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.