I just don't know how this is true.
Every time I turn on game replay's I think it's Mack and Savion Smith who are the weakest links on the field. I don't know what scouts are seeing that make them think he is 1st round material AT THIS MOMENT. The game still looks too fast for him a lot of the time.
Clearly I must be missing something. Quite obviously I am uneducated about what to be looking for and I don't mean that sarcastically. Somebody please tell me what I'm missing when I re-watch these games with Mack. Yah, he's had some OK games where he has been consistent, but I see a LOT of plays where he is out of position, getting caught in the wash, taking bad angles, not getting off blocks, getting torched by RB's and TE's and not getting any pressure on the QB whatsoever on his blitzes. He doesn't meet people in the hole nearly as well as Reuben, Mosley, Hightower, or Ragland or of course, McClain. He is faster than all of those guys and is built in the new breed of LB's designed to affect the passing game, but that has been a particular area of weakness to my eyes.
I'm not trying to come down on a player. He's got a lot of the tools necessary, but I really don't think he's put it all together yet and if I'm an NFL team, I'm not spending 1st round money betting that he puts it all together in camp. Personally, I think 1 more year in the system gets him where he needs to go. I just don't see it right now, despite what's being said.
And if his tweets are any indication, he has decided to come back likely based on knowing some of this. Mack seems like a guy with a stable ego. Always the first to shoulder blame and an unbelievably hard worker. I think that next year he and Moses will be nightmares.