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I worry about his ability to stay healthy at the next level but I absolutely LOVE Malik Hooker, his range, ball skills and game changing abilities are second to none to any Safety I've seen going back to Sean Taylor....he literally has the ability to single-handedly shut down a deep passing game.

that being said, if the Bengals are making the decision it's obviously going to be Fournette.....and that's not necessarily a bad thing, IMO.

I'd be pretty happy either way really.

neither will be there however, so... 

 

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21 minutes ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

Yep and Hooker couldn't tackle a hooker.

Every thing I have heard about Hooker is that he is very special and could be some teams Earl Thomas. How close is our system to the Seahawks? From what I can tell we don't run the same system. Doesn't mean he wouldn't be great. 

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1 minute ago, MichaelWeston said:

Every thing I have heard about Hooker is that he is very special and could be some teams Earl Thomas. How close is our system to the Seahawks? From what I can tell we don't run the same system. Doesn't mean he wouldn't be great. 

Earl Thomas can tackle though. Hooker is a complete liability at it. If he doesn't make the play in the air it will be ugly. He cannot help in run support at all.  He's got Ohalete tackling ability with great ball skills. I'm not spending a top 10 pick on a guy who lacks 50% of his jobs responsibilities. Especially in a division where we have to deal with Antonio Brown and Leveon Bell.  Our safeties constantly have to tackle those 2 in the middle of the field after they beat our CB or get through our DL/LBs. He's very good in coverage but he would have be an absolute lock, no doubt in anyone's mind HOF coverage safety to be worth it. Also safety is one of the only positions on the entire team they have 2 legit players and have already committed to players.

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5 minutes ago, spicoli said:

and a likely top 5 pick

I think there is a bit of a frenzy at RB after EZ E went so well. I don't think he is worth it, especially for the Bengals. A team that likes to pound the ball might fit him perfect. The projection to the Panthers makes a lot of sense. I don't think the one to the Jags does. 

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The criticism of Hooker as a tackler is completely overblown, IMO.  Typical pre-draft, anonymous scout BS being mentioned to try to lower his draft stock.  There is zero chance he would have seen the field at OSU if he was anywhere close to being the liability against the run that some claim.  I will agree that his injuries are a legit concern about being able to hold up in the NFL, but his play on the field has likely earned him a top 10 pick.  The nitpicking at draft time drives me crazy because you can never trust the agendas of the source. 

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43 minutes ago, MichaelWeston said:

Jason who would you take?

As much as I like Hooker, I think with Fournette you have the ability to take over a game with him. Plus he can spring the long run. Then again, how much of our inability to run the ball is because of the O-line?   

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Earl Thomas can tackle though. Hooker is a complete liability at it. If he doesn't make the play in the air it will be ugly. He cannot help in run support at all.  He's got Ohalete tackling ability with great ball skills. I'm not spending a top 10 pick on a guy who lacks 50% of his jobs responsibilities. Especially in a division where we have to deal with Antonio Brown and Leveon Bell.  Our safeties constantly have to tackle those 2 in the middle of the field after they beat our CB or get through our DL/LBs. He's very good in coverage but he would have be an absolute lock, no doubt in anyone's mind HOF coverage safety to be worth it. Also safety is one of the only positions on the entire team they have 2 legit players and have already committed to players.

Where is this cant tackle theory coming from? Ive seen him come up and absolutely lay the wood on people better than kam chancelllor. His form needs work due to a 1 year starter but he can tackle.

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25 minutes ago, Jason said:

As much as I like Hooker, I think with Fournette you have the ability to take over a game with him. Plus he can spring the long run. Then again, how much of our inability to run the ball is because of the O-line?   

He is certainly a dominant runner. I just think he's too one dimensional for us. Those guys are finding it harder and harder in the league. 

The harder question for me would be Adams or Fournette. I would still take Adams but knowing what we like to do with our safeties it would be closer. 

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8 hours ago, MichaelWeston said:

He is certainly a dominant runner. I just think he's too one dimensional for us. Those guys are finding it harder and harder in the league. 

The harder question for me would be Adams or Fournette. I would still take Adams but knowing what we like to do with our safeties it would be closer. 

He has 41 career receptions averaging 12.8 yards per.  He was also LSUs primary kick returner in 2014.  You don't make a guy who can't catch your kick returner.

And consider the WRs LSU has had while he was there.

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Ugh. Some extreme positions being taken on both sides as usual. Let's clear a few things up.

1. Claiming that Hooker lacks at "50% of his responsibilities" is extremely disingenuous. Coverage skill and tackling skill shouldn't be weighted a 50/50 split for a guy that would be drafted as a true FS. You don't draft the most rangy center fielder prospect in years and expect him to tackle like a natural SS. It's like complaining that Jamal Adams doesn't have Hooker's range. Different players, different games. However....

2. There is absolutely some truth to Hooker having issues tackling. He ranked 136th in the country among safeties in tackling efficiency and his in-the-box tackling was awful (at best) last year. 13 missed tackles with 17 stops when in underneath coverage or in the box for run support. That's no bueno. Anyone saying he can tackle like Kam Chancellor just has no idea what they're talking about, plain and simple. It would be like saying that AJ McCarron has the arm of Aaron Rodgers just because he threw 1 accurate deep pass at some point.

Basically, Hooker isn't some dual threat, can't miss prospect where he can tackle like a SS and also have the best range in the NFL with hands of an elite WR. He surely has his issues. He isn't as experienced as a lot of other guys which is both good and bad. He has room to grow and I believe he could be a great NFL FS once it's all said and done. He doesn't have tons of wear and tear on his body already which is great, but he really does need to hook up with a good form tackling DB coach and put in a lot of work there. You don't take Hooker in the top 10 to be put in the box very often and you hope he's not having to make many open field tackles on his own, but you still need the guy to improve on his form and instincts when it comes to that part of his game.

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2 hours ago, Jason said:

He has 41 career receptions averaging 12.8 yards per.  He was also LSUs primary kick returner in 2014.  You don't make a guy who can't catch your kick returner.

And consider the WRs LSU has had while he was there.

The board had this same conversation 3 years ago with Hill. He isn't a receiver. Lots of guys who can't catch are KRs. Hell Brian Urlacher returned kicks. 

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2 hours ago, Jason said:

He has 41 career receptions averaging 12.8 yards per.  He was also LSUs primary kick returner in 2014.  You don't make a guy who can't catch your kick returner.

And consider the WRs LSU has had while he was there.

Catching a few passes per year does not make you a great receiving threat. The dude caught an average of 1.25 passes per game he played. A lot of college RBs catch a handful of passes each year, it doesn't mean they're a dual threat back.

We can just call it as it is and say Fournette is one of the best RB prospects in the past few draft classes at running the ball, and that's going to be his primary job in the NFL. He isn't going to be a Le'Veon Bell type of back or hell, even catching the ball out of the backfield as much as Gio Bernard does for us. Fournette is a pound it 300 times kind of guy.

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3 minutes ago, MichaelWeston said:

How you compare Fournette and Todd Gurley?

Gurley's football speed was very fast for his size in college and his cuts were insane. Fournette is more of a "I'm going to run you the fuck over" back, which may not translate to the NFL as well as Gurley's style seemed like it would. Fournette has all the tools to be an elite power back, he just has to prove he can do it against NFL defenses and also you have to consider he's going to go in the top 10 picks (most likely) which most teams picking in the top 10 likely don't have great o-lines. I'm also pretty sure that Fournette fumbled more times in 7 games last year than Gurley did in his CFB career, but don't quote me 100% on that one.

Basically I think Gurley coming out of college looked to be the style of back I personally prefer, but I think Fournette has the ceiling of a perennial All-Pro if his power translates to the NFL. BTW, my comparisons are all talking about Gurley in the NCAA still without thinking about his body of work at the NFL level. I tried to compare them more apples to apples with their CFB careers.

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8 hours ago, omgdrdoom said:

Ugh. Some extreme positions being taken on both sides as usual. Let's clear a few things up.

1. Claiming that Hooker lacks at "50% of his responsibilities" is extremely disingenuous. Coverage skill and tackling skill shouldn't be weighted a 50/50 split for a guy that would be drafted as a true FS. You don't draft the most rangy center fielder prospect in years and expect him to tackle like a natural SS. It's like complaining that Jamal Adams doesn't have Hooker's range. Different players, different games. However....

2. There is absolutely some truth to Hooker having issues tackling. He ranked 136th in the country among safeties in tackling efficiency and his in-the-box tackling was awful (at best) last year. 13 missed tackles with 17 stops when in underneath coverage or in the box for run support. That's no bueno. Anyone saying he can tackle like Kam Chancellor just has no idea what they're talking about, plain and simple. It would be like saying that AJ McCarron has the arm of Aaron Rodgers just because he threw 1 accurate deep pass at some point.

Basically, Hooker isn't some dual threat, can't miss prospect where he can tackle like a SS and also have the best range in the NFL with hands of an elite WR. He surely has his issues. He isn't as experienced as a lot of other guys which is both good and bad. He has room to grow and I believe he could be a great NFL FS once it's all said and done. He doesn't have tons of wear and tear on his body already which is great, but he really does need to hook up with a good form tackling DB coach and put in a lot of work there. You don't take Hooker in the top 10 to be put in the box very often and you hope he's not having to make many open field tackles on his own, but you still need the guy to improve on his form and instincts when it comes to that part of his game.

I went to the extreme yes but if I'm drafting a top 10 pick for a position that ISN'T deserving of a top 10 pick then he better not have a pretty big flaw that would be very concerning for some of the styles we play against regularly. The Bengals don't play FS/SS. They both have very equal duties and get interchanged at any time during the game to help the scheme, so bringing Hooker in changes the scheme because you can't rely on him to play more of a split like they did with Nelson/Iloka or Iloka/Williams now.

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