First team v 2nd-3rd team

[Duckjake]

Is it just me or is there an enormous difference between the top 20-25 guys on an NFL team and the rest of the players?

Every time I watch a preseason game it just amazes me how bad the spares look. Especially the offensive lines.

 

[football karma]

I think you are right -- although its compounded by the fact that the 2nd -3rd teamers have never played together and many are playing in that system for the first time

it adds to the fire drill quality

 

[splitsecond]

I assume you are referring to the Panthers' second offensive line play tonight. It was absolutely atrocious. But Jimmy Clausen looked good.

 

[Chopper0080]

It can be contributed to having a veteran minimum which is 2x a rookie minimum. When it becomes more cost effective to stock you roster with younger players as backups, the corresponding result is poorer play from your 2nd and 3rd teams.

 

[Buckybird]

Is it just me or is there an enormous difference between the top 20-25 guys on an NFL team and the rest of the players?

Every time I watch a preseason game it just amazes me how bad the spares look. Especially the offensive lines.

You're right.

Hard to believe that many a Card fans thought the likes of Mike Grutataria (sp), Lester Holmes, James Dexter, Chris Dishman, Barron Tanner, Ben Coleman, Eric England, Marcus Bell, Thomas Burke, Mario Fatafehi, etc were solid NFL big men in the trenches!!! No wonder we sucked for nearly the last 30 years.

 

[DieHardCardFan]

You're right.

Hard to believe that many a Card fans thought the likes of Mike Grutataria (sp), Lester Holmes, James Dexter, Chris Dishman, Barron Tanner, Ben Coleman, Eric England, Marcus Bell, Thomas Burke, Mario Fatafehi, etc were solid NFL big men in the trenches!!! No wonder we sucked for nearly the last 30 years.

 

[Duckjake]

I assume you are referring to the Panthers' second offensive line play tonight. It was absolutely atrocious. But Jimmy Clausen looked good.

Actually I was watching the Cowboys Raiders game. It is just unreal how different the play is.

Just had a play where the Raiders QB tried to force a throw into the endzone to the only WR out in a pattern. Of course the DB broke it up. The ball pops up into the air right into the arms of some spare Lb and he drops it.

The difference is so large that to me it is the reason that most pre season games turn into re runs of the keystone cops after the starters go out.

Still amazing that, with as popular as football is around the country, there aren't more people who can play at a high level.

 

[splitsecond]

Actually I was watching the Cowboys Raiders game. It is just unreal how different the play is.

Just had a play where the Raiders QB tried to force a throw into the endzone to the only WR out in a pattern. Of course the DB broke it up. The ball pops up into the air right into the arms of some spare Lb and he drops it.

The difference is so large that to me it is the reason that most pre season games turn into re runs of the keystone cops after the starters go out.

Still amazing that, with as popular as football is around the country, there aren't more people who can play at a high level.

Yeah, that game isn't on here. Which was disappointing.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Clausen has a weird release, I see a lot of batted balls in his future...

 

[Buckybird]

Actually I was watching the Cowboys Raiders game. It is just unreal how different the play is.

Just had a play where the Raiders QB tried to force a throw into the endzone to the only WR out in a pattern. Of course the DB broke it up. The ball pops up into the air right into the arms of some spare Lb and he drops it.

The difference is so large that to me it is the reason that most pre season games turn into re runs of the keystone cops after the starters go out.

Still amazing that, with as popular as football is around the country, there aren't more people who can play at a high level.

Lamar Houston had a decent game

 

[CardLogic]

You're right.

Hard to believe that many a Card fans thought the likes of Mike Grutataria (sp), Lester Holmes, James Dexter, Chris Dishman, Barron Tanner, Ben Coleman, Eric England, Marcus Bell, Thomas Burke, Mario Fatafehi, etc were solid NFL big men in the trenches!!! No wonder we sucked for nearly the last 30 years.

At least half of these guys were sometime starters for the Cardinals!

 

[Buckybird]

At least half of these guys were sometime starters for the Cardinals!

...and sucked!!! probably should have been backups on most NFL teams.

 

[187]

Look at how many players that were complete STUDS in college bust in the NFL. The guys that make up the 2nd and 3rd teams weren't even the "studs" in college, it's an uphill battle all the way. Then you combine their lack of natural talent with their complete lack of consistent playing time at the NFL level (if any) and there you have it.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

It is the classic situation, but in a different genre:

"You have to HAVE money to MAKE money"

In the NFL you have to HAVE a roster spot, to IMPROVE your roster spot.

Nothing like a multi-million dollar facity, with a multi-million dollar staff at your disposal, and the oppourutunity to practice with multi-million dollar atheletes every week to hone your atheletic skills.

A player that gets to be on a 53 man roster or even a practice squad for one year, has such an advantage to better himself as an athelete that no wonder there is a such a HUGE gap between the haves and have nots.

Brandon Keith is the best example on our team. Out college he had "raw skills", or in other words he had the foundation & YOUTH in which a year or two of professional conditioning, and training he could be NFL quality talent.

It is rarity that an athelete outside of a professional training facility can be out of the league for a year or more, and can come in and make any kind of an impact.

Only in the movies can Rocky Balboa training in a shed in the middle of Russia and compete with a million dollar training facility.

DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[JeffGollin]

Every time I watch a preseason game it just amazes me how bad the spares look. Especially the offensive lines.

I think what you're driving at is how difficult it is to evaluate players as starters (or potential starters) when they're going up against a differently-rated unit.

I think the ability to assess talent under these circumstances is more a function of "the extreme" - i.e. if a player on a #1 unit gets dominated by some dude on the other team's #2 or #3 unit, there definitely is a problem.

Or conversely, if a guy on our #2 or #3 unit eats up a guy on the other team's #1 unit, there's something you can get excited about.

Translating this into more real terms - If Stephen Williams catches 8 passes and scores 3 TD's against Houston's #1 defense, that would be extremely cool. But if Houston's #3 unit stoned Fitz, I'd be pretty depressed about it.

But the majority of situations would probably involve a Williams or a Roberts or an O Jones going up against Houston's backup units, catching 2, 3 or 4 passes and maybe scoring a TD (but probably not). From that, we'd come away with that "stale feeling" - saying: "He did pretty good, but we still really don't know how he'd stand up in prime time."

 

[kerouac9]

Look at how many players that were complete STUDS in college bust in the NFL. The guys that make up the 2nd and 3rd teams weren't even the "studs" in college, it's an uphill battle all the way. Then you combine their lack of natural talent with their complete lack of consistent playing time at the NFL level (if any) and there you have it.

It is the classic situation, but in a different genre:

"You have to HAVE money to MAKE money"

In the NFL you have to HAVE a roster spot, to IMPROVE your roster spot.

Nothing like a multi-million dollar facity, with a multi-million dollar staff at your disposal, and the oppourutunity to practice with multi-million dollar atheletes every week to hone your atheletic skills.

A player that gets to be on a 53 man roster or even a practice squad for one year, has such an advantage to better himself as an athelete that no wonder there is a such a HUGE gap between the haves and have nots.

Brandon Keith is the best example on our team. Out college he had "raw skills", or in other words he had the foundation & YOUTH in which a year or two of professional conditioning, and training he could be NFL quality talent.

It is rarity that an athelete outside of a professional training facility can be out of the league for a year or more, and can come in and make any kind of an impact.

Only in the movies can Rocky Balboa training in a shed in the middle of Russia and compete with a million dollar training facility.

DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

These. Especially when you're looking at a team like Dallas, who has a lot of established stars that they're paying a ton of money to, and then they have to hope that they can develop cheap talent or stay healthy in the second string (this hurt them last year in the secondary early in the season).

You have to get reps in training camp and in the offseason program to get better. Remember last year's Hard Knocks? Even Chad Ochocinco was repeating how he needed more reps. Reps helps you get work on film, which means that you end up getting critique on your technique, which means that you improve.

I think you'll see a big jump in the quality of second- and third-team players between this game and preseason game 2, because they'll have had that tape and been working on what they sucked at the prior week.

Besides, you should learn to love some of these third team players. They'll be the replacement players we'll be watching in 2011.

 

[CardLogic]

...and sucked!!! probably should have been backups on most NFL teams.

Ah, that was my point.

 

[Crazy Canuck]

...and sucked!!! probably should have been backups on most NFL teams.

an that's where many of them found work after leaving AZ.