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Steve
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Blue and Gold
was a good player. Rams played a soft zone back then, mostly anyway. Did more man later, in 1988-89 but he was a decent, smart player. Highly motivated
He was a pro bowler and a lot more than 'decent'. 1985 he was one of the main weapons in that great D that had no speed at the LB level (ya incl Wilcher)
Not 1984, his first year. Was a good man coverage guy in KC, 1984 there was some transition issues, I think. Playing more zone, he gave up a lot of completions, got frustrating. He was worth the trade but the neck injury ruined it.
Speed on LBer level, in some cases yes, others no. Ekern was slow. Collins was a legit 4.7 or so. Wilcher 4.73, Mel Owens was a 4.65, all of those are their coming out of school times, so by 1985 they likely were a tick slower.
That defense was pretty vanilla in 1984, in 1985 they played a lot more nickel and dime to get Gray and Newsome on the field and Owens and Eckern would step off. They used both a 3-man line and 40man line in the nickel but usually when they went 4-1-6 Wilcher was the lone LBer, showing he had decent coverage skills and decent speed.
Green and Irvin bot played very well in 1985, Irvin was the better corner, though, even though Green did make some very big plays.
If you want to quibble over "decent" fine, I take it back but I am not going to make him out to be great, he was excellent in KC, not as good in LA due to a lsow start in 1984 and in 1985 when they focused more on nickel and dime and more man coverage, he did better.
