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Wes Horton

fieryprophet

By fieryprophet,
in Carolina Panthers

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fieryprophet Contributor

fieryprophet

Posted
Posted

I'm interested in whether this guy has a chance: he got some run with the first unit last night, and had a big role on Kuechly's forced fumble because he stood up the Ravens #70 and gave Kuechly a clear path to the ball.

 

And yes, I a little bit interested because we share last names ;)

 

Since he made the roster, I'll explore a little more what intrigued me so much about this kid:

 

This is the play that made me stand up and take notice of this guy (and not just his awesome last name.)

 

Kuechly got a lot of rightfully deserved kudos for his forced fumble on Bernard Pierce in the Ravens game, but that play simply would not have happened without Wes Horton playing a pivotal role to set the play up:

 

This is the play immediately after the snap; notice the offensive and defensive lines are relatively even in their lines.

 

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Horton absolutely blows back #70 Ramon Harewood, who started five games for the Ravens last year. His long arms lock Harewood in place and block Pierce's vision of Kuechly about to blast through the lane.

 

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Look. At. That. Alley. Vonta Leach looks completely surprised to see Luke coming unblocked, as the play seemed engineered to get Pierce to the edge, but Horton has so thoroughly beaten his man that the edge has effectively been split open.

 

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The play finishes with Kuechly blowing Pierce apart and Davis scooping up the loose ball for a touchdown.

 

kuechlydestroyerofworlds.gif

 

But, again, this play does not happen without the contribution of Wes Horton, who has been involved in a number of plays where his pressure contributes to a defensive play (remember the Drayton Florence INT? Horton had subbed in while Hardy moved to the middle, and they both occupied their man allowing Kuechly to run free at Flacco. And the Norman INT Thursday? Horton blew by the LT and forced Landry Jones to throw a ball he shouldn't have thrown.)

 

Now, I'm not projecting anything more than a decent contributor, but he had 150 snaps, zero penalties, graded very well by PFF in both pass rush and rush defense (+2.0, +0.2), and contributed 7 QB hurries, 5 QB hits, 2 sacks, 5 stops, 4 tackles, and only 1 missed tackle.

 

What I like most is that he seems to have a good knack of using his long arms to slap away any attempts for lineman to lock onto him. It reminds me a little bit of Hardy in that regard. And scouting reports indicate he is a hard worker as well, teams just weren't sure about his ability to anchor at the point of attack in the run game and overall quickness. http://www.nfl.com/draft/2011/profiles/wes-horton?id=2539306

 

Definitely a guy to watch in the future.

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mbarbour21 Proficient

mbarbour21

Posted
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He has a very good chance of making the 53. Kearse hasn't done anything, so we may keep 5 DEs instead of 5 DTs.

4 DTs should be enough, as long as they cut Fua. With the versatility of our DEs, they can play DT on some passing 3rd downs. We would be much better off taking more DEs. It makes me sick to my stomach we have to waive that much talent.

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