Bridging our past to the Future...
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When I first became a fan of this team, Greg Pruitt was making the transition from exciting punt/kick returner to a fulltime RB. This marked a day and age when I could see the excitement of a 4 yard expectation turn into 70 yard TD run. More specifically, there was a feeling we could score from anywhere on the field on any given play. That comes in handy especially in places that include lake effect weather without a sissy roof over head keeping footballs and field surfaces dry and mud free without lake swirling winds. Now all you need is a defense that can stop the run and rush the QB on 3rd and long for doing so. All on Mr Farmer's checklist folks.
When I see a kid like Duke coming here reminding me of my avatar and what first interested me in this franchise as a brat - I'm pumped. My football wood factor goes from balsa to sequoia. Sometimes the only thing we're lacking on a day our opponents beats on the final play of the game with a FG - is the ability to score by accident from 60-70 yards out. Even when we had physical power backs in lieu of break away RB speed (today we have both); if we played good sound defense to coincide with our time of possession advantages - we made the playoffs and even won 11 regular season games the last year we won a playoff game.
Meatball on spaghetti here, adding guys like Erving and Bitonio up front in our last 2 draft classes should work well with the 1st round investments already here (Mack & Thomas). Until someone unseats him, Schwartz is a 2nd round investment. Last year, we had an undrafted rookie like Crow averaging about 5.2 yards per carry for the first half of his season. Duke's biggest projected impact should be what he adds to our passing game especially on 3rd downs. In 86, Herman Fontenot gave us 47 receptions almost exclusively on 3rd downs. Duke could give us that with better gears. Meanwhile, the guy who led us in receptions with 55 was former 4th round pick Brian Brennan with countless 3rd down receptions moving the chains. We're hoping Hartline or Bowe or both can at least combine for that. If we got Reggie Langhorne from Elizabeth City's football program to fill a valuable role - maybe Mayle can give us a similar impact/role/dynamic from his background. On top of all that, we have Gabriel and Hawkins to benefit from the playaction perks our running game will set up. In essence, we've become the same type of team that even Mike Pagel or Don Strock could QB with success. We're closer to the Chicago team Josh McCown found really easy to QB - except we have a much better line (especially when healthy). Our front office has made this a much easier team to QB than it's been in recent years past. It may be a different era; but it's the exact same climate/weather that can ground the best of passing games from November-January. If you fail to prepare for that you should prepare to fail, as our musical front office before Ray Farmer have epitomized.
Defensively, we added Danny Shelton and Super Cooper to help us stop the run and Nate Orchard's ability to get 18.5 sacks plus 21 tackles for a loss in whatever that translates to for our defense moving forward. I think it was Calfox that brought this to our attention that Danny Shelton says he loves use his Academic All American mind to help his defensive teammates breakdown film. Meanwhile, Tour was astuteful in reminding us how impressed he was with the angles Danny was using to get to ballcarriers. Just to piggyback onto both of those guys, one of the most underrated assets in football is vision (both on the field and in the film room). The reason our hated enemies like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed were so valuable to their team was what they contributed to their team and teammates breaking down film and keys/cues to exploit of upcoming opponents. I'm guessing this isn't as common place around the league as we think it is, which is why that's cool to know about Shelton. That stuff does a lot for first step instinct on game day. There's Harvard smarts like Ryan Fitzpatrick that get handcuffed/overpowered by suspect vision that can cause him to look like a turnover machine on game day. Vision is one of the least talked about intangibles; but any lackthereof can make a lot off smart guys look dumb on the field.
We also landed talented depth in our secondary. If Ifo-Ekpre-Olomu didn't tear his ACL before Oregon's playoff game, he would have someone would have drafted him far earlier than we did to challenge for a starting spot this year. This works well for us because Gilbert gets a second chance; but the solution to failure will already be here. I don't know anything about Gaines; and I liked hearing Coach Fitzgerald talk about all the fumbles Campbell jars loose. Called him a machine with that art.
I'm one of those guys that was hoping for a BIG shiney hood ornament before the draft. However, I'm really glad we have a front office TEAMING with our coaching staff on identifying the right guys to fit their philosophy of play like a Brown. They not only did their due diligence researching their guys; but they stuck to the strategy. Right now, the only 2 guys that people had any complaints about in the last draft (Manziel & Gilbert) have been surrounded by the right people/influences as early as February. Gilbert has been working with Haden. Joe Thomas has indicated he sees a completely different Manziel frequenting the film room and letting his actions speak louder than words.
Our draft addressed a lot of needs, delivered us some good STs candidates and gave us some intriguing projects to develop. Couldn't be happier about our future....
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The decaff version of all that is football trends change - Lake Erie Climate does not.
Thank you for understand that Ray Farmer! It might become the reason you're our first keeper in the front office in a long time...
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Great title. Way back, in the Brian Sipe days, all those guys were a TEAM who loved the game.
And Bernie Kosar, all those guys were the same.
And now, that is what Farmer and Pettine are building.
Ya don't have to have a Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck to have a TEAM.
Exciting deja vu all over again !
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Cliff Notes-there has been a sea change in Berea!
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^Always wonder what the origins of "sea change" are... another time maybe.
And the Cliffs notes version would not include names of players I've not thought of in years, e.g., Herman Fontenot.
Been a long time coming but I don't think anyone with an ounce of objectivity will be able to deny seeing Flug's bridge by the end of the 2015 season.
Don't know most of our Day three draftees yet. Looking forward to introductions over some game tape over the next week or so. But of those I know, including earlier round picks, I at least like all of them. No reason to suspect the new ones will be any different.
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^Always wonder what the origins of "sea change" are... another time maybe.
And the Cliffs notes version would not include names of players I've not thought of in years, e.g., Herman Fontenot.
Been a long time coming but I don't think anyone with an ounce of objectivity will be able to deny seeing Flug's bridge by the end of the 2015 season.
Don't know most of our Day three draftees yet. Looking forward to introductions over some game tape over the next week or so. But of those I know, including earlier round picks, I at least like all of them. No reason to suspect the new ones will be any different.
^Always wonder what the origins of "sea change" are... another time maybe.
From Wiki:
- Sea change (idiom), an idiom for broad transformation drawn from a phrase in Shakespeare's The Tempest
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_change_%28idiom%29
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^Always wonder what the origins of "sea change" are... another time maybe.
And the Cliffs notes version would not include names of players I've not thought of in years, e.g., Herman Fontenot.
Been a long time coming but I don't think anyone with an ounce of objectivity will be able to deny seeing Flug's bridge by the end of the 2015 season.
Don't know most of our Day three draftees yet. Looking forward to introductions over some game tape over the next week or so. But of those I know, including earlier round picks, I at least like all of them. No reason to suspect the new ones will be any different.
^Always wonder what the origins of "sea change" are... another time maybe.
And the Cliffs notes version would not include names of players I've not thought of in years, e.g., Herman Fontenot.
Been a long time coming but I don't think anyone with an ounce of objectivity will be able to deny seeing Flug's bridge by the end of the 2015 season.
Don't know most of our Day three draftees yet. Looking forward to introductions over some game tape over the next week or so. But of those I know, including earlier round picks, I at least like all of them. No reason to suspect the new ones will be any different.
I think Ifo Ekrpe-Olomu is the x-factor in this draft, considering where we took him. The kid is a technician moreso than someone who relies on his athleticism. Pundits are saying he's more like Cortland Finnegan, but I liken him to Brandon Flowers.
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