Just to add a little fuel to the fire, I would like to point out again that Vince Young has actually sucked a lot more this preseason than Mario has.
It should also be noted that his incompletions were in fact LEADERSHIP incompletions, so while they didn't move the chains, they increased morale across the board and even cured one onlooker of Parkinson's Disease.
I'm over the VY thing. It seems to be dying down a bit except for a few hardcore posters on both sides. I wish we would have traded down and got another pick or 2 because personally I don't think Mario, Bush, Leinart, or Vince are worth the #1 pick. Of course, SOMEONE has to be #1, but you get my point. This is assuming we didn't try to trade the pick and just didn't have any takers, but we seem to do better with lower round picks. I wish we would have traded out of the top 10 and got some more picks. I'm not going to write off Mario because he doesn't have 10 sacks this preseason, but one thing I notice about him is that he doesn't seem to have any moves. He just bull rushes on every snap.
really??? i think that draft was incredibly deep in talent. i think bush, leinart, VY and/or even Cutler will prove to be legit #1 picks given draft history.
At what point do we admit that the coaching on the line sucks? (Maybe defensive coaching in general.) I watched Mario destroy D'Brickashaw Ferguson and became a believer. I haven't been impressed since, but I know that he has the potential. Where do we go to find coaching that will realize that potential?
I don't know how much you've watched of him, but AJ Hawk absolutely will be a Hall of Famer. He might possibly even have a better career than DeMeco Ryans.
fair enough..add him to the list. i think there was a ton of talent in that draft. i think it was an exceptional draft class. of course, i could be wrong, because that happens sometimes.
and mario williams was still going to get picked ahead of all them (save for whoever went first) - new orleans was going to draft him second. ima, does the offense show off it's "moves" in the preseason or keep it close to the vest and play vanilla for the most part? it's preseason. he'll be fine.
That's my point. It was too deep to worry about who went at #1. That's why I would have just assumed traded down and let some other team worry about it while we get another 3 or 4 picks to play with. But that's neither here nor there. What's done is done. I hope Mario has a great year this year. I think he can. Oh, I know. Like you said, maybe the coaches are telling him to work on one specific thing during the games. We just don't know. But that's what's scary. We don't know.
of course. because teams don't draft players when they already have established players at their positions. the saints weren't gonna take leinart...they had brees. the titans were looking for a new QB. they took one. we, of course, were satisfied with david carr. mario strikes me as the classic sort of player that frustrates the hell out of me. one whom scouts LOVE after the workouts...but rarely cite to him being a monster on the field in games. andre ware commented the other day on the radio that he was the broadcaster of a game mario played in....he said when people started talking about mario williams during workouts he didn't remember ever calling the guy's name in the game he called. but he remembered the impact of other defensive linemen in that game. i want to be wrong about mario.
with the pressure he's taken in the media to "show us something"...i have a really, really hard time believing he's just holding something back. i'm not saying he won't develop. but i have a hard time believing he's holding something back so as not to give something away.
Not necessarily. If Vince went #1, Bush likely would have still gone #2 and Leinart #3. NO was planning to draft Mario because they didn't need the QBs and assumed Bush was going #1. It's unclear exactly where Mario would have fallen in that scenario - I don't know the Jets' needs at #4 and beyond.
Bull rushes on running plays. I think he still has a lot to offer in the pass rush scheme. The thing that sticks out to me is it seems that most of his high impact plays in college came from the left side. Am I wrong about that? If I am right, I would like to see Kubes move him back to the left and bring in a speed rusher like Babin on the right side. Right now, it looks like we are running MW on the right and Weaver on the left side, which is fine for running plays but Weaver isn't a pass rusher and I could be wrong but it appears to me that MW is a better pass rusher from the left. I really wished they would move him to the left and keep him there if they are insistent on leaving him on one side, then flip flop Weaver and Babin or whoever can generate a rush on the right, bringing in Babin on obvious passing downs. But, maybe I'm wrong and MW actually played the right at NC State?
Even assuming that to be true, if Mario doesn't develop into a great player, the pick will have been wasted and Mario will be deemed a bust (like Carr, who lots of teams had rated highly as well). And the GM and franchise will be rightly judged on the production they got for their high draft picks. For everyone's sake, MW better develop into a stud DE. Unfortunately for Williams and the Texans, anything less than "the next Julius Peppers" will be seen as a failure.
i heard that, too - it's concerning, but it's not yet time to push the panic button. those that pushing it likely also voted for "who's now" because they're obsessed with appearences and easily digestible surface facts. mario williams was very effective against the run saturday and was average rushing the QB. he applied some pressure but he still looks raw. again, though - look at arizona's play breakdown in the first half; they were rarely in obvious, turn mario loose passing situations. mario helped bust up the 4th and 1 rush; he flushed leinart on what wound up being a TD pass (not his fault) and arizona definitely gameplanned for him by moving leinart away from williams fairly consistently. if you rewatch the game, notice how much turf mario has to chew just to get on screen with leinart. even if that's what the coaches are telling him to do?
1. i'm not pushing any panic buttons. i don't see anyone saying we should trade him. i'm just concerned. 2. i can't imagine the coaches are saying, "on pass rush, don't get to the QB. it's just preseason. don't bother showing us anything."
