Vincent Valentine was a big physical lineman in high school that was brought to Nebraska to learn their two gap scheme. Unfortunately, his college strength coach was hired away by Vanderbilt to be their Director of Strength and Conditioning in December of 2014. Nebraska then reportedly altered their defensive scheme in the spring of the following year. As a raw prospect with the Patriots, he began with an encouraging rookie season until he ran into a left knee injury. He spent the following second year on injured reserve. Given that every day is a audition, he was released once the Patriots decide his return from injury had stalled in their program. Arizona was a disappointment.
The Seahawks have perhaps an under appreciated history of looking at two gap run dominate prospects with an eye towards improving their athleticism as they develop technique. Rookie Poona Ford is coming off a terrific side line to side line run stopping pressure game. And Jaren Reed, who was marketed as beginning his Seahawks career as a run stopper, is coming off his best game ever as a pass rusher.
Vincent Valentine feeds that same developmental pipe line. Given that the agenda every day is to get better and better, Vincent may or may not remain at the end of the day or next week. We fans have little visibility as to how well practice squad members are developing. What we do know is that the culture at the VMAC gives Vincent a once in a life time opportunity to discover how productive he can become in the NFL.
I really like this reset of the defensive line. Seems to me that linebackers have more opportunity to play cleaner. Coach Clint Hurtt has been a constructive addition. This could turn out to be good story if Coach Hurtt can succeed at molding Valentine into the player John Schneider thinks he can become.
Always Compete!
