Jets seventh-round WR Jordan White is "starting to make his presence felt" in training camp. The coaches apparently like him in the slot, and he's starting to mix in with the first-team offense. Be sure to take this report with a grain of salt, however. As banged up as the Jets are at receiver, someone has to work out as the starting slot receiver.
He doesn't though. Your ceiling has to take into account where you're at. Demaryius Thomas was recruited by Chan Gailey to play in GT's option offense. It wasn't the triple option but it was an option offense. When Gailey left and Paul Johnson came in the Yellow Jackets switched to the triple-option. Two things about that move are worth noting. First, Demaryius Thomas was still a very good receiver in the triple option. He had two good years in it after a good transition year in 2007. Second is that Stephen Hill was recruited to play in the triple-option. Unlike Thomas he didn't make the transition over from one system to the other. He came in to play triple option. Paul Johnson did not recruit Stephen Hill primarily for his receiving skills. He recruited him to block a lot and to stretch the field when the offense brought the safeties up to try to make the reads hard and shut down the option. So the difference in production in the system between Thomas and Hill reflects the fact that Thomas was recruited to be a receiver and he's a pretty good one. Hill was recruited to fit the system and he did that pretty well also. People who are looking at Hill now and saying he has a high ceiling are making the error of assuming that his ceiling is bounded only by his raw skills. That his height and his speed are going to make him a great game-breaking receiver if everything else turns out right for him. Here's the rub though. If Stephen Hill had the potential to be a great receiver he wouldn't have wound up at Georgia Tech playing in the triple-option. He would have been recruited heavily by the programs that actually wanted to pass the ball. He wound up at the place that best fit his skill set. He's not a great receiver. He's very unlikely to become a great receiver. He's actually somewhat unlikely to become a good receiver, although who he is playing alongside and who is throwing to him will both factor into that some. He has great physical attributes. They're just not matched by many of the other skills that wide receivers in the NFL need. His upside is if the Jets can put great players around him and force defenses to under-defend him, just like they did a lot of the time in college. You have to realize that half the time he was out there he was matched up against guys who weren't going to play pro football. Another 35% of the time he was matched up against guys who will be NFL scrubs. I'll bet you the 15% of the CB's he played against who were any good had a field day against him.
So what. Stats are the worst way to make a comparison but based on your logic things fell correctly then since Thomas was a 1st round pick who had better numbers than Hill who was a 2nd round pick. Your logic would also support the fact that Jordan White should turn into the next Greg Jennings based on the fact that he broke most of his receiving records at Western Michigan in the same offense and caught a ridiculous 140 balls last year. You should be praising the White pick as a steal in the 7th round if you were consistent.
No, now you're making the Derrick Strait argument. Obviously a player's physical characteristics and the competition you are playing against have to factor into a player's draft position and into where he projects as a pro player. Players who are going to be great tend to show that greatness before they get to the NFL. Some players really turn it on after they reach the NFL and reach heights they did not achieve in college. Tom Brady is a perfect example of this. He's slow-footed (or was at Michigan), he has an average arm (definitely did at Michigan), and he didn't have the quickest release either. Then he got to the pros and got a chance to look around and caught a few breaks (at least one of which was somebody else's rib) and got to work with Charlie Weiss and then Bill Belichik. He put it all together and is one of the all-time greats. Ok, here's where the differences show up. Brady was widely considered a top prospect coming out of high school. He wound up at one of the top college football programs as a prized recruit. He was expected to be a passer, as Brian Griese was before him, Drew Henson alongside of him and John Navarre after him. The expectation was that he was a great QB and he just failed to live up to that at Michigan. None of that is true for Stephen Hill. He was not expected to be a great receiver at Georgia Tech. He was expected to be a great triple option receiver. He actually didn't reach the numbers that his immediate predecessor had reached and didn't even come close. He wound up as a very good triple option receiver, not a great one. That doesn't translate into he'll be a good NFL receiver. It translates into he might be a very good NFL receiver if the Jets start running the triple option. He's likely to be a pretty mediocre receiver under other circumstances. We can all hope that he's the 1 in 100 who catch the spark and become much better than you think they can be. After years of watching this FO's actions they are out of credibility with me on moves like this. I think Hill is going to suck.
For those who said T.O wasnt worth a shot. Seahawks GM John Schneider termed it a "no-brainer" to sign Terrell Owens after he was "blown away" by the 38-year-old's workout. Coach Pete Carroll added that a "humble" Owens had a "phenomenal" workout for the team. Carroll felt more comfortable taking the leap after Carson Palmer vouched for the noted quarterback killer as a teammate. The comments lend credence to NFL Network's Michael Lombardi's belief that Owens was signed with the idea that he would earn a starting job. Owens will not play in the preseason opener on Saturday.
We can agree to disagree. I think Hill has almost a Randy Moss ceiling because of his measurables. He would need everything around him to click right to ever hit that ceiling, which is unlikely, but the physical attributes are there. Wayne Hunter is a bad start to everything clicking around him.
Eh this is what every team does after they sign a player. You think they would say "we are weak at WR with some injured guys and TO was the best remaining guy left and was very cheap". I'll wait to see how he does. He seems to have problem when he isn't getting the ball. I like watching him as a player, I just don't think he has enough left to go along with potential locker room problems
Self admitted proof that you were just talking out of your ass. More proof that you are talking out of your ass. Hill had bigger offers, but he stuck with the school that gave him his first offer early before he was noticed. Feel free to continue, and I'll do my best to point out the nonsense to the masses.
