More Fun With Football Prospectus
Sep 4, 2008 2008 Season, Underrated
In the FP 2008 chapter on the Houston Texans, we find the following nugget:
We are cautiously optimistic about the Texans in 2008. The team is certainly on a positive trend, but if the Texans backslide or make only another modest improvement, they are at risk of becoming the NFL’s version of the Tampa Bay Rays: loaded with young talent, improving slowly, but destined for perennial also-ran status behind thei divisional superpowers. With the Colts and Jaguars playing the role of the Yankees and Red Sox, Houston could be better than it was a year ago and still finish last. It’s a devilish quandary.
I think I speak for all of us when I say I HOPE we are like the Tampa Bay Rays this year.
Why I {heart} Morlon Greenwood
Jul 21, 2008 Demarcus Faggins sucks, Morlon Greenwood, Stats, Underrated
So, in the comments to this post, Steph (echoed by Lee) asked:
Uh, I don’t know why you love Morlon Greenwood so much. He gets a lot of tackles, (after the offensive player drags him a little bit). He has one of the largest salaries on the team, and I don’t see him even as a average linebacker in the league. Heck, some might make the argument that he isn’t even above the average for linebackers on this team.
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I know you heart MG, and I’m only bringing this up to have a discussion of it because I’ve never understood your Greenwood love.
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Is it just the stats? Or are you seeing something in his play that is not as obvious as what you see with DeMeco. Ryans gets fat stats, but his play is so obviously outstanding when you watch it.
First things first, I want to make clear that I am not alone in my love for Morlon, nor in my assertion that he is incredibly underrated. Along with a penchant for drinking too much, our appreciation for Greenwood is one of the things Tim and I have in common. From BRB:
Morlon Greenwood is the most underrated defensive player in the NFL. That’s right. I said it.
I’ve been trying to analogize another player in MLB or the NBA to better describe the lack of credit Morlon Greenwood receives despite his stellar play. Greenwood’s body of work this season clearly screams Pro Bowl, but he’s got no chance of actually getting a ticket to Honolulu. I’m stumped.
Morlon Greenwood was so ridiculously good yesterday (13 tackles and a sack) that he gets to be first. Frankly, he played like DeMeco Ryans. Which was good, because DeMeco was hampered by a bum knee and didn’t have his typical impact. Greenwood was all over the field throughout the entire afternoon. I’ve noted before that Morlon was quietly having a great year, though he has about as much chance as getting to Honolulu in February as I do. In light of that, he’ll have to settle for this: His effort against the Bucs was about as good as a linebacker can play.
Not that agreement between two idiot bloggers is dispositive of the issue, mind you. I just wanted to make clear that I am not making stuff up or living in some hallucinogenic haze. Well, at least not with respect to the Jamaican Destroyer. (Yes, I just made up that nickname.)
So, what makes Morlon so good?
First, Greenwood has fantastic instincts. Not just, “oh, he’s a smart football player” type instincts, but more “damn, this dude always seems to be in the right place at the right time.” For just one example, mainly because it was the easiest one to see on television last year, in the Arizona preseason game, he had backside contain, saw the Cards’ formation (empty backfield), saw where Petey was matched up against Edge in the slot, knew Petey was going to get beat (safe guess), and broke from his WLB position to the middle of the field to try and make the play Petey would not. Unfortunately, Petey got roasted so badly off the line that Greenwood did not have the time to get there (the line of the scrimmage was the 5), but it was one of those plays that few WLBs would have had the presence of mind to even attempt.
Second, and more importantly, Greenwood is putting up solid numbers week in and week out while playing WLB in a 4-3 run by a man who isn’t qualified to suggest plays to you on Madden. Is Greenwood as good as Lance Briggs? No, of course not. But 118 tackles, 1 sack, 4 PDs, a Forced Fumble, and an INT is a VERY productive season for a weakside linebacker, even in a system where the DC knows how to utilize all three LBs properly. In our system? That is a FANTASTIC year. In fact, that stat line is so good that part of me wonders why in the world we have to have this conversation. (It is also a line so good that those who “might make the argument that he isn’t even above the average for linebackers on this team” should be dismissed as stupid.)
Overall, Greenwood has posted 112, 109, and 118 tackles, respectively, in his three seasons as a Texan. Now, while I fully realize that tackle numbers can be inflated when the players in front of the LB suck (or, in the case of Jamie Sharper’s ridiculous numbers, when you are running a 3-4 without a real NT and EVERY play gets funneled to you), I also know that Greenwood’s numbers as a Texan are better than what Derrick Johnson has put up in KC over the same time-frame. And, much like our line, it’s not like KC has been running a bunch of All Pros out there in front of DJ. Additionally, when moved from the SLB to the WLB position in Miami, Greenwood posted 108 tackles there and that Miami defense ranked 8th in the league in yards allowed. So I think it’s fair to say that Greenwood is not the “beneficiary” of poor play in front of him as much as he is just a good Weakside Linebacker.
Finally, there is the fact that Greenwood and DeMeco are like peas in a pod when it comes to film study and play. I put this point last on purpose because I generally think chemistry is overrated. For instance, last year, when Dunta was defending Petey as CB2, saying “I know what he’s doing over there; we work well together,” that didnt really mean much because they were on opposite sides of the field and one’s play was independent of the other 99.5% of the time. When you are talking MLB and WLB, however, that sort of thing does matter to a certain extent. If they are consistently on the same page and DeMeco never has to wonder if Morlon is picking up the same cues and/or if Morlon is playing his assignment correctly, then that frees DeMeco to be even more of a destructive force and lets him focus 100% of his attention elsewhere. While I don’t think good chemistry alone would be a reason to keep him, I certainly think it is something in Greenwood’s favor.
In the end, though, it comes down to the first two points. He has shown great instincts and quietly used those instincts and his natural ability to post a 2007 season that almost any team would be thrilled to get from their WLB. Did it come at a hefty price tag? Perhaps. But at least the money spent on Morlon was paid for top-notch play. Unlike, say, the checks that Anthony Weaver cashed every two weeks. And, besides, it’s not like Morlon’s salary made it so we could not afford some other great WLB who was available this past offseason, so I’m not entirely sure that his cost is germane to this conversation.
Now, obviously, Greenwood will be 30 this year and he can’t play forever. And, as much as I love the guy, if Adibi takes his job after this season based on the performance of one or both of them in 2008, I am not going to lose any sleep. But, until that day comes, I think Texans fans need to realize how well Greenwood is playing every week and be thankful that we have him.
