Barry Jackson 7/11/13 : Lamar Miller turning heads as Gore mentors

[ChambersWI]

was ap injury prone at oklahoma??? i only recall the broken collarbone which i thought was way overblown...

I think he had a few nicks and bruises. After Jason White was done with his decade in college they went to Paul Thompson at QB (who then moved to WR), Rhett Bomar (who then got kicked out of school), and back to Thompson. The team basically became AP.

And yes the broken collarbone was insanely overblown. It was a freak injury where he hurt himself doing a flip into the endzone showing off for his dad; who had just gotten out of jail and was at his son's football game for the first time live since AP was 8. It was a stupid move on AP, but he just landed funny.

 

[hoops]

I don't think they'll necessarily want to do that, I just think they'll be forced to because Daniel Thomas was either cut or injured. Gillislee can do the third down back thing -- it's why they drafted him -- but are they really going to give him that job full time? I tend to doubt it. He and Miller might end up, say, splitting it. That would mean a lot of extra snaps for Miller, especially since Gillislee is going to be a substandard NFL back if you just turn and hand it to him on first and second down, imo, so they won't be inclined to give Miller much of a breather on the early downs.

i think your thoughts on this are correct...pretty much across the board...gillislee does not look like a feature back to me...i bet they split the 3rd down role...if gray makes it he may be the goalline guy...thomas they can't trust to stay healthy and at rb if that's the case you are on thin ice pal

 

[TheWalrus]

i don't know walrus about lamar miller looking to pick along...he looks much more decisive and one cut and get north and south to me than reggie bush ever did...i think bush's issues more than anything is he always would try to get wide and out flank the defense and try to outrun guys to the corner...and i can't count how many times i saw all the blocking flow to one side and yardage to be gained not 20 plus yards but solid gains 4 to 5 yards etc and who knows maybe more if he made a guy miss and he instead would for some reason stop in the backfield and try to shake the unblocked defender left free from the backside to outflank to that soft backside corner and end up either with lost yardage or a two yard gain and a pile on of help defenders cause he had no blocking help to that side...essentially free lancing...had to frustrate the oline coach and sherman...had to...i think it's other than his size and the amount of contact he's taken already why he's gone...

When there's a hole, sure. He explodes. That's not the situation I'm talking about, though.

miller at least ran where the play was designed and took what was given to him...

Which can be a virtue and can not be a virtue. Bush freelanced and sometimes it hurt him and other times he made chicken salad out of chicken ****. My problem with Bush was his vision for when those opportunities might be there. Sometimes it seemed like he had decided based on the pre-snap alignment he was going to freelance rather than reacting to the situation dynamically the way Barry Sanders used to do.

 

[hoops]

When there's a hole, sure. He explodes. That's not the situation I'm talking about, though.



Which can be a virtue and can not be a virtue. Bush freelanced and sometimes it hurt him and other times he made chicken salad out of chicken ****. My problem with Bush was his vision for when those opportunities might be there. Sometimes it seemed like he had decided based on the pre-snap alignment he was going to freelance rather than reacting to the situation dynamically the way Barry Sanders used to do.

i don't know walrus...i'll take 4 yards a pop and every once in a while a 20 yarder over 2 yards a pop or minus 2 yards a pop free lancing and every once in a while a 60 yarder...consistency in this o is important...2nd and 6's etc...

i agree with the point about making decisions based on presnap alignment instead of just letting it flow...and i also think bush had lost a step as far as his top end speed and how fast he gets to it from when he first came in the league...heck he would get caught in space last year when he did get in the 2nd level more than i ever recall when he first came out...maybe not from behind but it seemed like he found contact when he got into the oppositions secondary...

i just think father times catching up...slowly but surely

 

[Nublar7]

Frank Gore helping Lamar Miller, Colin Kaepernick wearing a Dolphins hat..... Jim Harbaugh might not have wanted to be a Dolphin, but his players might......

 

[Fin Thirteen]

Gillislee looks equally average to me on first down as he does in short yardage. I don't see the attraction with him but hope he proves me wrong. Miller and Gray seems like a complementary combo, IMO.

 

[TheWalrus]

Gillislee looks equally average to me on first down as he does in short yardage. I don't see the attraction with him but hope he proves me wrong. Miller and Gray seems like a complementary combo, IMO.

I agree.

 

[ckparrothead]

I think Gillislee's biggest hurdle is similar to Lamar's to some extent which is consistent vision and decision making in the backfield within the zone blocking system.

When the Dolphins drafted Lamar Miller in the 4th round and then signed Jonas Gray as a UDFA, I made a post-Draft prediction that even with Reggie Bush at his most popular and folks still having high hopes for Daniel Thomas, that Miller-Gray is the one-two combination I have a vision for happening in the future. I would love to see that come to fruition.

 

[Charlie Rivers]

When Miller has his breakout season in 2013, it will be, mostly, due to Gore's mentoring now.

I give Frank Gore a standing ovation!

Thank you Frank, from all of us Miami Dolphins fans for helping Miller reach his full potential. And thanks Miller for buster your ass in preparation for this upcoming season. These are Hurricane brothers bonded by friendship and respect (and as former UM players united by pride brought on by Cane football honor) - a great example for our other team players to witness. It's all good!

 

[TheWalrus]

I ran some numbers on how Miller's ypc was affected by how many carries he had in a game at UM, trying to figure out of he was the kind of running back that gets better the more carries he has or not. I made the dividing line 20 carries in a game (of which Miller had six in his two years), which divided the carries into a group of 137 to a group of 198 (in other words, lopsided but no enormously so). Here's how it shook out:

More than 20 carries in a game: 5.04 ypc.

Less than 20 carries in a game: 6.196 ypc.

Not an insignificant difference.

 

[hoops]

I ran some numbers on how Miller's ypc was affected by how many carries he had in a game at UM, trying to figure out of he was the kind of running back that gets better the more carries he has or not. I made the dividing line 20 carries in a game (of which Miller had six in his two years), which divided the carries into a group of 137 to a group of 198 (in other words, lopsided but no enormously so). Here's how it shook out:

More than 20 carries in a game: 5.04 ypc.

Less than 20 carries in a game: 6.196 ypc.

Not an insignificant difference.

Well u don't expect him to be getting 20 carries a game do you??? I know I dont

 

[TheWalrus]

Well u don't expect him to be getting 20 carries a game do you??? I know I dont

As I said, I don't think Daniel Thomas is long for the Dolphins, either as a result of getting cut or getting hurt. As a team we averaged 23 attempts per game by running backs last year. That number should go up as we move to more of a hurry up offense. So who's going to make up the slack? Gillislee?

 

[fishfanmiami]

When the Dolphins drafted Lamar Miller in the 4th round and then signed Jonas Gray as a UDFA, I made a post-Draft prediction that even with Reggie Bush at his most popular and folks still having high hopes for Daniel Thomas, that Miller-Gray is the one-two combination I have a vision for happening in the future. I would love to see that come to fruition.

I remember that CK. That's why I have high hopes for Gray being able to contribute this year be it goal line or short yardage.
If he can it bodes well for our running game going forward.

I think Gillislee will stick as a backup and special teams guy and Thomas's days are numbered.

 

[Fin Thirteen]

I think Gillislee's biggest hurdle is similar to Lamar's to some extent which is consistent vision and decision making in the backfield within the zone blocking system.

When the Dolphins drafted Lamar Miller in the 4th round and then signed Jonas Gray as a UDFA, I made a post-Draft prediction that even with Reggie Bush at his most popular and folks still having high hopes for Daniel Thomas, that Miller-Gray is the one-two combination I have a vision for happening in the future. I would love to see that come to fruition.

Watching Gillislee, I think he gets about a 5/10 for all of vision, footwork, power, acceleration, decisiveness, aggression.

You could take from that he has no weaknesses. My impression of watching him is that he has no strengths. Maybe a 6/10 for blocking, but I really don't see a starting NFL RB in him. There's no asset you imagine he could build around to threaten defenses. He looks completely vanilla to me.

 

[CRAZYDOLFAN305]

While we are on the subject of running backs, here is a great article on the correlation between running backs and speed.

As with many positions, there appears to be a cutoff point that players must cross to have the necessary explosiveness to perform at a high level in the NFL. For running backs, that point seems to be in the range of 4.50. During the period I analyzed, only one running back, Frank Gore, ran below 4.50 and still posted an AV per season of at least seven. The second-best running back to run over 4.50 was Ahmad Bradshaw, a steep fall.

Meanwhile, the success rate of running backs in the 4.40-4.49 range has been far higher than those below 4.49. In that range, we’ve seen explosive backs like Adrian Peterson (4.40), Ray Rice (4.42), Matt Forte (4.44), and Marshawn Lynch (4.46) continually rank among the league-leaders in rushing during their time in the league. It’s worth noting that the 40-yard dash also seems to predict running back success better than other drills such as the short shuttle and three-cone drill.

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/a...or-Speed/d0d50996-a935-4a02-bcfc-f499a27a5ee8