Jamal Woods

[Blue In BC]

So what are the takes on his performance on Saturday? Those at the stadium will have a better view / insight to how he did and how many reps he was getting.

I thought he did some good things. He was on the K/O return team for the opening K/O and made a block. I can't say it was a key block but it was on the side that Vaval went, so kudos.

Generally he seemed to have great hustle with fresh legs. Made a couple of tackles. Saw him chasing down Bell and BLM a few times. At least once forced BLM deep and wide that resulted in an incompletion.

He'll probably get more reps with the 1st team in practice for at least awhile. If and when Parker and Griffin return he may get bumped. In theory that could be as early as the next game, or not for a few more games.

Overall he was an improvement on the DL although BLM did have a lot of time to throw.

[Blueforlife]

A good game but wasn't watching him that closely as we sit top row, upper deck.  I did see him get QB pressures.  He will continue to make an impact and will stay on imo.  Very happy he got his chance.

[Tecno]

Kinda like I predicted.  It's not enough to make a difference.

At the stadium I really couldn't tell you by the results who the DT was that was in any given play.  No, I didn't focus on them.

What I did notice is the DTs would get some straight push quite a bit, and BLM got flustered by it.  He really was never in any sack danger, but he didn't like it and it spooked him.  Kind of like a race horse with a mouse around in the starting gate.  But I couldn't tell which DT it was any given time.

I think BLM should have waited in the pocket longer and realized more that he was almost always perfectly safe.  Weird we can spook QBs like this without having a DT who can shed an OL for a side-tackle.  Might work on T.Harris, too.  He's the same pocket-style QB as BLM.

I'll be able to tell more on the PVR rewatch.  My hunch says he'll be AR/PR/IR as needed based on who we are facing.  I'm pretty sure he didn't just make himself a "must roster".  Not by a long shot.

[bunker]

Its not easy to compare Woods with other D-lineman since they rotate so much, and often line up at different positions, sometimes in the interior and sometimes at DE. I can't say he was outstanding, or stood out for me, but I think he was less likely to get steamrolled on running plays the way JT95 was sometimes. He also has more mobility and speed going after the QB once he comes off his block than JT95.

[Tecno]

Good point, bunker.  I'll have to see what he was doing on run block.  Fortunately/unfortunately HAM didn't try to run much, and succeeded even less.

Against a run-happy team like SSK he might be more useful.  Maybe that's why we're getting him up to game speed right now... for the upcoming SSK game.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

It would take an incredibly special player to pop along the interior defensive line in this scheme but he did have two tackles which is two more than Jake Thomas since the Banjo Bowl.

Generally speaking defensive lineman tackles are usually good.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Whatever Woods did isn't likely to earn him a roster spot once Griffin comes back and that's too bad.  I think they have to change their philosophy going into the playoffs and provide more rotation on the D-line to create more pressure.

They're heavily relying on 4 players, with 2 extra getting limited reps, would like to see that boosted to 7 players with more equalized reps between them.  Well known competition takes place along the D-line when they try to out do each other chasing after the QB.  Problem with the current setup is some games lack of pass rush renders them ineffective against a well trained O-line, and the QB has all day to locate his targets and that's when it looks really bad.