ckparrothead
Premium Member
I'm not sure I understand why so many are voting for David Boston. He was signed at basically the vet's minimum for a reason. He's much more of a risk than a guy you can say will definitely have the biggest impact other than Ronnie. The dude is banged up. Tearing a patellar tendon like that, you don't just walk away from that and immediately become the same dude that caught for 1600 yards way back when. Right now, he's an upgrade at #4 WR and that is why the coaches brought him in.
Do not get your hopes up on the guy. When he came in here originally, he was an attitude risk, an injury risk, and a substance abuse (steroid) risk. And sure enough, first thing he did was get injured, second thing he did was test positive for a banned substance, and last thing he did was assault an airport security guard. He's three for three.
I think Traylor will have the biggest effect on our ability to stop the run which has a huge effect on our ability to win close games. I also think Ricky Williams will help Ronnie Brown get use to the rigors of a 16 game season by serving as the Cadillac Williams type runner while Ronnie gets to be every bit as dangerous in all phases of the game as he was in college. Remember, in Ronnie's first year, with him not being use to carrying a full load, having Ricky share that load could do wonders for Ronnie's health, and not just this year but for his whole career. In a year where a guy is likely to take an injury, like this one, doing something to avoid that happening will help his career because you never know when a simple injury can plague the guy the rest of his career.
My last guy is Tebucky Jones. I don't believe he is a stud or anything, he's an underachiever and he was an underachiever in New England, then in New Orleans. But, his only successful seasons were under Belichick in his system. He can't catch a cold, but I don't think Saban will be asking him to. He'll need to run fast, hit hard, and bat balls away in the deep sections of the field. As I recall, Jones had himself a career type year in NE the year he got franchised and subsequently traded. I don't see how he would not equally flourish in Saban's system. I liken the situation to if we let McMichael have the career year he is bound to have in Linehan's system, then franchise him, trade him off to a team for good value, and then McMichael underachieves (as he's done here before, dropped balls and whatnot), and then Urban Meyer jumps ranks to NFL offensive coordinator and McMichael finds his way to Meyer's team and once again flourishes in the system that he had his best year in. Now, in the end I believe McMichael is a better player than Jones, and one key difference is McMike was a 4th round pick, not a high pick like Jones, and therefore can't really be called an underachiever, but I still feel it's a good comparison.
Those are the 3 I voted for....Traylor, Ricky, and Tebucky.
I think Boston will get at most 400 yards, I don't think Gus Frerotte will be our Day 1 starter and I think Feeley might be able to fend him off, I think the rookies Roth, Crowder, and Daniels will not start but will make decent contributions, Tillman will probably be a little disappointing, Spragan will be mediocre at best, and so will Mario Edwards.
The guys I think that have the best chance of making a good impact other than the ones I named above are McDougle, Carter and Holliday. But, unfortunately for Carter I think he will get mired in playing RDT too much out of necessity, which dampens his ability to make a huge impact. Holliday I still think was miscast and misused in KC. I think he will be good here the way Saban will use him, but again, he also might end up playing RDT a little too much. McDougle I think will do well, but I'll honestly attribute that more to the runningbacks and Hudson Houck than to McDougle himself.
Do not get your hopes up on the guy. When he came in here originally, he was an attitude risk, an injury risk, and a substance abuse (steroid) risk. And sure enough, first thing he did was get injured, second thing he did was test positive for a banned substance, and last thing he did was assault an airport security guard. He's three for three.
I think Traylor will have the biggest effect on our ability to stop the run which has a huge effect on our ability to win close games. I also think Ricky Williams will help Ronnie Brown get use to the rigors of a 16 game season by serving as the Cadillac Williams type runner while Ronnie gets to be every bit as dangerous in all phases of the game as he was in college. Remember, in Ronnie's first year, with him not being use to carrying a full load, having Ricky share that load could do wonders for Ronnie's health, and not just this year but for his whole career. In a year where a guy is likely to take an injury, like this one, doing something to avoid that happening will help his career because you never know when a simple injury can plague the guy the rest of his career.
My last guy is Tebucky Jones. I don't believe he is a stud or anything, he's an underachiever and he was an underachiever in New England, then in New Orleans. But, his only successful seasons were under Belichick in his system. He can't catch a cold, but I don't think Saban will be asking him to. He'll need to run fast, hit hard, and bat balls away in the deep sections of the field. As I recall, Jones had himself a career type year in NE the year he got franchised and subsequently traded. I don't see how he would not equally flourish in Saban's system. I liken the situation to if we let McMichael have the career year he is bound to have in Linehan's system, then franchise him, trade him off to a team for good value, and then McMichael underachieves (as he's done here before, dropped balls and whatnot), and then Urban Meyer jumps ranks to NFL offensive coordinator and McMichael finds his way to Meyer's team and once again flourishes in the system that he had his best year in. Now, in the end I believe McMichael is a better player than Jones, and one key difference is McMike was a 4th round pick, not a high pick like Jones, and therefore can't really be called an underachiever, but I still feel it's a good comparison.
Those are the 3 I voted for....Traylor, Ricky, and Tebucky.
I think Boston will get at most 400 yards, I don't think Gus Frerotte will be our Day 1 starter and I think Feeley might be able to fend him off, I think the rookies Roth, Crowder, and Daniels will not start but will make decent contributions, Tillman will probably be a little disappointing, Spragan will be mediocre at best, and so will Mario Edwards.
The guys I think that have the best chance of making a good impact other than the ones I named above are McDougle, Carter and Holliday. But, unfortunately for Carter I think he will get mired in playing RDT too much out of necessity, which dampens his ability to make a huge impact. Holliday I still think was miscast and misused in KC. I think he will be good here the way Saban will use him, but again, he also might end up playing RDT a little too much. McDougle I think will do well, but I'll honestly attribute that more to the runningbacks and Hudson Houck than to McDougle himself.
