Just listening to radio. Joe and Ed have Carl Banks on and subject of Kerry Rhodes came up. They were asking Carl why they felt Kerry was not making more impact plays in Ryans system. Carl stated Kerry Rhodes is a very good football player. He feels as though he seems distracted. He does not feel like he is problem guy but does have off the field distractions and in his words has mentally settled for being very good, not great. Carl said when you see a player with his size, blitz ability, closing speed etc.... they have all the tools to be great, but great is a state of mind. You have to commit to it mentally and decide you are going to impact the game on every play not just some plays. I thought this was a great analogy and feel Carl Banks is quietly one of the best football minds out there. If Kerry is ever going to be compared to be as good as Ed Reed or Troy he needs to commit to be "great" on every play. If Ed Reed had a cover corner next to him like Revis he would probably have 10 picks a season as intstead of playing passsive knowing how good Revis is he would get even more aggressive.
One last interesting thing, Carl was asked if he thougth someone like Bart Scott could influence Kerry. Carl said the decision to be great is internal, not a team thing or something influenced by someone else.
Kerry has a very good example of the "great" mentality in Revis... he should be looking at him instead of goofing around with Edwards (who does seem very concentrated on becoming great though).
I think Braylon might be like the kid in school who never seemed to have to study quite as hard and still Aced the tests, like the ability to just turn it on (see any dropped passed in NY???) Kerry on the other hand might need to eat, drink, sleep football IE- Revis to be great. This does not make him a bad guy, just one that frustrates us as fans as he flashes greatness and potential.
Again, Rhodes is not Ed Reed. He doesn't have the ballhawking skills or the playmaking instincts. What he is...is an extremely fast, big and athletic deep coverage safety that is a vital piece in allowing our front 7 and other DB's be aggressive in their blitzes and still preventing the big play. Kerry is fine in his role. Leave him be.
carl banks covers the giants and doesnt even watch most jets games he sees the highlights he says... comeon now
Banks is very smart about football. There's more to playing safety than INT's, but I expected much more from Rhodes.
If Kerry Rhodes was going to be a great safety he'd be great in the John Lynch mode. That's where his skills, size and aggressiveness lie. He's not going to be a ballhawk like Ed Reed, who has the best vision of the field from the safety spot that I've ever seen. He's not going to be in exactly the right spot on every play like Troy Polamalu who must have made a deal with the devil to come up with that impossible talent. If he puts it all together he's going to be a smart, hard-hitting safety who is excellent on the line of scrimmage, just like Lynch was.
I don't think Rhodes is even a 'very good' safety. He hasn't been making plays at all. He's got a ways to go before he's 'great'.
Comparisons to Reed and Polamalu must stop. He has to get back to being Kerry Rhodes first, which seems like a long journey these days. And then from there, it's another vertical mile up the cliff face to get to Ed Reed.
Agreed that Rhodes is neither of those two Safeties. But he has the potential to be much better than 'fine.' I think it was 2 years ago when we saw real flashes of his abilities, and we saw them more consistently. I also agree that Rhodes should be partaking in whatever types of prep work Revis is. Who knows what Reed would've become had he not been taken under Ray Lewis' wing. Sure he would've had the same skillset, but he may not have amounted to such a smart playmaker that he has. At this point it is a mental thing, and Rhodes probably could benefit from being a better student of the game. Just my .02.
I think I heard something like this a while back about the roles on defense: Harris would be Ray Lewis, Calvin Pace would be Terrell Suggs, and Rhodes would be Ed Reed. Now there are a few problems with this: Ray Lewis is a HoF. I don't know how Pace compares to Suggs, but wasn't Gholston supposed to be Rex's Suggs? Seems to me that Gholston really "Suggs" at being Suggs. As for Rhodes, I always thought of him being more of a pass rushing strong safety, not a 10 interception free safety like Reed. Maybe expectations were a tad too high?
Actually a very good analysis. Too comfortable and not hungry enough to improve the past couple of seasons. Appears indeed to be a passion issue, but he's too beloved on these boards for folks to point to the "after he got his contract" issue but that may very well have subtly affected his approach to training, film study, preparation, desire to improve. He's been a complete non-factor this year, meaning any number of safeties from around the league could have given this team as many key plays just on chance alone. The biggest (and most overlooked) play of the year for him was the Ginn Jr TD bomb in Miami game 1, where he was fooled by play-action whith Revis clearly expecting support over the top. Hard to say who fudged that one up but it appeared to me on replays that it was a mistake by Rhodes that most folks attributed to Revis getting burned.
I believe he has actually spent the last couple years perfecting "magnum", so if he seems distracted, that's probably why. Once he has accomplished that I'm sure his focus will return to football.
I did not start this post to bash Kerry Rhodes. More to give a point of view of a football person I respect as to why it seems his play has flattened or faltered a bit. I think his role is just a bit understated on our defense so perhaps Rhodes doing his job means allowing others to make plays. The Ted Ginn play has been harkened back too a couple times, if you think about it though how many teams can look back on the first half of season and only recall one time there team got beaten deep, all year.
i enjoy when i hear carl banks definitely brings alot of stuff that the others on wfan cant. i also liked what he had to say about the amount of long plays this year.... the lack of tackling..... correct me if im wrong but i am very confident that was during his talk this week.
