Sorry for the length of this post in advance. Posters can say what they want - message board. I see a lot of posts on here that bother me at times and want to address it. It's about the natural instincts and abilities of players versus what position they actually play.
CJP has the full authority to play a guy anywhere he wants if they want to be on the team and see the field. He did with Alontae Taylor. Taylor has played OK - middle of the pack SEC d-back. He may even get better and be in the NFL one day. But his natural position is WR. He doesn't demonstrate the natural instincts (yet) to break on the ball, to read the patterns/QB, to defend when the ball is in the air, etc. He does have quickness, the burst to separate and good hands. CJP knew he had quality and depth at WR, had nothing at CB, and talked Taylor into playing that position. Hope it works out for the team and Taylor's sake, but his natural position is WR.
Dools did the same thing to Teague. Teague was a prototype slot receiver who was a QB in HS. He could really do things with the ball in his hands that we will never know about because of that change. Throughout his career you could see that his natural ability and inclination was to avoid contact, to get away from the opponent. So he miserably failed as a CB. But coach worship on here said that coaches know better. Clue to some - coaches know they have to win to keep the big bucks flowing into their pockets so they will shore up poor roster talent and recruiting with moves they feel are necessary to win, even at the expense of the future of the young person who trusted them with their athletic career.
Fulmer/Chavis did the same thing with Rashad Baker, who was a natural WR that was unafraid of going over the middle and taking contact. They converted him to safety because of poor recruiting. Rashad played good, not great, at UT and well enough to make it into the NFL for an OK career because he was a quality athlete who was tough despite being undersized for the position. However, he and we will never know what he could have done at WR, his natural position.
There are many more examples that I could post, but the above makes the point. If Banks no longer desires to be a RB, that's a major factor in him not being one. However, he is a natural RB, not LB. He does not go down with initial contact with the ball in his hands, he strains to get more and punish the opponent that tries to tackle him. He is the very definition of a power back that can make a D very tired and totally focused on him, which frees up the O scheme. All he needed was work on ball security and to become more mature as a human being. CJP needed depth at ILB, so that's where he went. If he comes back and plays ILB I wish him the best for himself and the team. We will never know what could have been.
My final point is this. Each of the players listed above were recruited to play the natural position that caught the coaches eyes enough to offer a scholarship. All were offered to play their natural position at other P-5 schools. They were quality players that were athletic enough to play a different position once they arrived on campus. None of the players were given a normal period of time to develop in their natural positions before being converted and moved because the coaches were dealing with roster problems. So go easy on them as players. They are team guys that did what the coaches wanted them to do. Not sure that I would do the same, which is why I will not criticize players for transferring. It is their future careers at stake and coaches have different motives for their decisions at times. It's just the nature of the business.
