Great question and I'm not sure it's Daboll, it could be. After all Sparano is the reason Colombo is at RT. Henne is a much better passer when he's out there.
He's pretty good. He's even improved his pad level and is bouncing off tackles now, really training on. Thing is, he can be pretty good at gaining yards and still highlight why it's tough to be put in a position of having to rely so much on a rookie. Last week, it was the fumble right when Miami had wrestled the momentum back. This week, he had at least one rather big pass protection miscue that cost the offense. This is what I feared. Relying too much on a guy that isn't destined to truly 'get it' until next year or the year after.
In two weeks I have seen more potential out of Daniel Thomas than I did with Ronnie Brown throughout his entire career here. Daniel Thomas runs with power and speed. Finds the hole quickly and doesn't dance. And runs hard.. We have ourselves a legit running back... I'm not saying the kid is the next Arian Foster, but he is going to be a damn fine running back for this team. Damn fine.
Well that's all good and all but it doesn't matter if this team can't find a way to win. Tired of trying to find the positives in the losses. A loss is still a loss.
Yeah, I love Daniel Thomas. I saw it coming in the off-season. Just has to make sure he works on his fumbling issues. also, I would like to see him switch the ball in his hands more. If he's running to the right side, quickly switch the football to the right hand.... sometimes I notice he forgets to do this... leaving the defender an opportunity to make the tackle on the side he is carrying the football on. but he's going to be decent. He hits the right holes and hits them quickly.
Agreed completely. You don't cut all your vets at RB and rely on a rookie. It was a ridiculous move. Luckily he Thomas does look very promising. Rookies have growing pains though. You saw it today in his pass protection. Many tend to hit a wall late in the season as well. The Bush running between the tackles experiment has already shown to be a failure which 80% of your casual fans could have told Ireland it would have been. I'm happy about the promise Thomas is showing but at the same time still very irritated by Ireland's moves this offseason.
About Reggie Bush : True it was a failure, but part of the reason the Dolphins even tried it is because Bush came down here with those expectations. He wanted to prove himself and become an every down back...... it would have created an unhappy Reggie Bush in the locker room if they just dismissed him and never even gave him a shot.
Really? You see more potential in two games than Ronnie Brown? What about the clinic RB was putting on in 2007 before his injury leading the NFL in yards from scrimmage... Thomas runs well, gains yards, etc... Not really exciting to watch. He has no speed whatsoever.
On the play that DT supposedly whiffed on a block, there were two LB's blitzing the same gap, DT took the inside guy (which, I believe is what he is supposed to do, block inside guy first).
Ronnie ran people over though, I haven't seen that from DT (yet). I do like the fact that DT doesn't dance and hits the hole. We're completely misusing Bush. He's an outside runner and a guy who can run after the catch. It's Henning like when we bench DT only to run Reggie up the middle.
Ronnie was dancer with no gear at all. At least when DT sees a hole he gets in it. Ronnie was a busted pick.
2007 was exceptional from Ronnie... But outside of 07, I couldn't stand how indecisive he was... I didn't mean pure speed, I'm talking quickness to hole and field vision..
Ronnie wasn't a busted pick. He'll forever be remembered for the Wildcat game against the Pats and he made the Pro Bowl.
Did you forget how Ronnie Brown would get run down every single time he should have got a TD? RB had no speed. Defensive backs and safeties always caught up to him if he ever broke out in the field.
What's occurred isn't really the picture you painted, and trying shoehorn it in doesn't make it less obvious. Daniel Thomas looks like a good pick, looks like worth trading up, and he's done well early. Those two mistakes in question are not inherently rookie mistakes, and it happening in back to back weeks isn't inherently a rookie issue.
? Ronnie is a RB who gave us some very productive years. The downside of him was his injuries. Ronnie Brown was more if not AS productive as any other RB taken within a year of him save for maybe Steven Jackson who like Ronnie is consistently hurt. 2004 Steven Jackson Chris Perry Kevin Jones Julius Jones Tatum Bell 2005 Cadillac Willaims Ronnie Brown Cedric Benson Frank Gore 2006 Reggie Bush Laurence Maroney DeAngelo Willaims Joseph Addai Those are only the high picks, but you should get the gist. RB's are a dime a dozen in the league today...Ronnie was the best athlete on this team for almost 4 years. He ran hard, he made great cuts, and he was fast...son of a ***** just couldn't stay healthy. He's in good company for RB's though...I don't think I'd take anyone on that list other than Jackson over him. He was as good and productive for as many years as the afore mentioned guys. When he dropped off, he dropped off big...but looking at the history of RB's...that's what tends to happen. Actually, continuing on....these are only high picks obviously...I'm too lazy to look 'em all up, but that's where you get the most RB hits. 2007 AP Marshawn Lynch Kenny Irons Brandon Jackson 2008 McFadden Jonathan Stewart Mendenhall Chris Johnson Matt Forte Ray Rice Pretty sobering...RB's burn out so quick. We had such a bad team in place, Ronnie wasn't going to make the difference..think where we might have gone if we had studs around him, rather than burning his good years.
Frank Gore - also known as the "Inconvenient Truth". 3rd round pick by the 49ers in 2005. Brown has been blown away by Gore's productivity. Brown is 1700 yards behind Gore.
Added him before you made the quote. Missed that. He's a rarity though. My point is, RB's are a dime a dozen. Gore has been far from dominant in SF though he's probably the most productive of all of those RB's outside of AP and SJ. Ronnie was the best player on our offense for a long time, true his time has passed, but people shouldn't forget what he did either. It's not his fault he had the misforutne of playing under Saban, and Cam.
Actually, to me DTrain is one other reasons for my frustrations, he had played at a really high level. If he had just been bad things would be much clearer in terms of Ireland/Sparano for me at least.
B/c unfortunately, we have to spell the rook occasionally. I hate it too... but DT did have 23 carries... We have to use more than one back occasionally, but the plays we run with Bush just need to be different.
I love the way Daniel Thomas runs. He gives great second effort and uses a lot of power. He's the real deal. Good vision and makes good cuts. I can't wait until he breaks one. You can almost feel it coming. He's hands are amazing when he catches. The screens they call for him are beautiful. He has excellent timing. I can't believe he started as a QB in college before moving to RB. He's a natural runner.... I just hope he has a long career and doesn't flame out like some RBs due to injuries.
One of the big knocks on Thomas was that he ran too upright, which was a valid point. Just based on his size and running style he reminded a lot of folks, me included, of a poor man's Eddie George. The thing that impressed me today was that he was getting lower - a lot lower - than what I've seen him do in the past. The other thing that impressed me was how he would always fall forward and pick up an extra two or three yards, even if he was stuffed for no gain it seemed like he was able to get a decent run out of it. The scary thought is that he's only in his third year as a full-time running back (he started out as a QB in JuCo), and he's only going to get better as he learns the position and figures out what he needs to do (not just running, but things like learning how to hold onto and carry the ball, blitz pickup, etc.). The other scary thought is that we haven't used him to his full potential - I mentioned he was a QB, and this team is in need of a spark, especially in the Red Zone. You have to think that we've got some Wildcat-style offensive plays that we haven't even seen yet. Overall, he's been very solid thus far in his first two games, and from the potential he has flashed you can sort of understand why Ireland would move up to draft him.
...not to mention, one of the games DT wasnt even healthy in. In the 2 games DT has been healthy, he has got 68.3% of the rushing carries. I dont think I want to be giving a rookie more than almost 70% of the carries in his first too games...