kastofsna120 said:
notice how rookies don't tend to win MVPs or put up a lot of great numbers during their rookie season. why? becuase they're not "NFL ready." EVERY SINGLE ROOKIE is a work in progress. to think otherwise is absurd
Rookie RBs are the exception. At nearly 24, expecting Ronnie Brown to improve significantly in running instincts or ability is not reasonable, IMO. Some analysts argue that RBs are actually better in college than they ever are in the pros. The young legs are a gift that begins giving way extremely early. One writer I have always respected is Jerry Magee, who has covered the NFL in San Diego since '61 and also writes for Pro Football Weekly. Magee has argued for decades that the Earl Campbell he saw at Texas was far sleeker and superior to the Earl Campbell who played for the Oilers.
Here is a section of an article Magee wrote for Pro Football Weekly in 1999:
http://archive.profootballweekly.com/content/archives/features_1999/magee_121399.asp
"One thing I hold about running backs: arriving in the NFL, they are not for long going to be as swift and active as they had been as collegians. The hits get to them. They benumb their limbs. Dayne, I would suggest, is better at this moment than he is ever going to be.
Williams is the latest manifestation of this. As cruelly as he has been used during his first season in New Orleans, it would be unrealistic to believe that he can recapture the performance level from his time as a Texas collegian.
I remember the first time I saw Earl Campbell, to cite another Heisman winner (1977). I was in Dallas for one of those Texas-Oklahoma games. Outside the Cotton Bowl before the game, I encountered a folksy then-Chargers scout named Aubrey "Red" Phillips. I wanted to know what Phillips thought of Campbell.
"I’d take him in a cornbread minute," said the scout.
That day, I saw why. Campbell had size, bullet speed and maneuverability. He was a figure in his time with the Houston Oilers  you could look him up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame  but I don’t think in the NFL he possessed the skills he demonstrated on that afternoon in Dallas.
When Herschel Walker was a collegian, I also had one peek at him. While NFL players were pursuing a work stoppage, I made a swing with a Chargers scout named Ron Nay through Louisiana and Mississippi. In Starkville, Miss., one Saturday, the leading exhibit was Walker, who had many of the attributes of the collegiate Campbell.
The Walker I glimpsed that day clearly was a superior athlete to the one who persevered in the NFL for so long."
Some rookie RB numbers:
1,808 – Eric Dickerson, Los Angeles Rams (1983)
1,674 – George Rogers, New Orleans Saints (1981)
1,605 – Ottis Anderson, St. Louis Cardinals (1979)
1,450 – Earl Campbell, Houston Oilers (1978)
