Dennis likes JJ...per GBN

[EndZone]

GBNreport.com reports

Cards looking at CB early; RB later… Arizona has long been thought to have been interested in electing one of this year’s top RBs – again Auburn’s Ronnie Brown or Carnell Williams or Cedric Benson of Texas – with the 8th pick overall. There are some rumblings out of the desert, though, that Cardinals’ head coach Dennis Green is enamored with California RB J.J. Arrington which could open the door to the Cardinals opting to select a CB with the team’s first pick before taking the speedy Arrington in the second round. As we say stay tuned!

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Glad to know Denny and I think alike as it pertains to Arrington. I will continue my fearless prediction from the past few months:

JJ Arrington will be the best NFL runningback taken in this draft!!

 

[Rocco]

I wonder if this is true or perhaps a little counter-propaganda in the Shelton-Henry media negotiation.

 

[maddogkf]

he reminds me of Trung Canidate. Runs really fast in a straight line, but can he shed a tackler?

It seemed like every game I watched with Cal (3 or 4 last year) he wasn't even getting touched until he hit the LB corps. His OL created some great holes.

 

[Mulli]

he reminds me of Trung Canidate. Runs really fast in a straight line, but can he shed a tackler?

It seemed like every game I watched with Cal (3 or 4 last year) he wasn't even getting touched until he hit the LB corps. His OL created some great holes.

Interesting comparison to Trung. I hadn't thought about it. However, since Loyalty said JJ will best the best back taken, I'll go with that.

 

[JeffGollin]

he reminds me of Trung Canidate. Runs really fast in a straight line, but can he shed a tackler?
They ran tape on him on NFL Network - sure looked pretty good at shedding tackles there. He ran with a low pad level and and appeared to have very good lower body and leg strength.

As they once said about Joe Morris - at 210+ lbs, don't think of him as a small back, but rather good-sized only short.

 

[clif]

I like the guy, but I would not pass on Benson if he is there at # 8 in order to get jj in the second...

 

[Russ Smith]

he reminds me of Trung Canidate. Runs really fast in a straight line, but can he shed a tackler?

It seemed like every game I watched with Cal (3 or 4 last year) he wasn't even getting touched until he hit the LB corps. His OL created some great holes.

He's not shifty like say Barry Sanders but he breaks and slips a lot of tackles. No question he had some long runs where he was untouched, but he's a prototype Denver RB one cut and go, runs hard and usually doesn't spend a lot of time going laterally. He absolutely turns it upfield but I don't think he's similar to Canidate he's a much tougher runner.



I don't know how good he'll be but I'm fairly confident he's going to be a big asset to an NFL team that picks him.

 

[JPlay]

he reminds me of Trung Canidate. Runs really fast in a straight line, but can he shed a tackler?

It seemed like every game I watched with Cal (3 or 4 last year) he wasn't even getting touched until he hit the LB corps. His OL created some great holes.

That is such an awful arguement for discounting a RBs stats. Cal had no all-american lineman and no lineman as high draft prospects in the draft. The fact of the matter is that no line can blow huge holes in the D-line every play, more times than not it's up to the RB to find the hole with vision and cutbacks. If it was true that there were huge holes every play than you could put anybody back there and they would perform, which isn't true.

 

[maddogkf]

he reminds me of Trung Canidate. Runs really fast in a straight line, but can he shed a tackler?
They ran tape on him on NFL Network - sure looked pretty good at shedding tackles there. He ran with a low pad level and and appeared to have very good lower body and leg strength.

As they once said about Joe Morris - at 210+ lbs, don't think of him as a small back, but rather good-sized only short.

ok, I'll take that assesment....

 

[BACH]

The War Room compares Arrington to Tiki Barber and Fason to Deuce McAllister.

Interesting... They believe that Morency, Arrington, Fason and Marion Barber all fall to the top of the 3rd, because no one really need a RB after MIA, TB and us have gotten one.

 

[JPlay]

The War Room compares Arrington to Tiki Barber and Fason to Deuce McAllister.

Interesting... They believe that Morency, Arrington, Fason and Marion Barber all fall to the top of the 3rd, because no one really need a RB after MIA, TB and us have gotten one.

Miami, Tampa, Chicago, Carolina, Philadephia, Seattle and possibly Indy will all be taking RBs. Oh and Cleveland may take one. If Miami, Tampa and Cleveland skip on one in the 1st they may take JJ.

 

[BigRedFan]

This will not work if Tampa picks Mike Williams at 5. If so, we should take Carnell Willimams otherwise Tampa will like grab Arrington in round 2, since they too need a RB.

 

[maddogkf]

That is such an awful arguement for discounting a RBs stats. Cal had no all-american lineman and no lineman as high draft prospects in the draft. The fact of the matter is that no line can blow huge holes in the D-line every play, more times than not it's up to the RB to find the hole with vision and cutbacks. If it was true that there were huge holes every play than you could put anybody back there and they would perform, which isn't true.

OK, then how bout Denver's OL? They are not full of All Pros, but they have developed schemes that enable their back de jour to be effective under any condtion. I don't care how many AA the line may have, they have effective schemes and play calling that is efficient for the back to get open field.

I'm not discounting any stats. I know when I watched their games, it seemed like no one was even close to him until he was 4 yards dwon field. I screamed at the tv because everytime an ASU back got the ball in any game, they had 4 guys right at the point of attack.

I like JJ but when you don't have to break 3 tackles just to make it to the line of scrimmage, it does add value to your stats.

 

[GreenCard]

If JJ is as good as everyone thinks how does he get past the 49ers in the 2nd.I know San Fran has looked at 30 or 40 miles of tape on Rogers so how could they miss seeing that JJ is better than what they have.Get both local boys and fill the stands.

 

[joeshmo]

That is such an awful arguement for discounting a RBs stats. Cal had no all-american lineman and no lineman as high draft prospects in the draft. The fact of the matter is that no line can blow huge holes in the D-line every play, more times than not it's up to the RB to find the hole with vision and cutbacks. If it was true that there were huge holes every play than you could put anybody back there and they would perform, which isn't true.

Sorry but you dont need all american or high draft pick prospects on your Oline to have a great unit. People think you need a unit of all pros to have a good oline, which just isnt true at all. What you need is a good unit of guys that are a cohesive unit, know their jobs within the scheme, and work well together.

I would much rather have a group of guys that work well as a unit then 5 1st round draft picks that didnt work well together. Didnt we already see that with the big red lie of Shelton, Davis, and Kendall.

As for plugging people back there and performing, Cals top 3 RB's all had a 7.0 YPC or higher for the season.

Cals Oline did create a lot of really big holes but what made the RB's so good is that all 3 are very fast to the hole, they dont dance around getting to it, so they took advantage of what was given to them. But the oline opening up some big holes doesnt downgrade their abilities IMO, it shows some positives such as, utilizing what is given to you and the ability to hit the hole fast and hard before it closes on you.

 

[Russ Smith]

I like JJ but when you don't have to break 3 tackles just to make it to the line of scrimmage, it does add value to your stats.

There is a valid argument to be made about how good Cal ran the ball. JJ averaged 7 YPC with ~ 300 carries. Marshawn Lynch, his backup, averaged 8.8 YPC on ~ 70 carries! I've said it here several times Lynch, a freshman, is a better pro prospect than JJ, or will be in 2 years. He's a very tough runner who I believe is even faster than Arrington.

Both guys had several long runs this year where they hit the hole and were gone, that's just undeniable.

That said I agree with JPlay alot of that has to do with the ability of the RB to find the hole and hit it, Echemandu averaged only 5 YPC behind the OL the year before and they had to replace 3 starters this year.

 

[Russ Smith]

Sorry but you dont need all american or high draft pick prospects on your Oline to have a great unit. People think you need a unit of all pros to have a good oline, which just isnt true at all. What you need is a good unit of guys that are a cohesive unit, know their jobs within the scheme, and work well together.

.

True, which makes it all the more remarkable since Cal had 3 new starters and a 4th guy starting at a new position on their OL last year.

Tedford's OL coach must be really good the OL was considered a big question mark going into last season.

 

[football karma]

Take a look at Arrington's game vs USC this year --

21 carries, 112 yards -- longest run of the day was 12 yards.

It was a tough, grind it out and shed tackles kind of day against the nation's best defense -- for better than 5 yards a carry.

That game answered alot of questions on Arrington in my mind.

 

[maddogkf]

http://calbears.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/2004-2005/teamcume.html

The team avg'd 6.1 ypc. That's pretty good. I'm not discounting the RB ability, but anytime your top 3 RB avg over 7 yds a carry, the OL is doing some great blocking

 

[WildBB]

The War Room compares Arrington to Tiki Barber and Fason to Deuce McAllister.

Interesting... They believe that Morency, Arrington, Fason and Marion Barber all fall to the top of the 3rd, because no one really need a RB after MIA, TB and us have gotten one.

That's where we should target one, IMO. 2nd there's still too many other good players on the board. We need 2 Cb's, OG, DT and a TE. A good one will be there.

 

[Russ Smith]

http://calbears.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/2004-2005/teamcume.html

The team avg'd 6.1 ypc. That's pretty good. I'm not discounting the RB ability, but anytime your top 3 RB avg over 7 yds a carry, the OL is doing some great blocking

Absolutely, there's no question the OL did a good job for Cal.

 

[Russ Smith]

Take a look at Arrington's game vs USC this year --

21 carries, 112 yards -- longest run of the day was 12 yards.

It was a tough, grind it out and shed tackles kind of day against the nation's best defense -- for better than 5 yards a carry.

That game answered alot of questions on Arrington in my mind.

Yes he outperformed Adrian Peterson against USC and Peterson played behind what was fairly widely considered the best OL in the country, with the defending Heisman winner at QB, and 2 WR's who will go fairly early in the draft, Clayton and Bradley.

 

[JeffGollin]

If JJ is as good as everyone thinks...
Everyone doesn't think. For example. the War Room ranks Arrington 12th best RB and 100th best player on their board.

Still, your point about SF snapping up 2 homies is well taken.

The puzzling DG comment about not wanting to doing the deal with Henry until Draft Day in order to see how the players dropped puzzled me at first, because, if he chose a CB at #8, he'd have no guarantee that enough players he liked would be on his board between #44 and #55.

But if the reason he wanted to wait had to do with whether Arrington was still there at #44, this would make a lot of sense. If Arrington is there, Dennis drafts him. If he isn't he tries to finalize the deal for Henry.

 

[abcard]

If the offensive line coach is that good maybe we need to be talking to him.