Will the real Leonard Floyd please stand up?

[adam]

Everyone has talked about how bad the team as looked with Mack hobbled by the ankle the last two games. However, we were a good defense without him last year, and Floyd was a big part of it.

This year Floyd looks more like a UDFA than a first round pick. His numbers have actually gotten worse every year and he has never played more than 12 games per season. I know there is still some time, but if he continues to play like this, I don't see them picking up his 5th year option.

[DABEARSDABOMB]

I'm calling it right now...he's having a multi-sack game with a turnover this week.  Time for him to hit "reset" on the start of the season and kill it from this point forward (now that he's almost 100%).  

[AZ54]

When he was drafted the big concern with Floyd was if he could set the edge on run downs.  Now he does that very well getting those long arms into the OT or TE and using his other arm to reach out if players try to go around him.  But too often he won't use his arms on pass rushes and so the OTs just wait until he does a little move and then hit him in the chest.  The fancy moves will work more often if he can build off some power moves but he never seriously challenges an OTs anchoring ability.  I've seen him do bull rushes but he usually gets stopped after 2 yards and just outside the QB.  

I'd say he lost strength due to the hand injury but he was still fairly effective on run downs at least with his good hand blocking.  In training camp the talk was about how well he was using his hands and arms.  Then we get injury and it feels like he went back to his old pass rushing habits.  

[lemonej]

Leonard Floyd has a basketball player's body on the football field coupled with the fact that he played most of the season with a club or brace on his hand and then asked by our revered DC to drop in coverage against a quick twitch RB. What should we be able to gather from that? Even Mack was dropping into coverage bad ankle and all.

[Alaskan Grizzly]

I thought Floyd’s herald was that he was more a speed pass rusher ala Von Miller, Elvis Dumervil or even Khalil Mack.  Aside from Mack the other guys listed most times just used pure speed to blow past blockers.  Why would he need to engage an OT or TE, unless he were to cover the latter in pass coverage?  Which is another element of his game...or so I thought . With his lanky height and lean frame you’d think he should be able to run circles around most edge blockers, broken hand or not.  

[lemonej]

12 minutes ago, Alaskan Grizzly said:

I thought Floyd’s herald was that he was more a speed pass rusher ala Von Miller, Elvis Dumervil or even Khalil Mack.  Aside from Mack the other guys listed most times just used pure speed to blow past blockers.  Why would he need to engage an OT or TE, unless he were to cover the latter in pass coverage?  Which is another element of his game...or so I thought . With his lanky height and lean frame you’d think he should be able to run circles around most edge blockers, broken hand or not.  

Agreed. When he is being asked to cover a RB that is quick twitch, you're not helping him develop.

 

[adam]

Floyd's is very springy, and doesn't have a quick turn, so it is odd that they ask him to drop into cover and cover an RB man-on-man. 

If he can get pressure, it changes the entire game because the offense can't commit to both sides of the line. If they do, with max protect, we should have the coverage to stop it. The issue lately is they have been stacking Mack's side making Floyd beat them and he hasn't.