Minicamp/OTAs Thread...

ravidubey said:

Wanted Brown instead of Jones, but now that he's here we can only hope we finally found an instinctive playmaker for the secondary.

I'm not expecting much given he was at UCONN and never played anyone good.

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You have no idea who UConn plays do you.

Jiggyfly said:

You have no idea who UConn plays do you.

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The best WR he played played at East Carolina and while decent had no prayer of being a 1st rounder.

He'll be facing a cadre of elite receivers this entire season by comparison. Just in our division he'll get Beckham and Jackson, and even Agholor was technically a 1st rounder.

He also gets Julio Jones, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Brandon Marshall, Kelvin Benjamin, Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans, Sammy Watkins, and whoever the Saints and Patriots throw at him. Basically the Dolphins' passing attack might be the weakest he'll see and even that would be better than the best he played at Connecticut.

ravidubey said:

Wanted Brown instead of Jones, but now that he's here we can only hope we finally found an instinctive playmaker for the secondary.

I'm not expecting much given he was at UCONN and never played anyone good.

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UConn plays good teams, Bryon Jones was just hurt when they played them. He missed their games against UCF, Cincy and Memphis. All quality teams this year.

ravidubey said:

He also gets Julio Jones, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Brandon Marshall, Kelvin Benjamin, Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans, Sammy Watkins, and whoever the Saints and Patriots throw at him. Basically the Dolphins' passing attack might be the weakest he'll see and even that would be better than the best he played at Connecticut.

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Ware played at Troy? Do you think he was facing elite OTs? Jerry Rice never faced an NFL quality player until he was in the NFL. UConn has much tougher competition then those schools but it's pretty standard for a guy coming out of college to not have faced a ton of elite talent. That's why it's college.

Deuce said:

UConn plays good teams, Bryon Jones was just hurt when they played them. He missed their games against UCF, Cincy and Memphis. All quality teams this year.

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Hence, kind of irrelevant, right? I'm only talking about Jones, not disparaging his alma mater.

Cowboysrock55 said:

Ware played at Troy? Do you think he was facing elite OTs? Jerry Rice never faced an NFL quality player until he was in the NFL. UConn has much tougher competition then those schools but it's pretty standard for a guy coming out of college to not have faced a ton of elite talent. That's why it's college.

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So now Jones is comparable to DeMarcus Ware or Jerry Rice?

Heavens, I'm not saying Jones will suck only that I'm not expecting much since his role as an elite contributor in the secondary is purely based on projection and not actual production vs. quality competition.

ravidubey said:

So now Jones is comparable to DeMarcus Ware or Jerry Rice?

Heavens, I'm not saying Jones will suck only that I'm not expecting much since his role as an elite contributor in the secondary is purely based on projection and not actual production vs. quality competition.

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No my point is everyone plays against shitty competition in college compared to the NFL. If tough competition is what made great players from college to the pro's Alabama would be producing most of the best NFL players and you'd never see a play succeed from a school like Troy. Don't try and move the target. No one said he is the next Ware. Only that your assumption is totally baseless which it is. A lot of great players come from non power schools.

ravidubey said:

Heavens, I'm not saying Jones will suck only that I'm not expecting much since his role as an elite contributor in the secondary is purely based on projection and not actual production vs. quality competition.

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There's no doubt. He didn't play against anyone any good, and that does make it harder to project him. How can anyone seriously argue that?

Cowboysrock55 said:

No my point is everyone plays against shitty competition in college compared to the NFL. If tough competition is what made great players from college to the pro's Alabama would be producing most of the best NFL players and you'd never see a play succeed from a school like Troy. Don't try and move the target. No one said he is the next Ware. Only that your assumption is totally baseless which it is. A lot of great players come from non power schools.

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And that point collapses when taken with the level of production great players had at their respective schools. Take your two examples... DeMarcus Ware set records at Troy and Jerry Rice was plain unearthly at Mississippi Valley State.

We've seen neither production nor quality competition from Jones. All we really have is a world record broad jump and some good cone drills. Heck, the broad jump hasn't been an actual athletic event for decades except at the NFL combine. Jones was a 3rd-4th round talent until his combine pushed him up.

I've seen no reason to expect a lot from this guy at all. I don't even know if he'll start over White right away, other than the team might force it.

Kony Ealy

Cowboysrock55 said:

Ware played at Troy? Do you think he was facing elite OTs? Jerry Rice never faced an NFL quality player until he was in the NFL. UConn has much tougher competition then those schools but it's pretty standard for a guy coming out of college to not have faced a ton of elite talent. That's why it's college.

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Remember when Larry Allen and Tony Romo played for collegiate powerhouses at Sonoma State and Eastern Illinois?

dallen said:

Remember when Larry Allen and Tony Romo played for collegiate powerhouses at Sonoma State and Eastern Illinois?

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It's one thing to say a guy didn't play well enough in college. It's a whole different thing to say he will fail because he didn't play against first round talents at WR in college. Byron Jones may suck but it's not because he played at UConn.

Cowboysrock55 said:

It's one thing to say a guy didn't play well enough in college. It's a whole different thing to say he will fail because he didn't play against first round talents at WR in college. Byron Jones may suck but it's not because he played at UConn.

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Who said he would fail because he didn't face first round talents... besides you just now? Obi-wan-Schmitt has taught you well.

NoDak said:

Kony Ealy

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A player with three sacks and a forced fumble in his last three games... what about him?

ravidubey said:

I'm not expecting much given he was at UCONN and never played anyone good.

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You said it Ravi

Cowboysrock55 said:

You said it Ravi

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I said I wasn't expecting much, especially day 1, which is far from calling him a failure.

It's a huge change from playing no one to suddenly playing the very best there is.

ravidubey said:

I said I wasn't expecting much, especially day 1, which is far from calling him a failure.

It's a huge change from playing no one to suddenly playing the very best there is.

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I didn't see anywhere that you mentioned day 1.

If that's what you're going with I agree. There is a transition period for all rookies and for Jones it could be even steeper for Jones given his experience in college. He is really more of a high ceiling guy. A CB version of Dontari Poe is what I'm really hoping for.

I feel like sometimes players from small schools can be more easily scouted. Top notch teams are so loaded it's easy for a good player to look excellent. A great example is the 2005 OSU defense. Instead of AJ Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, Anthony Schlegel, Donte Whitner, Ashton Youboty, and Nate Salley all standing on their own merit, every single one of them was upgraded a round or two (in Schlegel's case 6 rounds).

ravidubey said:

I said I wasn't expecting much, especially day 1, which is far from calling him a failure.

It's a huge change from playing no one to suddenly playing the very best there is.

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Can they jump?

Cowboysrock55 said:

You said it Ravi

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Cornell Green and Everson Walls didn't play top notch talent and they seemed to do ok. Green was a basketball player not a football player in college.

Landry said:

Cornell Green and Everson Walls didn't play top notch talent and they seemed to do ok. Green was a basketball player not a football player in college.

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I can see some of the small school argument for it taking a little longer to adjust to the NFL but that hardly will impede the guys long term success one way or the other. It's also not like we are talking about a player coming out of Appalachian State or anything like that.