Let's hope that potential, work ethic and intelligence you speak of gets him in the gym and working out smartly, and with the right intensity, " this ain't no scholarship anymore baby, time to get off your doughy *** and perfect your craft, that is a form of intelligence no?
Could the manatee be frightened but slightly curious instead of angry? Maybe the manatee's bottom lip quivers then turns up in the smallest and quickest of smirks? Can Mr. Slice, be disgusted with himself yet steadfast in his purpose? Can all of this take place in or near a Winn Dixie?
2011 1st rounder Danny Watkins struggled as a rookie after moving from the left side to the right, and his move wasn't as tough as Martin's b/c it was to RG. I'm not sure if people realize Martin is probably doing a ton of thinking right now since everything he's doing is like the mirror opposite. His kick slide, hand usage, and leverage will be different. Heck, how he's accustomed to looking at the field will be different as well. It's probably like moving to England and having to adjust to driving on the wrong side of the road, except much more difficult than that. It took Panthers DE Charles Johnson 3 years until he became a full time starter, so I'm not sure why fans believe a rookie who switches positions should immediately be on the level of a player who took a few years to get where he's at. I know the talented 4th round Frank Alexander got to Martin as well, but he got to Jon Martin the newbie right tackle, not Jon Martin the All American left tackle. That battle might've been different if Alexander wasn't handicapped. Like someone else already pointed out, by the time Alexander came in, Martin's head was already spinning. It'll probably be half a season to a year before we see anything from him.
What's your opinion on the RT situation as it looks today? Stick with Martin through thick and thin, or try to shore up the breach with one of the other RT possibilities on the roster, until the light comes on for Martin?
I think week four of the regular season is a better timeline for Martin to start making some decent strides. Until then I expect us to scheme around his struggles and minimize his weaknesses as best we can.
IDK to be honest. I'd like to have a better understanding of Martin's psyche to know what his threshold is ya know. One thing going for him is having already made one big transition fairly quickly & successfully (from high school to college) by garnering freshman All American honors and honorable mention All Pac-10, so maybe you stick with him. What are your thoughts on sticking him at RG and Murtha at T?
I'm not sure which posters said it was a waste to take Martin in the 2nd round b/c teams can find tackles later in the draft, but I'd like to address that statement: 20 teams have 1st or 2nd rounders at RT (this includes guys from the past 2 drafts who were drafted to become the future RT). That number jumps to 27 at LT. * RT: 11 1st rounders. 9 2nd rounders. (only 4 were 5th round & later) * LT: 20 1st rounders. 7 2nd rounders ** The average draft position for all 2011 starting RT & LT is round 2.3 (2.0 for LT, 2.7 for RT) (if a team used a 2011 or 2012 1st or 2nd round pick on a tackle, I used that draft position instead) To go a step further, if you look at each team's highest drafted starting interior lineman, that average draft position is round 2.0 * 14 1st rounders. 11 2nd rounders. Respectfully, to the fans who complain about us using high picks on Oline, Miami is right in the league's overwhelming median, and us using a 2nd rounder on RT is basically par for the league. Considering how bad we look at RT it would've been a statistically poor choice to wait until a later round to address the team's biggest weakness [since we satisfied QB the round prior]. QBs can distribute passes to a stable full of WRs, TEs, and backs to help make up for a deficiency at one of the positions; however you don't have that redistribution luxury when it comes to stopping pass rushers. Either you have a LT & RT or you don't. That's why using a 2nd rounder on RT (when you don't have one) is more important than a 2nd round WR.
I wouldn't put him at RG, because I think Hicks is doing ok there, and secondly because I don't think he is skookum enough to be effective in the run game at RG.
good point. TBH, considering our coaching staff's successful history with Oline I'm just gonna fold on this one and trust their decision. Philbin & McCarthy had 1st rounder Derek Sherrod to work with last year, and they chose to bring him along slowly, so perhaps Philbin sees something in Martin to feel ok pushing him this hard and starting him early..... or perhaps they had more of a luxury to ease Sherrod along.
I was wrong. He got hurt late. Sherrod broke his right leg on 18 December 2011 when linebacker Tamba Hali rolled into him during the fourth quarter of the Packers 14-19 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
It would be somewhat cruel to condemn the kid to ridicule and derision by repeatedly tasking him with a job you know he can't handle. Give him lots of practice reps with the second team until he shines through. It's the equivalent of sending him to the minors for a spell. The kid will become desperate to start and will work his but off to get there, instead of having constant negative reinforcement.
The problem is that once the regular season starts, the second team doesn't get any work at game speed.
You are positive about that? Yet, somehow backups develop into starters all the time throughout football. By your logic, this could never happen. You think we must keep him as a starter even though he handicaps the offense, because otherwise he'll never improve enough to be a solid starter, even though other backups have.
http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2012/08/22/first-impressions-second-rounders-no-33-to-no-42/ I guess I need to read something like this from a neutral observer. I'm still worried about how he'll look the first few games. But hopefully this and hard knocks notes are right. That this guy will get his stuff together
Its probably somewhere in the middle, but I think its closer to Martin being a solid player. All the camp reports indicated that he was doing well. On Hard Knocks the coaches heaped praise on him before the Carolina game. After the game, Philbin made it clear that Martin wasn't all that bad. I think he's doing as well as you could reasonably expect from a 2nd round LT that being moved to RT, and only has 2 preseason games under his belt.
Agree. The encouraging part was about how he did well against Tampa and their solid LE. I'm gonna have to go rewatch him in that game.
