You can actually tell alot from his comments. Diggs is a quiet, cerebral player who was doing and continues to do great things for the defense. He was setting a quietly confident tone on the back end... until Jamal was brought in. He upset the ship in that his way is all freelance, all 'hunch' and less about playing disciplined within the system. I think thatvattitude rubbed off on other players and so now it's a freelancing, undisciplined mess.
You can see Diggs trying to get folks set right and his obvious frustration at failed assignments play after play. But its not changing because the hawks d is walking the 'badass' highlight real walk and failing to play sound defense. They're playing dumb. And he likely feels the coaches aren't clamping doen on it enough because they're now caught trying to manage the emotional balance of a team that has a mercenary safety in Jamal that makes his hay playing Jamal ball ( but it's a high risk play). And young players that are looking up and trying to understand who's running things. Is it Q Diggs? I think it should be. Or Adams - who's a beast of a freelancer, paid out the wazoo, and gets all the pub... but can't play fundamental D.
What about Bobby? I personally think he's been concerned about his unit and is squarely aligned with Norton and likely sees the mess behind him as a product of the team selling out to a big play, big personality player that's not playing the x's and o's
His comments this week are a frustrated carryover from his statements last week about
1. Him believing he's an intelligent player.. that that's his strength.
2. That he took responsibility for D Samuel's TD because he wasn't in the game.
Looking at point 2 - who was in the game? J Adams.
Don't know whether he took himself out or was subbed out. But either way... its a pretty clear indictment of his stable mate. And moreover, the disruption that Jamal has been to a young defense that needs more focus and attention to detail than undisciplined bravado and the hunch plays that Adams typically hits on.
I'm glad we have him but fear he'll bolt after the season.
Pete needs to take control of the defense, make Diggs the captain, make Jamal a LB/S hybrid that sees the field a good bit, but who's role on the backend are assumed by Blair.
Make the base D a big nickel, find a way to keep Neal on the field and see what that does.
