Laron Landry Grinds My Gears

[jdlea]

I was thinking, when he missed on the knockout shot on Boss, that he's looking a lot like the year Sean Taylor had that was a "down year." Sean had a year (I'm thinking the one before he was killed (not the one during which he was killed)) where he took a bunch of bad angles, only went for kill shots and never really tried to get any picks. That reminds a whole lot of Laron right now and I'm a little concerned. I just hope that a coach can get through to him that if he played more under control, he'd be an absolute monster.

I also think he'll always suffer because it's tough to lose a Sean Taylor and then have a perfectly good player replace him. He's not Sean Taylor and he probably never will be. That's difficult to accept. He can be very good, but Sean was well on his way to becoming one of the greatest safeties of all time. The year he was murdered, he was definitely coming into his own and it seemed like he was making every play. We all know what happened after that. Landry steps in and he's perfectly capable, if a bit undisciplined, but he's not Sean and he's going to have a tough time erasing/living up to that. He may never live up to it.

None of this is to suggest that Landry can't play the game, I really like the guy, I just hope that he can start to play a little more under control.

Also, let's keep in mind, that Laron was supposed to be the blitzing, down in the box SS, not the 25 yards away from the line FS, so that takes an adjustment as well. Laron can't really play to his instincts because he's always been down in the box with a FS to cover for him if he misses the big shot, he wasn't the last line of defense, now he is, he'd do well to remember that.