It's a natural knee-jerk reaction to call a player who one or 2 people compared to HOF runningbacks a bust when he doesn't take every attempt to the house running behind terrible 3rd string offensive linemen in a preseason game a bust.
you're right, but fans will want what they saw with Matt Ryan and Flacco. Having a coach who is more well known than Harbaugh and Smith and a QB who's more popular than Ryan and Flacco coming out of college will want the same or more success from the rookies. its totally unfair.
Man, I love your posts, dude. That's basically what I am expecting from him as well. It's stupid to expect this guy to be a Bettis type considering he's smaller and much lighter than Bettis on his most anorexic day. Having a guy run up the middle in a vanilla offensive scheme designed to weed out the crappier depth offensive linemen in a preseason game - that's just not fair to judge a player by. I was surprised he actually got that long run considering how badly our line was getting pushed around. It's nice to say he can only run behind an excellent O-line - that was basically true of Curtis Martin and most other elite runningbacks. There are a handful of runningbacks in the league that can get anything done without good blocking. A small handful. I don't get the logic in 'leaning toward bust' after such a small and skewed opportunity as he was given.
I'm not taking account of "just" an NFL preseason game. I think it's pretty clear that I've been saying that he had a boat load of help in college, and 1 preseason game and I've yet to see him move a pile more than a yard or two. That wasn't even on a goal line situation. So for me to just jump on board with the whole "he's going to be a beast" logic seems premature. I haven't seen it. Maybe you know of some clips out there of him playing that will show that and I missed it. I want to be proven wrong, believe me.
And most of it is filled with hyped up expectations, judging by the posts on this board, regarding him. He left me cold. What more can I say.
Kind of reminds me of the guy we drafted in the third round who hunted boar with his swiss army knife. By the way can you actually kill a Boar with a wine opener?
You're expecting a runningback to move a pile of players that all individually outweigh him by about 40-60 pounds a piece? Are you joking? Offensive lines move the pile. Bruising backs bust through a player or two that are plugging a gap. So far all I have seen for Greene is the lack of a gap between blockers.
winston, c'mon man. your comparing the bust preportions of Greene to Schlegel this early cause they were both 3rd rd picks? id expect more from such a knowledgable poster. unless your just ripping on schlegel and mangini's character drafting. then im all aboard. :wink:
in all reality the fact greene was running behind our scrubs must account for something no? if 3/5 of the chargers line went down and Tomlinson looked mediocre i certainly wouldnt be saying. "hall of fame my ass......" the only RB ive ever seen dominate behind a mediocre to below average line was Barry Sanders. point in case. thats in regards to the whole argument you put up about well if the lines not good he suddenly becomes not good? well in most cases yes. look at our running game from 07 and compare it to 08. leon and tj certainly didnt get leaps and bounds better. the blocking did.
on that scoutvid he moved the pile forward about 4 feet. that would make him a "promising" rookie not a 'bust'.. . in my book at least.
I totally give him a pass for the line he had in front of him last week. I just want to see more. We would not say that about Thomlinson, for sure. But, LT has proven himself already. Here's the whole deal; I've heard a lot, a LOT, of ditch Jones because we have Greene and Greene is going to be a beast. I haven't seen the beast part. I'm happy with Jones' productivity up to this point, so I'd like to see Jones' replacement be as good first. Is Leon even up to the increased role at this point? Not sure. He's awesome, but it's a long season.
1 of 2 nice plays from the clip. If he can do that at the goal line, since that's a huge part of the thinking behind drafting him, then cool.
You know me better than to pour lighter fluid on hot burning coals. I'm just pointing out there is historical prospective for Tannenbaums No. 3's being hyped and being busts. I'm not expressing an opinion or connecting the dots.
