Originally Posted by
jloome
Bradley has quite a big upside, and some downside too. He is having statistically one of his best seasons. He’s hooking up the back line and frontline, the wings and the back line. Mostly, he’s transitional passing and holding up the ball, and he’s completing about 85% of his passes.
He’s averaging two tackles a game but that’s partly because he’s staying more tightly rooted to the area of the field he’s transitioned to (playing his zone tighter), which means he’s tackling when it’s prudent rather than trying to catch up to guys. So he’s not getting the five-to-seven you might get a game from a good anchor, but he’s doing okay.
In an ideal world, he would probably be more of a role player and not ninety minutes. He has trouble defending in transition against some of the speed he faces. I’m not sure that hasn’t always been the case, past his first two seasons. He was never much of a natural number six.
When our shape breaks down — either from kids doing too little or older players trying to do too much, typically — he becomes a liability, as he can’t shift zones quickly enough in quick transitions, and since shape breakdowns lead to gaps in coverage, he’s not really able to adapt and fill those gaps. I’d say from our limited view the same is also true of Mimmo Criscito, who has had to have coverage behind him several times already.
A lot depends on team interplay. Both guys are pretty mammoth when the team is holding shape, moving the ball quickly, and supporting each other defensively. Both will be a problem if someone figures out how to stop us doing that.
But given the rest of the first team’s quality, I’m not sure how much of a problem that will be. A lot depends on first team players staying healthy.
I would say McNaughton is firmly starting quality. He had NINE aerial clearances against Nashville and hasn’t been beaten on the ground in a while.