Hodgins WAS a great Fullback. Well, was. Ryan Riddle played DE in college but he's undersized so the Raiders switched him to OLB so he's basically just a pass rusher. Cody Spencer is a solid run stopper IIRC.
http://sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/419522 ....Ryan Riddle http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/493073 ...Cody Spencer
Name: Ryan Riddle Position: Defensive End/Inside Linebacker College: California Height: 6-2 Weight: 252 OVERVIEW Riddle is this year's college football Cinderella story. He did not play football for two years after graduating from high school before enrolling at El Camino College. The speedy pass rusher joined the California program in 2003 after an All-America junior-college career. He started several games as a junior before having his All-America season for the Cal Bears in 2004. Riddle was an All-Bay League selection as a senior at Culver City (Calif.) High, where he led the league with 17 sacks as a junior and recorded 125 tackles in his senior year. He was named Culver City's Most Improved Player as a junior and team MVP as a senior. He earned Freshman of the Year honors in 2001 at El Camino Junior College, where he had nine sacks and two blocked kicks that season. In 2002, Riddle collected 12 sacks, five blocked kicks, three fumble recoveries, two forced fumbles, an interception and two touchdowns scored. He was named team MVP and a third-team JC All-American when he reeled off 12 sacks, three blocked field goals, two blocked punts, three fumble recoveries, two caused fumbles, one interception and two touchdowns scored. He was named to the 2002 All-Region IV Team by the California Community College Coaches Association/JC Athletic Bureau and also tabbed first-team All-Northern Division. Riddle then transferred to California-Berkeley, where he started three of 13 games at right defensive end in 2003. He posted 29 tackles (20 solo) with 6? sacks, 7? stops for losses and a fumble recovery his junior year. That was followed by an All-America 2004 season. Riddle led the Pac-10 Conference and ranked third in the nation with a single-season school-record 14? sacks for losses of 122 yards. He led the conference and ranked sixth nationally with 19 stops behind the line of scrimmage, adding 48 tackles (38 solo) with three forced fumbles. In two seasons with the Bears, he produced 77 tackles (58 solo), 21 sacks for minus-160 yards, 26? stops for losses of 183 yards, two fumble recoveries, three forced fumbles and a pair of pass deflections. His 21 sacks rank eighth on the school's career-record list. ANALYSIS Riddle is an undersized overachiever who could move to linebacker at the pro level. Watching him perform this year brought back memories of when current Super Bowl champion New England Patriot Tedy Bruschi (Arizona) and Tully Banta-Cain (California) used to terrorize Pac-10 quarterbacks as defensive ends. He has a quick first step off the line of scrimmage and uses his hands efficiently to get a shoulder on the blocker. He has good speed coming off the snap and has the change-of-direction agility to move down the line. While he has marginal size, he compensates with functional strength and above-average quickness. He has good intangibles and plays with total effort. Riddle is sudden coming out of his stance and has very good instincts for finding the ball. He might lack mass, but plays with good leverage. Riddle can roll his hips to stall the offensive linemen, and while he is not a two-gap player, he can squeeze the lanes. Riddle uses his hands very well and keeps his feet free. He works a blocker with his hands and keeps leverage while quickly locating the ball. He has the sudden burst to close on the ball carrier or quarterback coming off the edge and is a hard striker, showing good aggression to finish the tackle. He is very active on the corners and has the desire to flush the passer out of the pocket. He uses his quickness effectively to gain advantage and, even with his lack of size, does well to control blocks in one-on-one situations. His lack of bulk does get him pushed back and turned around when trying to work through trash, but he has the speed to reach the outside. In his short and long pursuit, you always see his good motor. He is a solid wrapup tackler who has the strength to explode into a ball carrier. While he has good quickness off the edge, he still needs to develop a counter move. Because of his size, Riddle cannot always step over trash, but he will use his hands to try and keep blockers off his body. He will stay on blocks too long at times, but his upper-body strength allows him to walk some blockers back into the pocket. When working near the pile, he is not always quick to locate the ball, but he shows good snap quickness coming off the edge. His down side will always be his lack of size (for a down lineman), but if a team shifts him to linebacker in a 3-4 alignment, they could find a second-day draft steal.
I like the Hodgins signing The Jets signed former Cardinals FB James Hodgins today. From what I remember about him, he was an excellent blocker. Right now we're getting worthless production from the FB position; I know that the new staff doesn't believe in utilizing the FB on passing plays as much as the old staff did, but Askew can't block. He really doesn't do much of anything so i hope Hodgins replaces him so we have a good blocker and maybe someone who could get that yard on 3rd and inches.
Jets sign FB and LB's Updated:2006-09-27 14:54:29 Jets Sign Veteran Fullback Hodgins AP HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (Sept. 27) - The New York Jets signed veteran fullback James Hodgins on Wednesday, as well as linebackers Cody Spencer and Ryan Riddle. The team also waived linebacker/defensive end Trevor Johnson, linebacker Ryan Myers and offensive lineman Norm Katnik. Hodgins, released by Arizona on Sept. 2 after three seasons with the Cardinals , spent his first four NFL seasons with St. Louis. Primarily used as a blocking back and on special teams during his career, Hodgins has 31 career yards rushing and a touchdown, and 35 catches for 169 yards receiving and three scores. Spencer, entering his third season, was a sixth-round pick by Oakland in 2004 out of North Texas State and has played in 23 NFL games. He led Tennessee with 21 special-teams tackles last season. Riddle, a sixth-round pick of Oakland last year, had seven tackles in 12 games with the Raiders , mostly on special teams. Johnson appeared in 25 games with the Jets since being drafted in the seventh round in 2004, but was inactive for New York 's first three games. Katnik played in four games since signing with the Jets as a free agent last year, and started the last two at left guard in place of the injured Pete Kendall. Myers was mainly a special-teams player with New York, registering 17 tackles in two seasons.
askew is a pretty good blocker, and i thought he had good hands, but obviously i was wrong (maybe wishful thinking...we miss you jerald) anyways, hodgins should be a good fit, he did well in those rams offenses, so he knows how to protect
275 pounds? That's impressive. Mangini thinks like I do... bigger is usually better. Hope this guy can do a few things for our running atack. Still don't know why we didn't try to retain Sowell, though. Jerald was a pretty good FB.
I LOVED Sowell-Man. Can't quite figure out why we didn't try to keep him. But if this guy is 275 lbs., that's some beefy blocking.
