Vikings

What Is Holding Troy Dye Back?

Photo Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn (USA TODAY Sports)

Behind Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks, the fight for LB3 is heating up. Nick Vigil, Troy Dye, and Cameron Smith all took first team reps during OTAs. Only one of those players was a member of the much-maligned 2020 defense. Dye, the former Oregon Ducks linebacker, ran into a lot of rookie speedbumps. But the athleticism that got him drafted in the fourth round is still there. So what’s stopping him?

Dye had his ups and downs last year. The ups showed a four-year starter with quick processing speed and a good burst. The downs showed a player who needs to get stronger and faster before he can hold up on an NFL field. So to answer the titular question of this article, we have to discern what’s on Troy Dye’s training camp prove-it list.

It’s easy to assume that young players are misreading plays, hesitating, biting on play-action, et cetera. With Dye, he seemed to have his head on straighter than most rookies who changed positions in college. Especially later in the season, Dye was consistently in his assigned gap, even when those assignments grew in complexity.

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One example stands out in particular. In the Jacksonville Jaguars game, Dye made a goal-line tackle-for-loss that you may remember. But the film study that seems to have gone into that tackle is even more encouraging. The Jaguars had a tendency on tape that could be exploited. Applying that insight live pre-snap is difficult to teach, and seeing Dye display that is an encouraging step.

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There is still some hesitation. The game will have to slow down a little more for Dye to be successful, but he’s well on his way. That hesitation contributed to one of Dye’s main problems: his tackling. His tackling form is fine in standard situations like the ones highlighted above. But Dye has a tough time getting in position because of slight hesitations, a worse problem. His angles on plays to the sideline are often too far off, causing him to take inefficient paths to the runner and ultimately be late to the play.

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That may come with experience, but Dye will have to earn that experience. To become a reliable spot starter, Dye will have to become a better block shedder. While he chooses the right gap often enough, he is too often blown out of the play by bigger, stronger blockers. Even tight ends seem to have an easy time sealing him off when he attacks with power.

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To fix this, Dye either needs to gain weight or improve his leverage and engagement technique. Barring this, he’ll have a tough time seeing the field over an experienced player like Nick Vigil. Chazz Surratt also has similar traits to Dye and will provide competition in his own right for that job. If Dye can improve at the fundamentals, his athleticism will take over. But he has some work to do.

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