Tale of the Tape: Philip Wheeler

The Raiders signed former Colts LB Philip Wheeler during free agency to a one year contract.  As a new addition to the Raiders squad, I watched game tape of two games to get an idea of his strengths and weaknesses as a player.Linebackers are harder to evaluate than many positions because they work as a unit more than most other positions.  The scheme also plays heavily into where a linebacker is supposed to lineup and what gap they are to hit. When looking at tape, I try to take only what I see, there, with as few preconceived notions as possible.  I watched two games from the 2011 season, week 9 with Colts against Atlanta and week 14, Colts against Baltimore.In the first game, against Atlanta, Wheeler tried to do too much in the first half. There were a number of times that he aggressively pursued the ball carrier only to have the RB make a cut back in the direction Wheeler was coming from.  Wheeler attempted arm tackles on these runs but it was hit or miss as to whether that wa...