SB Nation User Blog: uncle finster

Will Fins Put it All Together against Titans (poll)

uncle finster — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:14:26 -0000

And wouldn't it be nice if they did, last week we clearly looked like the better team against the Jags, but we have seen it before, we have looked like the better team in many of our games, only to let the other team back into it and scramble at the end for a win and sometimes losses.

Lately the D is playing very well, but they were giving up leads, last week it was the O with 3 TOs and generally shooting themselves in the foot that kept the Jags in it.

So my question to you guys/gals is, do you think we will play a clean game, no TOs, no defensive lapses, no stupid penalties, because IMO if we do that we win.

Poll

Will Fins Put it All Together against Titans?

Henne

uncle finster — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:18:43 -0000

Henne

Vontae is rounding the corner

uncle finster — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:59:04 -0000

Vontae is rounding the corner

WAKE BEAT

uncle finster — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:57:33 -0000

WAKE BEAT

Pat White IS Iffy

uncle finster — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:21:58 -0000

IS PAT WHITE IFFY?

by uncle finster on May 2, 2009 4:24 AM EDT 154 comments

When it comes to draft picks normally I have a wait and see attitude, and rarely dislike picks, it is always proven on the field, as it will be with Mr White, however I cant remember the last time I disliked a draft pick this much, I will be surprised if he ends up doing much of any thing.

A good rule of thumb(should have been rule of the wrist ha-ha) when evaluating a player or projecting how well a team is going to perform, is how many IFs there are, the more IFs, the less likely that team or player is of succeeding, hence the term IFFY ha-ha

These are the IFs I see at the QB position;
IF he can overcome his height disadvantage.
IF he can overcome his weight disadvantage.
IF he can change his looping Vick like delivery.
IF he can change his footwork, he doesn’t keep his feet under his shoulders so he always has to set himself before he throws which compounds his long delivery problem.
IF he can become comfortable in the pocket, he never had to in college, its not an option in the NFL, no matter how mobile you are, he would look to run too quickly.
On top of that his arm is not strong, its not weak, but its not strong.
Aside from his size these things can be coached, but each one of them can be very difficult to change.

Now just like the half of you I sat in front of the tv and watched the draft and I heard what Mayock said about White, but he also said he would have to change his delivery, Matty also mentioned this in his post The Pat White Conundrum: Why so divisive? The problem I have with Matty and Mayock is that they just gloss over it, as if it were nothing, but the fact of the matter is, that it usually does not work, I can't recall any players who have successfully changed from the looping delivery to have success, I'm not saying they don't exist, I just can't recall any. Also the loop generates more power so taking that out of his delivery will sacrifice some of his power, he does not have a weak arm now, but after changing his delivery, who knows.

White has been throwing the same way for probably 15 years or more, you just can't change that overnight, the age old problem is when you put them in a game they just revert back, because its what is natural for that player.

Just last year Beck attempted to "tweak" his delivery, it ended up ruining his chances last year and may have ultimately cost him his job, and it was a minor "tweak" not fully changing his delivery.

White's foot work as a QB is flat out bad, as is illustrated by his bad performance at the combine, where he tied for 6th among QBs in the 3 cone drill, and the 20 yard shuttle. Not one of the QBs ahead of him ran faster than 4.81, and White ran a 4.55, despite the fact that he is much faster than they are, they out performed him in these foot work drills.

White played the QB spot with one foot out of the pocket, not a check down QB, he would look for a couple of options, and if nothing was there he would take off running, that will not work for him in the NFL. This may come as a surprise to some, but 56 players that participated in the 40 yard dash at the combine this year had better times than White, that is over one fifth of this years draft. where do you think that leaves him when ranked against the current NFL players?

Negatives: May not have a pro position. Lacks prototypical quarterback size and is not strong enough to take a lot of hits. Relies on big passing lanes and play-action to give him the chance to find receivers downfield. Needs to prove he has the hands to play in the slot as a receiver. Does not always secure the ball, and will keep it in his strong hand even running right. Exclusively worked in the shotgun and spread offense, so he needs to work on taking snaps and ball fakes. Can get the ball deep but is not accurate on well-defended passes beyond 10-12 yards. Struggles with accuracy on the move. Throws off his back foot too often. Does not have great touch on short throws. Delivery is stiff and mechanical. Lacks patience in the pocket, and will take off too soon and misses open targets. Makes questionable decisions with the ball, trying to make a play when nothing's there. Ball comes out of his hand poorly at times.

Copyright NFLDraftScout.com, distributed by The Sports Xchange.

His strengths however can not be taught, great athlete with great body control, a flat out player, a great leader, and a clutch player who always rises to the occasion, and that is exactly why people like him.

They say Pat White had a great combine, but that depends on what your looking at. Below are the events and where he ranked among the other participants at this years NFL combine.

event QB WR overall

40 yard dash= 4.55 1st 20th T-57th 1TE and 11 safeties did 4.55 or better
vertical jump = 35.0" 1st T-20th T-81st 3TEs, 2OL, 11DL and 9LBs did 35.0" or better
broad jump = 9'9" 2nd T-20th T-92nd 5TEs, 6DL, 11LBs and 6'6" 248 lb J Freeman(4.97 40y-) did 9'9" or better
3 cone drill= 7.06 T-6th 20th T-78th 7QBs, 6TEs, 1OL, 2DL and 8LBs did 7.06 or better
20 yard shuttle= 4.42 T-6th T-24th T-121st 5QBs, 6TEs, 3OL, 9DL and 12LBs did 4.42 or better

When they say Pat White had a great combine, their talking about how accurate he was throwing the ball, to open receivers, with no pass rush.

But when it comes to the agility drills, these results are worse than I thought they would be, events 4 and 5 are the events you want your QB to perform best in, what is most troubling is that he is a much better athlete then the other QBs, he should easily come in 1st in each event, but his foot work is bad, and his worst two events, are where you want your QB to excel.

As a WR prospect looking at these results you would think he was a lot bigger, as you can see on the list, he was out performed by way too many guys that are bigger than he is, and thats not even counting all the RBs and WRs that are bigger than him, and that is unfortunately most of them.

WR; IMO most likely to succeed at this spot, but again the IFs, WRs his size are usually faster, having a slight build but average speed, 6’ 0" 197 lbs White would have to learn WR without having a good height, weight, speed ratio.

RB; This is not realistic at all, the pounding an NFL RB takes is way too much for his slight frame, and adding weight would just make him slower with less quickness.

I am not a shrimp Patty hater, the results I found mirror what I thought I saw when he was in college, which is a player who was fast in college, but not in the NFL.

So who did we draft with that 2nd round pick, a small QB who's delivery, and foot work have to be changed, or a WR with no experience, and a bad height, weight, speed ratio, sounds IFFY to me.

As I said at the top he’ll have his chance to prove it on the field, but he will have to overcome a great deal to succeed in the NFL:>)

All combine results from NFL.com

Week 1 defense and week 2 offense meet today in Diego

uncle finster — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:08:13 -0000

Now wouldn't that be great, I would like to bring this up anyway, the week 1 D and the week 2 O each played well enough to win with a little help from the other side, they didn't get it, maybe it's the massive amount of installs they did but it seems to me we were not as prepared, but wait, that doesn't make sense, that's what this FO is all about and didn't our 1st teamers play more than anybody else in the preseason, then it occurred to me why, all those installs, thats why they played more in the preseason and thats why their a little behind now, at least thats a good guess I guess.

Now what we should all be hoping to see is both of them showing up every week, think about that for a sec, how good would we be if we did that, scary good, that is exactly what I'm looking forward to seeing this week and the rest of the year, if we can do that then we are one of the best teams in the league.

Our CBs have played very well, both rookies have been very good, thats lucky for us, the odds are that one of them or both for that matter would take some time to develop and not be ready to play this early this much but our CBs have taken the WRs away from 2 good QBs, well done!

The safeties have been up and down, their overall play has been decent but some missed tackles take some points away from their performance, the D-line has played well, especially against the run, but it's the LBs, what we all thought was going to be the strength of this D, they are not playing well and are largely responsible for the TE coverage mishaps.

Lets face it, the LBs are not mounting a consistent pass rush and are blowing coverages, I mean we have guys missing tackles on plays where they blew the coverage, guys are looking bad trying to cover the LB gaffs, a person could laugh at that thinking back to the preseason and all the hype that surrounded the LB corps, but this just brings me back to those installs and the complicated schemes the LBs have, I think they will settle down and will be a strength, they are still getting comfortable with their assignments and once they just stop thinking and start playing they will be a force.

The O was just as on last week as they were off the week before, but man were they on last week, that was one of the most impressive offensive showings we have had in years, along with the week 3 NE game last year, but in some ways this was even more impressive and this is more like what we expected to see, a dominant run game and an efficient pass attack with GOOD O-line play, 45 MINUTES OF POSSESSION IS SICK!

So lets all hope that the week 1 D and the week 2 O show up this week, because if they do we will blow out the Chargers, and I have a sneaky suspicion they will, remember we started the year 2-4 last year, and our counterparts this week, hell, they went 0-4 one year and went to the playoffs, and the SB I believe, so 0-2 is NOT the biggest hole to climb out of, keep the faith bro's!

ATTN NEW YORK AREA VIEWERS; The game will be on in the New York area thanks to our Jewish friends, Mosultof or something, lol, the Gi'aints and the steJ have to play at the same time because of the Jewish holiday, it's great!

Garner promoted from PS

uncle finster — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:39:33 -0000

Garner promoted from PS

To fill the roster after waiving TE Davon Drew, the Fins have promoted Nate Garner from the PS to the 53 man roster.

Defensive Line Breakdown

uncle finster — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:35:24 -0000

I have done extensive viewing on our first three preseason games and we look good on The D Line.

I would like to explain what I mean by extensive viewing, I watch the game straight through once and then I go back and watch it again, but this time I rewind every play to look at each player, which means I watch every play about seven times, and yes, it takes a while.

First I will rank the players,

Probowl caliber; Jason Ferguson, Kendall Langford

Quality NFL starter; Randy Starks

Solid contributers; Paul Soliai, Phillip Merling, Tony McDaniel

Decent back ups; Rod Wright, Lionel Dotson

Project; Ryan Baker

Probowl caliber, I'm not saying they're going to the probowl, just saying that they play at a high level, worthy of probowl consideration.

Fergy is just as good as he's always been, they say the first thing you lose when you get older is speed, good thing for Fergy he never had any to lose, they say the last thing you lose is strength, dude is a beast.

What has surprised me though is his agility, he still has it in spades, the aging process has not hit him full force yet and he is still our best lineman, he still eats double teams and sheds blockers, he is just a tough guy to move from a spot even with double teams and he sheds blocks like only an old pro can, and he can move across a field littered with bodies just as fast as he can run the 40, a real testament to his agility.

There's only a couple of guys in the league that are better NTs than Fergy, he is a top NT in this league and has been most of his career.

Langford has been a beast this preseason, prototype 3-4 left DE, strong at the point of attack and good pass rush ability, has improved on a very good rookie campaign, and by the end of the year may be our best lineman.

Langford's upside is huge and I wouldn't trade him for anyone right now, he is playing like he wants to be the best, fire and consistency is how I would describe his play right now, to me this is exciting.

Quality NFL starter, could start on most NFL teams.

Starks is still getting better and is a handful for O-lineman, he may be our best pass rushing lineman and is strong at the point, not quite the base of Langford or Fergy but a tremendous motor for a big guy so he makes it tough for O-lineman to stay on him, and versatile enough to play every line position, a valuable commodity and only getting better.

Solid contributers, maybe you don't want them starting but they provide solid reps in a rotation.

Soliai has made tremendous strides in his bid to be the heir apparent to Fergy, he has that strong base you want in a NT, he, like Fergy and Langford, is a load to try and move, and he is showing more push this year, Sparano said "he finally gets it", and I know what he is talking about.

He is playing with a drive he didn't have last year, he is playing with that urgency that we always hear about, and I think he is just about there when talking about being a starter, I feel much more comfortable at that oh so critical to the 3-4 NT position then I did after the draft, I was not convinced about Soliai, now I'm impressed, I just hope he keeps it up.

Merling is a bit of a mystery, he looks dynamic on one set of downs, then ordinary on another, I've watched him stand up an OT, ride him down the line and just dump him and make the tackle, and do it with a WOW factor, then watch him be pushed out of the play at other times without a fight, what gives?

He has very good technique, he has all the physical tools, yet at times he just disappears. if he can correct that he would be a Probowl caliber player, and he is still young so there is time.

McDaniel is most likely our most physically gifted lineman, he is strong and agile and fast for a man his size, and he gives O-lineman fits at times, but here comes the bad part, he does not maintain technique, if you get under his pads, he's done, and you can see him kinda give up once they have him, he'll come back just as strong on the next play though, it's just in a play where he does that.

His physicality will give O-lineman enough to think about though, and will give us some quality reps in the rotation, but he is farther away from starting then Merling or Sloiai IMO.

Decent back ups, not quite ready for prime time players, but in a pinch can get into the rotation and not be embarrassed.

Wright is a Langford jr. type player who gets better every year and he is pretty solid in his technique, he is a fringe player for us though and may not make the team, but he is fairly solid.

Dotson is a Starks jr. type player and is at about the same level as Wright, to me it will come down to which type of player they want to keep, Langford type or Starks type, I have no problem with either.

Project, self explanatory.

Baker will most likely end up on our PS if some one doesn't scoop him up, he definitely has some promise, but is raw and needs some work.

So what do you guys think?

Fins @ Bucs

uncle finster — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:09:57 -0000

Well here it is, preseason games 3, the dress rehearsal for the regular season against our old preseason enemy the Bucs. We play them every year now, and this year it's the big preseason game, so I decided to go a step further and do a regular season game card.

The Buccaneers

On the offense they are trying to find out who is going to start at QB, Leftwich or the other McCown, Luke, evidently they don't think that Josh Freeman is ready yet.

The return of Ronnie's old college buddy, Cadillac Williams, he seems to be ahead of schedule and is looking very good, the Bucs will definitely be looking to run the ball with their uncertainty at QB and a healthy Cadillac will be very welcome indeed.

On the defensive side of the ball they have some players, some older but a lot of younger guys, the elder statesmen are Ronde Barber and Chris Hovan, the only two 10 year vets on the Bucs defense, and young guys like the stud ILB Barrett Ruud, they also have a Bo Ruud at LB, no relation I think, and a bunch of guys that like to fly around, another decent test for our Fins.

The Dolphins

Chad and Ronnie take center stage tonight, along with the O-line and WRs and every one else, but those two were easily our best players on offense last year and they will be relied upon heavily this year to take us where we want to go.

Of course they can't do their jobs if other people don't do their jobs, so what is it that we need done so that we can succeed on offense.

For Chad I think he will be looking at finding a go to receiver, some one he can rely on in a tight spot, last year it was Camarillo but he is not 100% yet, so who will it be, Bess is my guess, he just seems to get open, but Chad will be looking to start to spread the ball around and become a more versatile passing offense, we were efficient last year, we'll have to be better this year. That will also depend on the O-line, speaking of the O-line.

Ronnie is looking to have a big season, a year removed from the injury, in the best shape of his life, he wants to make his mark on the NFL. The O-line is really who takes the center stage in this, but that is always true, but the way to measure an O-line is by offensive production.

The Defense is not going up against a power house here and we should control the game on that side of the ball, enter Porter and Taylor, they should be able to disrupt the passing game here, with the less than stellar candidates they will see this week, and our secondary will remain somewhat untested, because they have yet to be tested.

Our front 7 has looked very good applying pressure and stopping the run, but pressure would be better for us right now with the young guys at CB, the more pressure we get the easier it will be for those guys, our secondary has not been tested so far and has not looked great, not horrible, but not great either so they need to put together a good game against a weak QB situation to dispel some of our fears.

Thoughts

Panthers @ Fins

uncle finster — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:45:41 -0000

Last week I picked London and Bess on the O, and Wake and JT on the D, to me Wake stood out the most, but none of them had a bad day, lets try it again shall we, with nicknames this time.

On the O, I'm gonna take Chris (sand crab) Williams and Chad(the Arm) Henne, both of these guys were up and down last week, but both rebounded from bad mistakes in a very good way.

The Sand Crab had two early gaffs, a muffed punt, he should have caught that ball but he was on a dead run, just sayin at least he wasn't just sitting there waiting for it, it is harder to catch a punt when your running like that.

At this point in his career and the season, I'm not gonna kill him for trying to make a play, I'm talking about the punt he fielded at the 4yd line, no, you do not want your returner doing that, but everyone knows a kid in his position may not get many chances, and he erred on the side of aggression, but he did it with conviction, I wouldn't be surprised if he had said to himself, NO FAIR CATCHES, he never hesitated on his returns, even the one on the 4, he was going the whole time, can you dig it, fearless, good quality in a returner.

The Arm had a bad INT and sprayed a couple but the weather is worth mentioning, look they don't call the games for weather so you have to learn to play in it, but stuff happens.

Ricky dropped a beauty of a TD pass from the arm of the Arm and that 3rd down play when he stood in the pocket delivered a perfect throw knowing he was going to get smacked, and he maintained his form, he didn't "flinch back", gutsy, can't teach that, big arm, can't teach that, can't teach this kid anything ;^J

On the D, I'm going with Chris(crosshairs)Clemons and Quentin(plup fiction)Moses, both these guys had solid games and played with confidence.

Crosshairs is gonna make some big plays this preseason, ballhawking and ballstalking, this kid has big play written all over him, I'd like to see it today.

Pulp Fiction was quietly a beast in the last game, really showed some push and motor, he is playing angry, and evidently he plays better when he's angry.

So what about you guys and gals?