Griff

When you have the measurables Griff does, hitting hard is all about attitude. You gotta have no fear and ill will. I like what I'm seeing from him so far.

 

Replacing people is hard and we do not have a ton of cap room or draft currency. If Griffin can play like this for the rest of the season we would be better off trying to improve other facets of the team like OT, DE, and CB.

 

In football, there are, lets say "important" factors in which why players perform poorly. Griffin is a good example one of the guys with great talent but hasn't played like he did in his first few years. For defenders, it is all about personnel and schemes. Griffin played well his first few years because of the scheme. He wasn't playing "out of position" because of the personnel. His best attributes are a ball hawk, center of the field type safety that can read the quarterback.

Ever since we lost Hope, we lost a true SS that impacted Griffin's play from there on because they moved him around too much trying to avoid that lose in Hope. They put him out of position which led to him to fail. In my own personal experience, I'm a firm believer in, "a coach can make a player fail". As a coach, you pick the scheme you want, you pick the personnel that fits your scheme and Griffin was simply out of position after Hope was gone. Moving him to places that didn't fit his best attribute and it showed, badly. However, him missing tackles is completely on him. He has been very bad in tackling last few seasons but surprisingly, he only has ONE miss tackle in 3 games.

This year, you have 2 true SS in Pollard and Wilson that can help Griffin get back to the scheme that fits him best and not worry about playing different positions and playing out of position. Playing center of the field is the only way Griffin can play his best ball and the 3 games had showed improvement from previous years.

Players can play poorly due to schemes and it happens all the time in football. I used to be a big fan of Griffin because of his play at Texas but last few years he has simply stunk and I was ready for a new FS. But he is the best free safety we have and we have to deal with it so I hope the improvement from the 3 weeks is a good sign for a improved year from the last few years.

Stats for the first 3 games for Griffin:
12 tackles, 1 assist, 1 miss tackle, 1 stop.
4 targets, 3 receptions for 46 yards, 3 YAC(hasn't let anyone gain more yards) 1 PD.

He hasn't been a difference maker but he hasn't hurt the team either.

 

I did wonder how a safety should play that. He almost missed the guy - luckily he nipped him enough to trip him up, but I thought it might've been defenseless receiver rule and we'd probably have gotten 15+ more yds tacked on if he didn't dive low at his legs. Safety is almost in unwinnable situation in that circumstance w/ rules as they are.