Jared Odrick and Sean Smith can't wait until Monday...with good reason

If we go 1-3 or 1-4, Please...please...football gods, let our one win be over the Patriots. I haven't been this nervous over a game in awhile.

Man, I hope Odrick and Smith can back up their words. Smith can, no question be a stud CB. His height and athleticism is a serious advantage he has vs other CB's. WIth WR's now coming at you with 6'5/220lb frames having that height is an equalizer that few teams have the luxury of. And Odrick can settle for being just another cog in what should be an elite D-Line rotation or he can separate himself and make himself standout. He can be the pass-rusher, the Richard Seymour or Aaron Smith...the key cog that lead Super Bowl winning defenses as an elite pass rushing 3-4 end.

Now the right side of the OL...they have a different something to prove. They have to prove they arent washed up!

I just want to beat the damn Pats. I hate everything about them

I can't wait for the game so we can stop hearing them talk, and see them play.

I don't mind so much Odrick talking, he has a lot to say, and I'm pulling hard for him.

Smith...ugh. I wish both of our Corners would just SHUT UP and do it on the field. Particularly, make some interceptions when the ball hits them in their damn hands.

Smith's physical tools are obvious, but it's also obvious that he plays soft, and in preseason he didn't flash any indication that his coverage skills nor his tackling have improved.

"NaboCane wrote:

I can't wait for the game so we can stop hearing them talk, and see them play.

I don't mind so much Odrick talking, he has a lot to say, and I'm pulling hard for him.

Smith...ugh. I wish both of our Corners would just SHUT UP and do it on the field. Particularly, make some interceptions when the ball hits them in their damn hands.

Smith's physical tools are obvious, but it's also obvious that he plays soft, and in preseason he didn't flash any indication that his coverage skills nor his tackling have improved.

Couldn't agree more on Sean Smith's softness. I'm worried that teams are going to attack him in the run game now that he's on the left side. I'm not worried about Misi and Vontae on the right, but Wake and Smith? Holding my breath...

Wow, Smith continues to get dogged like he's Reggie f*cking Howard.

"BlameItOnTheHenne wrote:

Wow, Smith continues to get dogged like he's Reggie f*cking Howard.

He gets critiqued like Sean ****ing Smith, who still, this very preseason, missed a tackle that allowed a 52-yard run.

"NaboCane wrote:

He gets critiqued like Sean ****ing Smith, who still, this very preseason, missed a tackle that allowed a 52-yard run.

Yeah he's soft but it takes more than one missed tackle to make a 52 yard run happen. Bell whiffed on the play, Wake looked like he was out for a morning jog, Vontae wanted no parts Blount and Dansby finally put a stop to the madness. Sean missed the guy twice and his reputation makes him an easy target but I cant put it all on him.

"NaboCane wrote:

He gets critiqued like Sean ****ing Smith, who still, this very preseason, missed a tackle that allowed a 52-yard run.

He did miss the tackle but theres really nothing that substantiates Smith as a poor tackler last year. He missed 4 all of last year which while cut short for poor play is still a low number considering the amount of run snaps he played(308 plays). Vontae missed 13 in 454 run plays. Smith also ranked 17th out of 100 amongst CB's that played more then 25% of their snaps in cumulative run defense. Vontae ranked 14th btw.

I agree Smith can use tackling work but he is not as poor as some here make him out to be.

"Boik14 wrote:

He did miss the tackle but theres really nothing that substantiates Smith as a poor tackler last year. He missed 4 all of last year which while cut short for poor play is still a low number considering the amount of run snaps he played(308 plays). Vontae missed 13 in 454 run plays. Smith also ranked 17th out of 100 amongst CB's that played more then 25% of their snaps in cumulative run defense. Vontae ranked 14th btw.

I agree Smith can use tackling work but he is not as poor as some here make him out to be.

its not his tackling I worry about so much, moreso his lateral and short area quickness.

Thats the thing about the two corners, and Why I have Vontae as being superior, right now have no worries about any part of Vontae's game that would cause me concern, I can't say the same about Smith.

"djphinfan wrote:

its not his tackling I worry about so much, moreso his lateral and short area quickness.

Thats the thing about the two corners, and Why I have Vontae as being superior, right now have no worries about any part of Vontae's game that would cause me concern, I can't say the same about Smith.

It's the hips dj. Smith is a big guy and he doesn't have that swivel quickness.
His length makes up for it though I think.

"NaboCane wrote:

He gets critiqued like Sean ****ing Smith, who still, this very preseason, missed a tackle that allowed a 52-yard run.

It's going to be okay though, Smith has been working with Deion Sanders on the tackling part........lol

"Killerphins wrote:

It's the hips dj. Smith is a big guy and he doesn't have that swivel quickness.
His length makes up for it though I think.

I have seen some reactionary speed that has me excited about the way he covers the crossing stuff...He seems to predict what break the receiver is gonna make quite well..

Smith on OCHO, VD on Welker..

"Killerphins wrote:

It's the hips dj. Smith is a big guy and he doesn't have that swivel quickness.
His length makes up for it though I think.

Well thats part of it because theres a reason you dont see a lot of big corners. Also remember Smith is a converted WR and has been playing CB for only 4 years I believe. Im sure there are things hes still adjusting to after playing WR his whole life prior to converting

I hope he "gets it" and turns his game around. But he's been playing Corner now for 3 offseasons and 2 full seasons as a pro; and he was drafted as a Corner, not a position-change and a project. And, come this preseason, there he was again—making bonehead mistakes like going for the ball instead of making the tackle on LeGarrette Blount.

I'll tell you what I don't like: I see a guy with a very blasé attitude on the field in terms of how he carries himself. And if he was like that and nevertheless got results, then more power to him—but that's clearly not the case.

Steve mentioned Deion, and that was funny. But it brings into the discussion that good-to-great Corners weren't always necessarily great tacklers, but they always did something else well to mitigate that; Deion and Sam Madison were two guys who never met a tackle they didn't avoid, but they were awesome talents in coverage. So you forgave them their failings.

The fact is, Smith doesn't do anything particularly well; he has mental lapses, bites hard on fakes, is late in coverage a lot more than you'd like. But he's also a mediocre tackler, and that's the one thing you'd like him to at least be decent at, given his size.

In fact, he's a guy without a fallback position: if he fails at Corner, given his size you'd think he would make a decent Safety—but he doesn't tackle anywhere near well enough to make that work.

And I'm sorry, Matt, but stats on negatives are always highly subjective and unreliable. That he shows to have only 4 missed tackles last season is a very suspect stat when you actually observe him, and note all the things I've mentioned.

All that combined is why it galls me that he doesn't have the good sense to shut the **** up until he actually does something besides draft behind Davis...who, 3 inches shorter and smaller than Smith, is a far surer tackler and lots better in coverage. And that right there is what worries me the most about the kid: I don't think he's very bright, and—like I said before—I don't think he's fully devoted to his craft.

We saw the cautionary tale of Kory Sheets unfold over the preseason, and the ugly ending it had because Sheets, with all the physical tools you could want for what they wanted him to do, was not dedicated to his craft, and had such poor common sense that he actually made moronic tweets which showed how stupid and unmotivated he really was. I don't see Smith as being too far off that model.

I find much of the criticism of Smith here to be baseless. He was our best CB last year, better than Davis. He got beat less often and he missed fewer tackles. In a league where receiving TEs are increasing in importance, he's by far our best weapon against that. I think the criticism is largely based on the dropped INTs (although those are still passes defensed) and the perception of his personality not being fiery enough.

"rafael wrote:

I find much of the criticism of Smith here to be baseless. He was our best CB last year, better than Davis. He got beat less often and he missed fewer tackles. In a league where receiving TEs are increasing in importance, he's by far our best weapon against that. I think the criticism is largely based on the dropped INTs (although those are still passes defensed) and the perception of his personality not being fiery enough.

Amazing some of the people giving Henne the benifit of the doubt is down on Sean. Yet Sean's the only one of those two that has had a successful season during the regular season. SS made me a believer last season, I was one of the biggest people against SS not to long ago.....

Sometimes I wonder what exactly some people are watching out there

"Nappy Roots wrote:

Amazing some of the people giving Henne the benifit of the doubt is down on Sean. Yet Sean's the only one of those two that has had a successful season during the regular season. SS made me a believer last season, I was one of the biggest people against SS not to long ago.....

Sometimes I wonder what exactly some people are watching out there

I mentioned the HALO effect in another thread. I have long believed that it applies to all relationships, even fan/athlete relationships. People see something they like in a player and they ignore the bad or conversely something turns them off and then they only see the bad. Very few people have the ability to recognize their own bias. I know I have worked very hard to identify my own biases for years now. They still exist, of course, but I readily admit them (most importantly, to myself) and I believe I can usually separate a good portion of the bias from my evaluations.

Well, we do know that SS24 is going to start, so whether he has improved or not, he will be out on the field.

I personally like players saying things simply because there is no real downside to it, for Example Revis said he would lock down Moss, when he did not, there were no repercussion for saying he would then failing to do so.

If you were to cut off both of his arms, he would still be the same player. At this time, he cant catch Int's or make a wrap up tackle. It just seems that all his hits are with him diving at the legs of a ball carrier with his shoulders and yes, his teammates , have had to finish the job, even in this preseason.

I think Smith is a below average CB at this stage of his career. Don't care what the stats say.

"steveincolorado wrote:

If you were to cut off both of his arms, he would still be the same player. At this time, he cant catch Int's or make a wrap up tackle. It just seems that all his hits are with him diving at the legs of a ball carrier with his shoulders and yes, his teammates , have had to finish the job, even in this preseason.

I think Smith is a below average CB at this stage of his career. Don't care what the stats say.

When the stats completely invalidate what I think I'm seeing, that's usually a big indication that my evaluation is not objective.

"steveincolorado wrote:

If you were to cut off both of his arms, he would still be the same player. At this time, he cant catch Int's or make a wrap up tackle. It just seems that all his hits are with him diving at the legs of a ball carrier with his shoulders and yes, his teammates , have had to finish the job, even in this preseason.

I think Smith is a below average CB at this stage of his career. Don't care what the stats say.

Disagree, he defenses a lot of passes, and a Cb can get by without being a Vontae type tackler, heck Joey Browner made multiple pro bowls by slinging receivers down instead of tackling them, he had bad shoulders, SS24, however, does have to become more consistent at whatever style of tackling he is using.

If he is going for the ankle trip up then he needs to hit on it 99% of the time.

"padre31 wrote:

Disagree, he defenses a lot of passes, and a Cb can get by without being a Vontae type tackler, heck Joey Browner made multiple pro bowls by slinging receivers down instead of tackling them, he had bad shoulders, SS24, however, does have to become more consistent at whatever style of tackling he is using.

If he is going for the ankle trip up then he needs to hit on it 99% of the time.

I'm just looking at his tackling style, it's not very good.

"steveincolorado wrote:

I'm just looking at his tackling style, it's not very good.

Yessir, it is a bit like a Wr trying to tackle a defender after an Int, they want to do something but are not all that interested in hitting them.