RENTON, Wash. (AP) – His freakish speed and strength were supposed to make Aaron Curry an impact NFL linebacker who would cause problems for opposing offenses from the moment he played his first game.
Problem was, Curry had too many talents. And he was a rookie. And he hadn’t yet learned the right way of mixing natural adrenaline with his physical quickness.
“Sometimes last year he had a tendency to overrun some plays. That’s natural cause a) he’s a rookie and b) he’s fast,” Seahawks middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu said. “All that adrenaline and speed can be a bad combination for you if you don’t use it right. But his awareness has picked up a lot.”
After spending most of his first season in a continuing quest to find out just how Curry could be the most effective, the Seahawks believe their 2010 plan just might work.
Now entering his second year, the Seahawks outside linebacker is expected to play closer to the line of scrimmage this season, taking advantage of his strength and speed getting off the snap. The goal is for Curry to cause havoc sooner.
“Last year we had him doing a bunch of different things to find out what he does best. Now we’ve kind of locked in and we have an idea of what his strengths are,” Seattle defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “We can’t just lock him into that one position but he is doing a nice job at the line of scrimmage for us. He might be one of the most explosive guys at the line of scrimmage. Because of that, when he plays at the line of scrimmage, you see his strength show up.”
For Curry, he’s perfectly fine with that plan, because it’s more comfortable and similar to how he played in college at Wake Forest when he was the 2008 Butkus Award winner.
“Just with the tools I have, coach Bradley and coach Carroll and those guys thought it best to put me there because of my strength, my short range explosion and my ability to come off the edge,” Curry said. “Just go ahead and put me there and let things happen.”
Curry wasn’t invisible during his first NFL season. The No. 4 overall pick in the 2009 draft finished with 60 tackles, two sacks and three forced fumbles, despite missing the final two games of the season with a shoulder injury.
But missing was the constant chaos fans expected from Curry when he was drafted so high and received $34 million guaranteed as part of his first contract. The guy who recorded 101 tackles as a senior at Wake Forest didn’t get more than five in any of his final nine games as a rookie.
It didn’t help Curry’s progression that Tatupu was gone for most of the year with a torn pectoral muscle.
“It was a learning process for him last year and he did a lot of things great and some that get unnoticed, like taking on two blocks and coming in to make the tackle,” Tatupu said.
But now there is definition for what the Seahawks want from Curry. The experimentation of a year ago is over. Bradley has asked Curry to work on his pass rushing techniques, relying less on his speed and more on different moves to make him more of a factor in a pass rush that is one of Seattle’s big questions.
“Things are just going to happen faster. There is going to be less waiting to see,” Curry said. “It’s not going to take long to see what I’m doing on plays. It’s easier to tell if I’m being disruptive and causing havoc or if I’m not doing that at all.”
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