He's on pace to yield double digit sack and hit numbers and over 40 pressures. I don't think you remember what average LT play is like if you don't think he stinks this season.
In the end though it is giving Goodell what be wants, offense and less physical play. I think the quality of play in the NFL this year has been the worst I've seen in a long time.
I'm showing he's let up 5 sacks, 6 hits and 10 pressures which would pace him for 11 sacks, 14 hits and 23 pressures. I agree, not good. He's clearly hurting, he seems to be limping a lot during these games.
I would go a step further and say it has been the worst ever. Goodel better be careful on what he wishes for. We're approaching a middle ground between old time football and the Arena League, if we have not already passed it.
He WILL NOT do it himself. Hell, he's getting paid $11M this year, the same next year, and then ready for another $50M+ contract, and yet he plays.
actually the goal is to build a SB caliber team ... if it means putting a star that is earning beaucoup $$$$ on IR -- then that's what you do to ensure the team LONG term. If a pitcher has Tommy John surgery ... he gets a year, and it's really 2 before he's back to full capacity. this team as usual, dicked the dog with Long on both his shoulder and knee this offseason ... 'hoping' that we'd have a good season -- well, we aren't .... so let's have a little foresight and something called vision. this does not equate to 'sucking for luck' as some would infer ... it is taking care of the future of your franchise -- period. IF this is the 'new' Jake Long ... and something i don't agree with one bit -- then so be it ... but i believe, the dude is sucking it up, just like he did to close out last year (which was stupid part 1) .... let's not continue with stupid part 2. when he gets pushed back on his @$$, there is something wrong -- period (besides the fact he probably has limited strength in that arm).
Chances are that Tambla Hali will be lining up vs Jake on many plays. We all may want to keep an eye on that match up to see how Long does. The proof of the pudding, so to speak.
Do you honestly believe by the time it takes to build a Super Bowl Caliber team Jake Long will even be here ? It takes more then a Good QB. This team needs great receivers and a stout defense. It will take several drafts and good FA pickups to even be playoff contenders no less Super Bowl Caliber. By that time comes, Jake Long will be in the final stages of his career in Miami. The team is not shutting down its left tackle because his die hard fans want to do so. They shut Jake down who is our LT ? Garner ? LOL that would be ugly. Our run game flourished against the Giants because they have the next to worst run defense in the league. There isn't a team they played this year that did not get successful yardage thru the run. Anytime you face a smaller faster athletic defensive front, the run always succeeds because most times the D just passes the runner up on its way to the QB. This is the NY Giants. I wish Jake and every player playing injured the best of luck and as I said, no team in the NFL is going to put a player on IR because he is playing with pain, no way. It does not work that way, even for Jake Long. As long as Jake can play, he will play. As I said, he would be the first one to know if he should be shut down. The young man is not stupid and would not put his future income at jeopardy if it was something serious, which IMO, its not. You look at any successful team in the NFL and you can bet the house some of its star players are playing the game in pain. That is the mark of the craft these players have chosen as their lifes work. No GM in his right mind would shut a player down for the future just because they are having a losing season. If that was so, Manning, not being cleared to play football yet, would be on IR and the Colts choose not to do so. Same crap season as ours, certainly could use the roster space, a superstar 100 times more then Jake Long and the Colts have not put him on IR. I would have to go with their formula because they have had a few more winning seasons then we have had in the last 10 years. Jake will play as long as Jake can play and thats all there is to it.
^ as above. If leaving him out now helps him have a better 2012 you do it asap. What's more important Long's health of M.Moore's Dolphin career??
That's incredibly misleading given that he gave up 4 of those sacks in the first three games, and a grand total of one since. He's clearly playing much better now that he's played himself into shape than when he first got off of PUP to start the season. I don't even know where you're getting those pressure numbers, either. He's not playing up to his own standards, but that doesn't mean he's ruined or in danger of being ruined. Elite players can have down years without injury, and if actual, qualified medical professionals think he's ok to play, then he's ok to play.
Incidentally, I claimed neither. I claimed that he's playing pretty bad right now, which, incidentally again, I attributed to him missing all of TC due to injury and pretty much the whole offseason due to the labor issue. If you don't agree with the "pretty bad" part, fine, but let's leave the strawmen out of it, okay?
Yep and lets say they put things together it will take minimum, 3-4 years putting him at 29 to 30 years old. Still able to play but most certainly in the winter of his career. To think we can put together a SB team in 1-2 years ( 27-28 yrs old) is beyond being optimistic. Not impossible but certainly not likely. Thats why I am saying or my opinion, it will be more like 3 and most likely 4 years, ( 29-30 years old ) Still serviceable but most likely looking for his replacement by the time he is 30. Still, if healthy he should get 2 more years of good football ( 32 years of age ) anything after that would be a blessing for any LT in the NFL. As I said, just my opinion as there are many opinions one would imagine.
It's a position that can play well into its mid-30's? Ogden went out at 12 years, Pace 13, Jones 12, Roaf 13. Of those, Pace was only really the guy whose body and skills, rather than desire forced him out. There's no timetable at all for this.
You claimed he stinks. How is that in any way a straw man that I suggested that he's not playing to his own standards? If anything, that's charitable. Why in the hell would you put him on IR unless you think there's a chance he could suffer permanent injury, then?
Orlando Pace last three half years were not a good thing to see. The last two and half years Pace was with the Rams he was no different then a mediocre LT. They finally gave in and cut the perenial Pro Bowler due to the fact, he was not really good anymore. His last year he played was at Chicago because his old coach Mike Martz OC wanted him there. Again, Pace was far less then the Orlando Pace that even the Rams had cut. Everyone one is different and there is surely no timetable for anything. IMO, Pace was perhaps the greatest LT that has played the game in the last two decades. As much as I like Jake, he is a shadow of Pace. Pace last year was 2009. His last GOOD year or effective year was the first half of 2006 prior to him going on IR for the rest of the season due to concussion. He had 6 STRONG years, one really good year and from 2005 to 2009 , five years, were mediocre to horrible. The Rams were no different then any other club, they kept him there because what he had done and how he had played in the PAST. Post 2004 his play never got better. From the second half of 2006 until the end after the season in 2009, the man was horrid. Watch the way Jake is playing, its a mirror image of Orlando Paces last three years in the league. Not saying with a full off season Jake will not improve but using Pace as a bench mark. Like I said, wish the kid all the luck in the world.
