Merged: Dolphins sign OG Danny Watkins, waive Josh Samuda

I posted some of this from the other Watkins thread...

Eagles fans are ranting about the poor draft picks they had (now, in hindsight) and stating that since the year 2000, 5 of 11 first round picks were busts, including Watkins now...

http://boards.philadelphiaeagles.com/topic/653940-danny-watkins-ankles/page__st__30

 

Color me amused at the outrage from some here of an undrafted player being cut. Odds were always against him to begin with.
Kudos to Ireland and company on cutting their minimal losses and moving in a different direction.

 

Whenever I visit other boards like that, it makes me appreciate this site that much more..

 

I take it that includes Finhell?

 

Finhell is Fanhell and Fanhell is dead baby. Fanhell is dead.

 

We left quite a few touchdowns on the field during preseason when we had multiple opportunities to punch it in from close to the goal line. There were tries on third and fourth down in which the offensive line got a zero. They had the opposite of push; they had penetration. The coaching staff was clearly trying to see whether the line could generate some push from up close, and it could not. By the end of the preseason they had gone pretty exclusively to throwing for it. Say what you want about Griese, but he was saying the line got no push all preseason long, and he's been around lines that get push.

This is a very serious weakness, and Samuda was part of it. At that point, the coaches have to make the call on whether he could improve in the near future and must have figured that he could not. With Louis gone because he wasn't going to heal on time, they had no one at right guard, to the point that an unknown quantity with motivational problems and a record of underachievement was deemed better than Samuda.

They figured during free agency and before camp that Samuda was going to be able to get it done, and he couldn't. Back to the drawing board, but now there's no one else out there to plug in, which is why Watkins.

 

Why didn't we cut sorry *** Josh Kadduu instead?

 

Check your phone. The team left 100's of messages about wanting your opinion before they made the cut, but time ran out.

If you had just answered the call......

 

Samuda wasn't great neither is Watkins. By face value Watkins has more potential than Samuda. I am neither excited nor disappointed in the moves, I simply see it as churning the bottom of the roster to try and find a gem in the clutter. I can see why people who were intrigued with Samuda would be disappointed, maybe even upset but not everyone had that opinion. Samuda was a Dolphin and as such I wish him the best and success in the future.

 

Did anybody find out what Roseman said about Watkins that was so terrible?

 

Essentially everyone Roseman talked to at Baylor thought of Danny Watkins as a physically tough enforcer type but when he got to Philadelphia he was anything but that. Roseman thought maybe Watkins placed too much pressure on himself.

He got the label of being soft for his place on the field in Philly. He also has been openly questioned as to whether he really wants the NFL. He has an obsession with being a fireman, which is the reason he came to the US from British Columbia in the first place. He's been seen on days off from Philly practice suiting up in fireman gear with other firemen and battling blazes, carrying equipment for them, etc.

 

Something about he isn't passionate about football I think.

Personally I think this is a low risk, high reward move... it probably won't end with Watkins at a Pro Bowl OL but I doubt it bites us.

 

Tell you what, I saw a play where he let a rusher get by him that was probably the nail in the coffin..He literally saw the guy comin that wasn't his initial responsibility, but his initial responsibility stunted so he was left with no one, the guy that came into his path, he just barely put out a weak arm while maintaining his lane integrity..It showed either he doesn't give a damn, or he doesn't have good instincts at the position.

 

Well he either snaps out of it and commits to being an NFL OL or we send him packing and he gets his chance as a Fireman.

 

"You got that right!!"

 

That's the DJ I know. This is why I pointed out the play where Jonathan Martin did the exact same thing and said normally you'd roast a guy for doing this.

 

Man, when I watch that play I swear I thought that it was just a play where I think, that he thought, that his effort was long enough for the ball to be released, (a brain gaffe)am I happy that he didn't show an aggressive nature to the end?, no, but relative to his preseason performance, where i did see an improved nature, and the other improvements that I saw out of him, I didn't think it deserved that level of criticism, considering how much I have criticized the pick in general, and how shocked I was at how much it did look like he improved..

 

Yeh..well..hey...

I mean...Shaq had a fascination with being a Peace Occifer...came here...did peace occifer stuff..and won a World Championship.

Hmmm.....

 

Tanny wants to be a doctor and hangs out at hospitals.

 

Im sensing a re occuring theme here....

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

I thought the same thing, however I was still upset.

Play to the whistle!

 

I do not know the guy. I have not checked with any of the people that would know, other than one conversation with a guy that played with him and that was a while back...so I do not know if he is a puss or not...I do know that from what i am told he (Watkins) had no problem having a confrontation with my guy when he had a small off field incident and my contact respects him and told me he played hurt and would want him on his side on a fight and that he was a tough guy he would not want to F with...he (Watkins) played tough at Baylor and has played hurt...my guy also told me that football is not the most important thing to him and he has interests outside football...again I have not checked on what a lot of people have to say about Watkins today..my impression is (maybe accurate, maybe not) that Watkins may be a sorta wanna be renaissance man...and that might have rubbed "those that drafted him in Philly" the wrong way and one guy popped off...

Agree or disagree I do not care, but to me, .... IMHO........... it is irresponsible to represent as fact what one guy had an opinion on that might or might not accurately represent all of "the people that drafted him in Philly". Especially when there is a lot of evidence the other way 'on the field where it matters' ....and a guy that played with him has a 180 degree different opinion...who is right and who is wrong? ....who knows, we will find out soon enough if he is a puss or not dedicated or whatever or if he plays like he did at Baylor or like Ron Heller or Conrad Dobler back in the day....that one guy might be right...but he also might be wrong and there is evidence the other way...representing your third or fourth hand interpretation of what someone had to say, as being factual is just not fair when there are other people saying the opposite and the evidence does not support what "the one guy" has to say...

I enjoyed my little "drive by" and it was good to see most of you,....take care....I'm done.....Bye.

 

^and was never heard from again.

 

And off the grid he goes into the wild blue mountains of NC...good bye Two cents....goodbye.

 

If the dude is suiting up and fighting blazes for fun on his off days, he seems pretty hardcore to me.

 

Career day at Dolphins headquarters?

 

Just have Watkins watch Rocky II, it will get him focused.

 

Not sure i get all the annoyance at this move, i think as fans sometimes we concentrate on the bottom of the roster at this time of the year too much and any hint of progress is seized upon. Josh Samuda showed some promise but his likely ceiling is an average NFL centre if and it's a big if everything goes right for him, he's got some talent but he's not a physical specimen and he's got some technique holes which were rather brutally exposed when he was asked to play with the 1st team. Ally that to the fact we have one of the best players in the game in his position who's only 24 years old and he's a luxury player for the organisation.

Opposed to him you have someone who had the talent to be picked in the first round as a guard, he hasn't shown much in his career so far but he obviously had something and his ceiling is likely to be higher than Samuda's. If the change of environs and coaching staff helps him (and it might since he apparently didn't react well to the style of blocking taught by the position coach in Philly) then great, we have a good player at a position of need. Even if it doesn't he's probably no worse at RG than Samuda was.

In short there's really not a lot of risk and a bit of potential upside, sure i'd rather have seen Stanford or Jones cut but it's hardly a worry Samuda has gone.

 

I am pretty sure the input of Jim Turner was given a lot of credence in this move. I'd say he is on board with the decision. That is good enough for me.

 

Agreed, when it comes to the mental side of the game, I trust that he at least we'll get their best, and I say that because I've listened to his message when he goes there..

 

Lol, exactly..

Win rocky..win"... Man when she wakes from that coma and he's kneeling there and he hears that, the look on his face gets me going every time,

 

I have not been impressed with Jim Turner

 

How funny and I can believe it, that is how the nfl accountants masquerading as personnel men think:

"he had an ankle that kept him out of practice but helped fight a blaze somewhere, he just is not serious about football"

This is why I chuckle when I hear some GM or commentariat member blathering about "high character guys".

No, think of them as sort of loan sharks who own players contracts and expect X,Y and Z from them.

Still and all, play on the field matters over any of that, so far Mr Watkins has been quite average at best.

 

Well sort of, keep in mind he is a late bloomer in football terms, basically his time in college and in philly is his football pedigree, he needs to hone his game as well as fight fires, it can be done especially in an offensive lineman.

 

He will either get focused or get paid like a fireman. That simple

 

Seems like a pretty down to earth guy, here's hoping he does well.

http://www.miamidolphins.com/multim...The_Team/083d07ef-cd3f-4e1f-b990-2bc55c4c492e

 

You ain't kidding! Here's a quote from a disgruntled Eagles fan:

A 25 year old interior lineman in the first round made no sense. He looked great at Baylor because he was 4 or 5 years older than most of the d-lineman he was beating up. When he got to the big kids in the NFL, he wasnt pushing anyone around.

Anyway, as someone said above this is unlikely to be a big deal. We're talking about the bottom of the roster.

 

Yes, I am sure many people here know more about playing OL than Turner does.

 

Just looking at his results.

So far they have not looked too good.