For everyone saying Wilson doesn't get on the field: he does see snaps every game. There were a few games earlier in the year where he didn't play but I watch for him and he sees the field generally 5-10 times a game.
True but he was suppose to relieve the veterans from having to that job. To start the season, there was no one less trusted with the ball in his hands than McKnight. Somehow he's managed to get himself on kick return teams. I believe like on defense, with Wilson it's a simple matter of performance or lack there of; not scheme or ball security. As Rex says so eloquently, "we're in the winning business"; if Wilson can help in anyway, he'll find his way on the field.
How about NFL stats, then? Here's a nice one: In 11 games played in the 2010 season, Jim Leonhard has 4 passes defended. In 11 games played in the 2010 season, Kyle Wilson has 4 passes defended.
I'd say he deserves more playing time at this point. He's busting his ass on the field and he's learning. HE. IS. A. ROOKIE. CB is one of the most difficult transitions to make from the NCAA to the NFL. Not everyone is going to step in like Revis was able to in his rookie season and you even with what Revis was able to do his rookie year there were still morons throwing the bust label around like they could see the future. 15 games into a rookie's career is no time to start evaluating a player for lack of performance.
A bit underwhelming for sure, but the picks made perfect sense and all have talent to play in the NFL. What you can't predict is how they'll take the game mentally or how long it'll take them to get acclimated to the game, if ever. Roddy White sucked donkey balls when he first came into the league and now he's one of the best WRs in the game. It sucks when a ton of rooks have played well this year, but even that means little going forward. Give it time.
Well I respectfully disagree and apparently so does the coaching staff. The only thing Wilson has shown thus far is that he can play off man. Once the ball is over his head, it's a wrap. Until the opposing offenses start throwing all passes in front of our CBs or Wilson figures out how to play press coverage, I rather he continue his semi-redshirting season.
1. You realize that Jim Leonhard can literally get zero playing time at this point, right? 2. Is that why Kyle Wilson was on the field for the past two weeks?
He's a paid professional now so it's not too early to evaluate performance. Things may change in the future but as of now he has underperformed in the 2 roles he was expected to take on this year, nickel and punt return. I'm not going to dwell on the Revis comparison. Aside from the great disparity in their rookie year performances, they had complete different expectations when drafted.
Gholston gets his share of snaps too but that doesn't mean he is getting the kind of playing time expected when drafted. Wilson's snaps have been very limited and controlled. He's in 1 or 2 packages; so is Marquise Cole. It's obvious that they don't trust him out there in a more expanded role. Remember Wilson is the only rookie that actually had regular season snaps taken away from him. The others either never had it (i.e., Ducasse), fought hard to crack to active roster and earn snaps (McKnight) or retain/expanded their role (Connor).
Does that evaluation process include blatantly ignoring times he has been on the field because it's inconvenient to your argument? He has 4 passes defended and he's gotten numerous QB pressures. He's a rookie learning how to play, not everyone is going to be able to adjust to the game speed of the NFL straight out of college immediately. Not everyone is going to be able to make an immediate impact and throwing around the bust label at this point is asinine. As a nickel, he's being beaten out by a veteran in his 5th season who, despite how many people don't want to admit it, has improved a great deal. As a punt returner he still needs to work on his ball control. Your comparison to McKnight is weak at best given the difference between PR and KR. They are two completely different animals and Wilson is trying to conquer the more difficult of the two. Wilson is a player who will reward those with patience.
Yeah that's where 4th rounders begin their careers most of the time. I love how McKnight is overvalued. A 4th rounder is overvalued. So he should have been a 7th rounder then? That logic is wrong.
I'm glad you used White as an example because I was just about to do it. I just bought his jersey because of how he's shown his dominance since 07. He had Joey Harrington, Chris Redman, and Byron Leftwich throwing to him and he caught over 80 balls. It took him 3 years as a late 1st rounder. That's why I don't get crazy like other people do. I know the timeline it takes. History is a good teacher.
You sound like a member of his fan club. "Busting his ass off on the field and learning"? I guess that's all relative. I personally saw a couple blown special team assignments in the Chicago game. I agree CB is one of the most difficult transitions to make from college to the pros. But why could not he win the punt return job from the likes of Leonard and Cotchery. Punt returning is instinctive; I would not have expected that to be a hard transition.
You have no legitimate point to make here with Gholston aside from proving your ignorance of the game. Stop now. I know, it's like they're trying to maximize his potential success by placing him in situations that better suit his skill-set and current acumen of the game. It's this new weird thing they call "teaching". Crazy, right? He's not taking time away from Revis or Cro and Coleman has stepped up big this season. He's getting time where the CS can give him time. As I said before, not every rookie is going to succeed immediately. Some guys actually take time to develop. Wilson taking a year to learn the ropes is not a cause for alarm. He's also the only rookie who had to sub in for an injured player. Is this comparison actually supposed to be a knock on Wilson? There is literally no intelligent point to this comment. So because Wilson was actually able to play early in the season but had to take a step back when one Pro-Bowl CB returned from injury a 5 year veteran finally stepped up and started playing that means that he is somehow lower on the totem pole of rookie credit than a guy who came into camp underprepared and overwhelmed who was able to pick up time off of special teams in garbage time during a blowout of the Bills? He's backing up a 39 year old football player who lines up in the backfield and smashes into linebackers. If anyone was guaranteed to get snaps off of special teams it was Conner.
My evaluation is a simple measure of performance against expectations. He was expected to be the nickel back and punt returner. 15 games in he has not met those expectations and thus underperformed. If the expectations were that he would start out getting significant playing time, show he can play well off man but struggle mightingly in press coverage and have his role reduce to a few snaps as a dime or 5th CB while having no impact as a punt returner, then I would have changed my assessement to he met expectations and performed well. I have several posts in this thread and not once have I called him a bust. Despite the fact that I thought prior to the draft he would be better suited for a Cover 2 scheme because how well he plays when he keeps the ball and man in front of him, I am smart enough not to throw the "bust" word out 15 games into a players career. I don't see a why we should have a disagreement about Wilson, unless you think I'm wrong in my assessment that he has thus far underperformed to what we expected from him in his rookie year.
I'm actually optimistic about the future of this rookie class. But the one guy who was supposed to make a major impact, Wilson, has rarely played, and when he has, he's looked poor. You can't write him off after one year, but this has been a lost year, and that's disappointing. Conner wasn't supposed to contribute right away. The reason I said earlier it was a strange pick was because when you have 4 picks in the draft after having 3 last year, you'd like to get players at more impactful positions than fullback. McKnight hasn't been able to get on the field really. He could be a good player, but he hasn't really made an impact in preseason or in his few opportunities in the regular season. Behind LT and Greene, he's not likely to get many chances, just like Greene last year, but it would be nice to see him do something. If he's impressing more in practice, I'm fine with that. I was all for keeping him over Woodhead. That looks bad now, but I still think it was the right decision. It's only a problem because New England got him. Ducasse was a bit of a project, so I'll give him some time. But he did not look good at all in the preseason. He deserves probably two more years to show he's worth a roster spot. He was good at UMass. I think he can be a player. Preseason just wasn't encouraging, and like McKnight, that's all we really have to judge him by. Really, my complaints are more with the fact we don't have any picks anymore. We counted on one player to make an impact, Wilson, and he can barely get on the field at a position we really need the help at, and the position we felt he could play from training camp. Then you grab a developmental OL and RB with nice tools. I get that. And I love Conner's attitude, and I do think he's a good fit for this team. But when you're trying to win this year, it sucks we can't get an iota of production from our draft picks this season. I'm hoping we see a lot of all 4 of these guys on Sunday. I want McKnight to get 15+ touches, Ducasse to start or at least get a lot of time, Wilson to start, and definitely Conner to start.
Thanks to the magic of DVR I was able to quickly rewind through all of the defensive snaps from the Chicago game. From my count Wilson played 1 snap 3rd and 11 at our 17 yard line with just under 12 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. It was the play where Cutler tried to force a pass to Olsen in the end zone when he was tripple teamed. The snap right before the Gould missed FG. Needless to say every dressed CB was on the field for that play. I love how you are accusing me of ignoring snaps that didn't even happened. Maybe he had a ton of snaps in the prior games that averaged out to 5-10 a game. I would check since I have those DVR'd as well but if he only played 1 defensive snap against a pass happy 4 to 5 wide empty backfield offense like Chicago who put 38 points pretty much all in the air, I seriously doubt he had anywhere close to 5 - 10 snaps in those games. Some of you guys on this board are hilarious.
