where he cut it loose. He’s thinking less. He wants to do a lot of the things you want a Mike linebacker to do. I think it’s trending in the right direction.”
…Trending in the right direction? This has to be heavy coach speech. Now I’m not saying McMillan can’t / won’t make improvements in Game 3 and beyond, but look at Baker. As a true rookie, Baker is much farther along.
Raekwon is slow, so his diagnosis must be fast to compensate
I see strong flaws in Baker’s game, but he has a key edge McMillan will never have. And this edge is why #52 must be near perfect in his reads because he has no room for error, especially in coverage.
Speed: Baker has it and McMillan doesn’t. #52 is painfully slow. I’m not sure if the injury has reduced his already pedestrian speed (4.61 ’40’), but he is one of the slowest LBs I’ve watched on film in a long time. Zach was slow, but his instincts and diagnosis skills were at an elite level (I say HOF level). That makes all the world of a difference.
Here is the tape of McMillan from both games. Either he is star struck, very green, or he has poor instinct and diagnosis.
Problems with the MLB play in tape above:
- Doesn’t stack and shed well
- Overpursues, impatient, vacates the middle too quickly
- Bites on / doesn’t take into account counteraction, which is accentuated by #2
- Slow which accentuates issues #1-3
This is a long list of issues to fix by Week 1 of the Regular Season. On the outside at the SAM may prove a less demanding situation for him. But Gase is sticking with him at MLB… at least for one more week. Maybe it will all click? It’s a long shot to bet with the pay per head reviews sites that this turnaround happens that soon.
Again, I’m not saying he’s a bust. If he gets his reads right, things can turn around. But I doubt he’ll ever be a Nickel / 3 Down LB. His lack of speed will always be a liability… and a big one in modern football. Remember the era of Zach is far different than this one. This was a big knock on him coming out of the draft. Phins thought differently.
At this point, the brass needs to be realistic, not idealistic.
Here is the video of his coverage over two games.
Issues with his coverage in tape above
- Too slow for Man-To-Man and to cover much real estate in Zone
- Stiff and lacks agility
- Struggles beyond 5 yards due to #1 & #2
- Bites on play-action and too slow to recover
- Always trailing the receiver
- Too slow to recover from a misstep
I’ll be as harsh here as I have ever been in a Phins article about the Gase regime: Putting McMillan in the Nickel is near criminal.
Now given the above tape, compared it to the successful plays below. How is Gase secure in McMillan at MLB? Even his ‘successes’ are but blimps on the radar for any quality Mike LB.
The major problem is that Week 3 of the Preseason is about prepping for Week 1 of the Regular Season.
The reps in this coming game are valuable. The starting Mike need reps with the starting defense.
To compound the issue, the interior D-line is still unsettled. Godchaux is playing poorly. If the interior of the D-line doesn’t perform, then the job of the LB’s, especially the Mike is much harder. Miami has a very serious facing them with the Titans coming to Miami in 3 weeks. The Titans have a Top 5 O-Line and tough Running Backs. This could be a recipe for disaster… if Gase doesn’t get this issue right and fast. Go Phins!!!
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