FanPost

What to expect from Minter?




There is a lot of stuff I'd love to write and contribute this offseason, can't seem to find the time at the moment to post it, but something I have been thinking about are the players already on our roster (not the speculative draft picks) and what we can expect from them.

First up is Minter.

My prediction for Minter is that he is going to be a lot like Jasper Brinkley in the qualities he brings as a linebacker.

Brinkley played for us in the first half of the season when Washington was suspended, and he in general was good against the run and had good game instincts (always in the right spot, fumble recoveries etc), but unfortunately did not have good acceleration and top speed, and would give up yards in coverage.

I feel that Minter is going to be a similar linebacker to Brinkley, although hopefully a bit faster because of his youth.

The first video here is Minter's college highlights.

The second is Brinkley's college highlights

What I see are two similar styles, and Minter will definitely contribute to our rushing defense (we have not taken a step backwards with regards to our #1 rush defense). Minter also seems at the college level to have a pretty decent blitz and is able to recover from missed tackles - we will see if this translates to the NFL.

I feel that Minter will be an improvement over Brinkley, but overall will have a similar style and be comparable to Brinkley, rather than Karlos Dansby.

I think the big question mark is speed, Brinkley would have been an amazing linebacker if he was faster, it really hurt him that he wasn't. Minter is younger and we have a speed trainer in Roger Kingdom on board, but his combine numbers are actually worse than Brinkley (who admittedly is 5 years older).

Original combine numbers for both players:

Brinkley

http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/jasper-brinkley?id=79840

Minter

http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/kevin-minter?id=2540159

Do you guys think this comparison is fair? Or is there another linebacker on our roster that you think Minter is more comparable to?

<em>This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Revenge of the Birds' (ROTB) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of ROTB's editors.</em>