(S3) - PT #1 - Rookie Spotlight

[PlotzkeA]

The rookie I am most excited to see this upcoming year is the Baltimore Hawks first round pick Ricardo Sandoval. He had a short stint last season with the Orange County Otters. Although he did not put up record breaking numbers, he did very well for a rookie. In 6 games he posted 22 tackles, 2 sacks and 1 tackle for loss. Spanning that over a 14 game season he would have had 51 tackles, 4 sacks and 2 tackles for loss. Again, not record breaking, but a modest start to his NSFL career. You also have to factor in that he did not have an entire offseason to train or prepare, he was thrown in bare bones and had to do his best to thrive in the Otters defensive scheme. The Hawks last season acquired JD Boom from waivers, he played in all 14 games and was able to amass 40 tackles, 7 sacks and 1 forced fumble. From these stats it is clear that Sandoval is more of a run stopping DE and Boom is a pass rushing DE, with the Hawks defense looking to repeat their stellar performance from last season, they are going to need to look more for consistency than for flashy big plays. Sandoval will play a big role in our D-Line success and we look forward to having him play this season.

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