Speculation, hearsay, and... wait for it...
CONJECTURE!
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Everyone who is all worked up into a good lather at those of us down on the way Speaks looked when he showed up, need to stop and remember that there hasn’t been a single puff of smoke out of Arrowhead about playing him at DT

If that’s the plan, great... let’s just hope it’s good weight, let’s hope he was busting his ass in the gym

But don’t try to act like those of us who reacted negatively are way out of line, we had a DE who came in looking like a DT... I supported the guy all season long, he absolutely did flash ability, in particular he looked ox strong against the run more often than not

I still have some hope for the guy, but many of us were expecting/hoping our chubby rookie DE would show up looking lean, mean, and ready to take the next step at DE
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I literally posted a video from OTA’s showing Speaks playing inside next to Clark with the 1’s.
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Did you see where he's running OTAs as a DL. There's your puff of smoke


edit: beaten by nanoseconds
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When the op came out, it was the first look at Speaks for many of us... no puffs pre OTA’s
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When Speaks was drafted Veach even talked about him playing inside some.

It was pretty obvious that was going to be the case with the move to a 4-3 and how he showed up to OTA’s, but this is CP and just about everybody hates Speaks, so instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt they assumed he let himself go and is a lazy fuck (despite having no history of a poor work ethic whatsoever).
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He did say that, but saying it was expected he would transition full time into a tackle role with the scheme switch is a reach... a slimmer version could’ve been a pretty damn good all around DE IMO

But if he was told to bulk up and get ready for the inside, I’m good with that... if there is a glaring gap with him, it’s a lack of initial burst

Maybe tackle IS the best spot for him...
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I say this with 100% sincerity:

Trust the process. It's time.
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I mean, aside from the actual evidence, what evidence was there? NOTHING.
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That's just what they want you to think. 8D chess!!!!
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I guess you assholes can’t read, cool
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I've been right so far about Speaks from day 1.

The guy just so far hasn't passed the eye test...looks slow n fat, plays slow n fat.

Its not rocket science. Dude was a bad pick, even worse the Chiefs traded up for him, probably wouldve gone in a later rd, and unless he somehow gets it a DT, hes a waste of a roster spot. They wouldn't have acquired both Okafor and Ogbah had they thought Speaks was gonna be worth a shit at DE.

People like you will continue to make excuses for the guy.
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He doesn't look like a future star to me but I could definitly see him become a solid starter or at least a solid contributor.

I disagree that they wouldn't have acquired Okafor and Ogbah.

I think they are not high on Kpassagnon though.
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You mean to tell me a guy that played interior DL in college looked slow and fat playing OLB in a 3-4? You don’t say!

Being patient with a second year player that clearly played out of position his rookie year is completely reasonable. Writing anybody off before their sophomore season is stupid as it is, but doing it before we even get to see him play their natural position is even worse. He might’ve looked slow and fat last year, but he also looked better than 90% of the guys his size would playing 3-4 OLB.
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He shouldn’t have been an OLB dropping into space, but then again we shouldn’t have had a safety playing a nickel backer position either.

How would Chris Jones look if you dropped him at OLB? He’d look slow and stupid, because like Speaks, he wouldn’t know what the **** he was doing. I have no idea what Sutton was thinking using both Tanoh and Speaks the way he did. I mean shit dude...that’s like Andy having Sherman run outs, digs and curls on the outside like a receiver. Of course he’s gonna look slow because that’s not who he is.

Speaks has very good athleticism as a lineman. Maybe not so much at DE, but very much so as an interior rusher.

We know that’s the plan this year. We are going to do a shit ton of stunts, twists, delayed blitzes, etc. and we have a handful of players capable of rushing through the middle in the A gap and wrecking shit.

Andy said himself last year that it was very important to have a great pass rush up the middle.
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