Emptying the Notebook: Darryl Tapp

by John Morgan on Dec 28, 2007 11:59 AM PST in Commentary Comment 6 comments

Darryl Tapp

I admit it; I'm ambivalent about Darryl Tapp. He busts his ass out there, gets some pressure and makes the occasional nice play in run support, but his big day against Milford "Suck" Brown looks - well the name sort of says it all. The rest of his sacks have come against quarterbacks who don't know when to throw it away (Grossman, Garcia, Alex Smith and Troy Smith) with shaky offensive lines (18th, 21st, 31st and 23rd, respectively.) He also consistently fails to seal off the outside edge: recording only 4 tackles on the 31 rushes attempted around left end against Seattle. Wow, I don't know what I'm going to say when I start these, and, really, that number is staggering. I've heaped scorn atop Kelly Jennings and Brian Russell for the Hawks 27th ranked rush defense against runs around left end, but clearly Tapp deserves equal if not more blame for that particular deficiency. That makes a lot of sense, too, because Tapp gets most of his pressures with a good inside move that allows him to make some tackles up the gut, but takes him away from outside run support. 7 is a nice number of sacks for a young defensive end, but Tapp clearly has a long way to go to be a complete player.

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n/s

would we be better with Fisher still on the team and starting?

Just curious because it's a topic that we haven't discussed much.

Josh Brown is better than you. The Rest of the team is worse.

by MFAN on Dec 28, 2007 12:12 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Though I said so in the preseason...

probably not. Fisher seems to have hit the wall, he was a stouter, but also less opportunistic run stopper, and though crushing tremendously inferior competition can inflate a player's numbers, it's not as if Fisher would have been able to spank Brown nearly as well.

Given the overall quality of the Hawks defense, it's probably not such a bad thing to have Tapp learning on the job.

Also, though Seattle is very bad at defending rushes off left end, that's a tiny part of a team's defense. No insignificant, but pretty minor.

by John Morgan on Dec 28, 2007 12:30 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

D-Line

Tapp is an improvement over Fisher already and has potential to improve while Fisher (30) is likely declining (tough to be certain since he isn't playing much).

Kerney is a major improvement over Wistrom.

Mebane over Darby, obviously.

Ruskell overhauled this D-line very well.

Getting back Tubbs would be insane. I suspect Atkins will be a contributor too someday based on the hawks recent success rate finding defensive line talent.

I don't think overhaul is the word for what happened to this defense over the offseason.

Reloaded.

Thats better.

Go hawks!

by michaelfox99 on Dec 28, 2007 1:01 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, Atkins has huge upside.

Good player to watch on Sunday, all about convincing him to make his life football. The talent is there in spades.

by John Morgan on Dec 28, 2007 1:33 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

We'll finish these up tomorrow...

FWIC

I won't cover Mebane, Kerney, Tru, Tats or Russell, who have all been covered to death. Definitely want to get to Craig Terrill, who deserves some gloss. Probably won't cover Jennings, because it's hard to offer much analysis on a player we rarely see. I'll offer this, he's an excellent cover corner - precocious, even, for a second year corner. Like many cover guys, he just needs to improve his ball skills to be a truly great DB. We'll figure out what to do about Bernard, who many may know is one of my favorite Hawks, but who has been hobbled by injuries for roughly two years now, and may never again be the elite 3 tech he briefly was.

by John Morgan on Dec 28, 2007 2:18 PM PST reply actions 0 recs