Waddle = Ginn Jr?

[danstilldaman]

Oh je had other flaws for sure I agree. Route running can be coached to some degree but I think his lack of that killer mentality probably prevented him from improving to be the best player he could be.

I've been to Ohio State fan for about 30 years so I'm definitely familiar with Ginn, what I think a lot of people fail to remember or not know is that he was a highly recruited track star. He ran against bolt in high school, he ran a 10.2 100 m as a freshman and was an Olympic projection, but he chose football over track. He is the typical high-level track athlete, that tried to transfer that skill set to the highest level of football. Considering the career that he had he did pretty good in comparison to all the others that try and fail. But he surely treated the sidelines like the finish line that's for sure.

 

[dagger151]

I screamed in agony when we picked Ginn. I screamed for joy when we picked Waddle. There is no comparison here, Waddle>Ginn.

 

[Tropic]

The reason Ginn played for so long was because he avoided contact. Used to call him downy because he was so soft. Waddle and Ginn are not similar WRs at all.

You are right! I remember him catching sideline passes and going out of bounds while he could have had another 5 yards.

 

[RayStinkle]

Waddle happens to be a football players who can run extremely fast while making football moves and trying to score everytime he has the ball in his hands.
Ginn was a track man who was extremely fast and used his speed to run out of bounds as fast as he could as soon as the ball was in his hands to avoid contact.

In his defense, running scared out of bounds gave him a very long career in the NFL.

 

[RayStinkle]

Both Ginn and Waddle have tremendous speed but are different types of athletes. Ginn took very long strides and seemed to glide down the field in a straight line. Waddle has so much more burst and change of direction in his game.

 

[phinzfan21]

I have no fear whatsoever of Waddle being Ginn. Not even close.

 

[67Stang]

What’s a polish standpoint ?

"Polished" as in runs much crisper routes, and more of them. He does not just rely on speed. He uses his speed along with other tools he has worked on to get open. He is not just a go route guy, like Ginn was for the most part coming out of college and most of his NFL career.

 

[dolfan91]

 

[Digital]

Ted Ginn wasn't the best worker on his craft, but he had incredible natural talent. He was a bit lazy if we're honest. By contrast, Waddle works hard at his craft and is a much better route runner and has better hands. Waddle is absolutely not lazy, as evidenced by his dynamite rehab to work back onto the field for only a championship game. He knew he wasn't going to be ready before championship game, and he knew he wasn't going to even be fully healthy for that game. He forced his way back onto the field for a few measley plays ... because he has the type of will to rise to the challenge and compete that is rare in today's NFL. Most guys pull a Christian McCafferey and realize it will only jeapordize their NFL career so they skip a season. No disrespect to those decisions, but I always am going to give more respect to the guy who has a will to win and the defiant inner-strength to pushi himself to compete. It reminds me of guys like Zack Thomas and Jason Taylor who did whatever it took to rejoin their teammates and help them fight forward as far as they could. Following in the footsteps of guys like Bob Kuechenberg who fought like hell to get back on the field to help the team win. It even reminds me of the will to win that 49'ers HoF safety Ronnie Lott made when he incredibly sacrificed a part of his finger just to get back. Hey, I'm not asking any athletes to do that much self-sacrifice. But any GM who sees that knows he's not lazy, not unmotivated, and not going to let his teammates down ... and in my book that counts for a lot.

When I seek comps for Waddle, I see him as a guy more in the mold of the former LSU National Champion 4x4 relay sprinter Mark Duper. Not only did Duper have 4.25 forty speed and rip the top off of the defense; he literally caused safeties and DC's to wake up in a cold sweat for months before facing him ... and enduring nightmares for years afterwards. Kid wasn't just fast. While most NFL players are ridiculously fast, and have a 3rd gear to pull away from mortal men, Duper had a 4th gear .... and a 5th gear ... and a 6th gear nobody else had. He was so fast that literally everyone on the field knew that when (not if) he got by you ... you had zero chance at catching him regardless of angle. The ONLY defense options were to get your hands on him early AND have a crazy-deep safety just preventing him from the deep ball. If your QB has a cannon arm like Dan Marino ... he was a deep threat that was impossible to stop anywhere on the field as long as the offense had reached at least their own 20 yard line.

Don't believe me? Here's what a strong arm looks like when it's just fooling around and warming up.



And, here's what it looks like when a strong arm is paired with the type of speed Waddle brings. It's old grainy footage, and sorry, it's long, and in two parts ... because the guy scored 64 TD's. The number of times he destroys double-teams is comical. Oh, and if around the 2:00 min mark you get shocked and wonder why the QB's arm looks so weak ... it's because this includes clips of his Dolphins TD's when Marino was out as well. If you have any trouble loading some of the videos, just search for the QB and receiver names and they should be findable.



And Part 2 ...



Oh, and apparently, a Part 3.