A victim of promotional edification coming out of college, a victim of scheme in the Pros and a scapegoat for the issues that the Patriots have endured on defense - blessed (some would say cursed) by an athleticism that defies what a man his size should be able to conjure, there is no true position for him on a football field - even professional football scouts had difficulty classifying him when he was coming out of Alabama...
...but to understand Hightower is to know not what he isn't, rather, to grasp what he is. So from a fan's standpoint, what do we know about Dont'a Hightower, the football player?
Physics aside, the 6' 3", 270 pound freak of nature is smart and instinctive, strong and aware - at Alabama he was an elite run-stuffing defender, playing best as one of the inside linebackers in a base 3-4 defense with the capability of moving outside as a pure edge rusher as a "Joker" on passing downs.
"Inside linebacker, nickel backer, defensive end and odd rusher," Alabama head coach Nick Saban cited Hightower's strengths in his 3-4 defense.
That's it. That's all he should be, and he would be a Pro Bowl calibre performer if this was all the Patriots needed him to be, but circumstance has forced the second year linebacker into a situation for which he is ill-suited.
Not so far as intelligence, strength or even awareness - but for the ability to use natural instinctiveness and aggressiveness, the weight of the circumstance rendering him a shell of what he could be - which, in all fairness, could be said about anyone playing defense for the Patriots these days, but not everyone playing defense in New England came with the amount of hype that Hightower did.
And that's the real problem here.
Versatile but not super human, his legend and promise as a first round draft pick tends to cloud the picture for the full-value types. To them, as that first round draft pick he is a heavily over-hyped bust that can't stay with tight ends in coverage and seems to give only partial effort at times.
Conversely, the X's and O's crowd are apologists for Hightower's struggles, claiming that the severity of New England's defensive injuries has forced the full game and a leadership position upon a young man who may not have been ready for such a high-profile role - the missing pieces around him replaced by rookies that no one else wanted.
But in reality, the chronic injury bug that has laid the Patriots' defense low all season long - not to mention putting three Pro Bowl quality veteran players on the shelf for the season - has exposed the deficiencies not of Hightower, but of the scheme that they are have asked him to play.
The scouting reports on Hightower were universal in their beliefs that in the professional game he was best utilized as a run-stuffing inside linebacker in a 3-4 scheme - which in New England would mean playing in the box along side middle linebacker Brandon Spikes, moving to the edge on passing downs...
...but instead, the 23 year old was brought into a scheme that saw him as a 4-3 strong side linebacker in his rookie season, again, as a matter of need and not necessarily playing to his strengths.
Now this year, due to all of the injuries, Hightower has been forced to play both strong side and weak side no matter the alignment, and to align inside or come out in favor of Dane Fletcher in the nickle sub packages - reduced to chasing down plays from behind.
In a perfect, injury-free world, Hightower would be an inside linebacker along side Spikes, with Jerod Mayo covering the weak side and a rotation at strong with Rob Ninkovich and rookie Jamie Collins in the mix, backing up a defensive line featuring nose tackle Vince Wilfork, flanked by Chandler Jones and Tommy Kelly on the other.
But that idea started to deteriorate once Wilfork was lost for the season in week 4, Kelly in week 5 and Mayo in week 6 - so Hightower, by default, is playing positions unfamiliar to him and not suited to his skill set, backing up a defensive line whose interior is undersized and inexperienced, the added pressure of being the central figure of the defense proving to take away his chief intangible - his instincts.
The seeming lack of effort at times is really just hesitation on the part of a creature who - even at top speed - needs every split-second and precise angle to the ball in pass coverage as it is, and who can't use his leverage and quickness to the ball carrier or quarterback because the defensive line is so undersized that none are even close to being 2-gap pluggers, allowing an offensive lineman the autonomy to concentrate on stonewalling a linebacker....
...and that's not going to get better this season, so Patriots' fans are going to have to accept that Hightower is doing just as serviceable job in an emergency role as anyone could expect - given that his playmates on the second level include one very intense downhill rocket with one speed and one direction, a veteran journeyman coming off a torn ACL and a rookie project that was being brought along slowly by Belichick until injuries forced that hand as well.
And he will improve. By year's end and going into the post-season, Hightower will have earned the green dot, making calls on the defense and running the show...
...and next season with a hopefully healthy core and in a base 3-4 alignment, Hightower will be able to play his natural position - then the full-value fans will get their full value, and X's and O's crowd will have their planets aligned and won't be forced to make excuses.
But hopefully they all will look back on this "Season of Pain" for the Patriots and finally see that Dont'a Hightower played his heart out, laboring against all odds, doing a good enough job to help his team into the playoffs and - hopefully - beyond, when a lesser man on a lesser team would have crumbled under the pressure of this literal trial by fire...
...always remembering that it wasn't Dont'a Hightower that generated the hype-induced expectations, he's just the guy trying to live up to them, and all the while being misused - because the Patriots have no choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment