How good are Burnett and Hyde?

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At this point there is no reason to cut into Randall's snaps for the sake of Hyde. Our best set of CBs looks to be Shields/Randall with Hayward in the slot. If anything Hyde should be looking at losing snaps in the dime to Rollins. I'm not even sure Hyde should be the top back up S before Banjo. Hyde is better at CB than he is at S and he's not an awful player or anything but with Burnett back he's the least talented player that's been seeing snaps in our secondary.

When Burnett comes back it should be Shields and Randall on the outside, with Hayward in the slot. But instead they'll probably insert Hyde instead of Randall because of the staff's unreasonable love affair with him. Hyde may be a smart football player, but he's the weak link in the secondary. It's going to be annoying if the staff decides to keep him on the field over Randall

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Hyde is a good Football Player and the definition of a Tweener. I definitely think he should still see time in the Dime and especially in the 3 safety look. He's just a solid all around player who can play 4 or 5 positions when you factor in special teams.

But don't pull Randall off of the field for him. Switching him for Rollins is OK, for now.

Haven't they already given Hyde Richardson's spot in the 46 defense they are running? That seems like the best use for him-near the line of scrimmage ready to react and make plays.

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Something seems a bit different about Hyde this season, he seems to be watching the QB a tad more, which is allowing the WR to get an extra step or two, and Hyde doesn't have the pure speed to catch up to that.

Also I still don't think Hyde has adjusted to playing the Safety position yet... he can do the underneath roles normally pretty fine, but the deeper Safety roles he's still adjusting.

I'm not as sure that the young guys are as ready yet for bigger roles, I wonder if some offenses might be able to scheme to their mistakes still and the limiting their time on the field as kept them from being exposed more, but only more playing time against good passing teams would show that one way or another.

But if Burnett/Banjo are ready and set at SS, and IF the rookie CBs are ready then maybe steal a page out of the Cardinals defensive playbook and play a physical "Safety" (who rarely plays true Safety) as an ILB... at least on passing down or when you have those small RBs who have mostly WR like qualities in the game.

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Hyde should be used as a coverage linebacker when everyone is healthy, and of course a blitz option from anywhere on the field.

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Dakota, YES! Whadda ya think about making Hyde an ILB, period? AZ has been doing this with Buchanan. This could be an afetr-bye unscouted look for Denver.

I agree w/ everything Steve said, Hyde is close to being #7-8 DB and #3 safety.

Denver has been very successful w/ their no huddle this year; but not playing it much. I expect a big dose next week, this will be one of the surprises Denver will have for us.

If Hyde plays ILB in Base or Nickel and Manning goes up-tempo; we can easily convert to Nickel or Dime, respectively, w/o substituting.

There have been times when Hyde has beat Palmer to RB even though further away. Compared to Palmer, Hyde might be: a more dynamic downhill run stopper; faster to QB blitzing; better at shadowing the QB [dont need to worry about this w/ Manning; but Newton is next]; he's a better cover guy on RBs and TEs; and he's better playing the short middle zone.

I've been calling for it for a while with Richardson and Hyde... the argument against it has been, they won't be able to hold up in the run game... my counter argument to that was compared to what? Brad Jones?!? (who was starting at the time). I think they can play the run just as well as some (non-physical) ILBers can. But I'm doubting it happens all of sudden, but I doubted they would move Matthews to ILB and they did more of it. The difference here is they had a clear healthy guy to move into Matthews spot... where Burnett hasn't been healthy and Banjo isn't completely clear there (yet).

Also to note the Packers are the current leader in least points opponents score per game (and will stay there until next week, IF the Ravens can score at least 3 points on the Cardinals), so I'm guessing they're going to keep doing what they're doing.



Denver has also lack success running the ball, so the defense will probably be winning their ears back ready to rush the pass rusher, as the top two sack defenses go after the QBs. Which Hyde would fit in pass coverage and blitzing... but doesn't Palmer normally make all the defensive calls?

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