WEEI.com: Playing Mind Games Often A No-Win Situation For Rookies

[Christopher_Price]

Here's today's piece -- a look at how young players and rookies sometimes try and do too much to impress the coaches in hopes of winning a roster spot:

Christopher Price | Playing Mind Games Often A No-Win Situation For Rookies

 

[Pats726]

Interesting article..will be looking for situations like that...but so so true of young ones trying to impress.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

You've been delving into the team from some mighty interesting angles lately Chris - damned good job! (For a Fourth Estate clone. )

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

A variation of this penchant by young players helps explain why Gutz was cut last year and Cassel kept as the #2 QB. Pre-season QBs were put on the field in adverse situations. Cassel did his best to run the O as it was designed, taking the heat as pre-season pays were run into Ds regardless of game plan, just to test players' innate abilities to decide on the 53 and the PS. In contrast Gutz and O'C (dispensation as a rookie) did not execute the O as designed, trying to innovate and over compensate. Running around jujst to make plays. As a result...Gutz cut from the 53.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

A variation of this penchant by young players helps explain why Gutz was cut last year and Cassel kept as the #2 QB. Pre-season QBs were put on the field in adverse situations. Cassel did his best to run the O as it was designed, taking the heat as pre-season pays were run into Ds regardless of game plan, just to test players' innate abilities to decide on the 53 and the PS. In contrast Gutz and O'C (dispensation as a rookie) did not execute the O as designed, trying to innovate and over compensate. Running around jujst to make plays. As a result...Gutz cut from the 53.

I don't know, I don't think "do your job" means don't try to make a play.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

I don't know, I don't think "do your job" means don't try to make a play.

No, it doesn't, but it does state an expectation that you will execute your responsibility and not abandon it early to "make a play."

From my easy chair, Cassel in 2008 appeared to be executing the offense as designed, he didn't try to force things, and by being steady and patient he allowed the other players to execute their assignments and give the coaches a better framework for evaluating and correcting the execution. By contrast, the view from my easy chair considered Gutierrez to be more of a freelancer, and O'Connell to be scrambling mentally, leading to the same on the field.

You could go back another couple years to the Oscar Lua experiment/infatuation. Late in the game, Lua would be playing alongside Corey Mays; second year man Mays would execute his assignment as I understood it, while Lua was charging around leaving cutback lanes open and overrunning plays while he looked for someone to hit. More than one Lua fanatic took me to task for my critical assessment, but Corey Mays is on the Kansas City roster and Lua is out of football.

 

[mgcolby]

No, it doesn't, but it does state an expectation that you will execute your responsibility and not abandon it early to "make a play."

From my easy chair, Cassel in 2008 appeared to be executing the offense as designed, he didn't try to force things, and by being steady and patient he allowed the other players to execute their assignments and give the coaches a better framework for evaluating and correcting the execution. By contrast, the view from my easy chair considered Gutierrez to be more of a freelancer, and O'Connell to be scrambling mentally, leading to the same on the field.

You could go back another couple years to the Oscar Lua experiment/infatuation. Late in the game, Lua would be playing alongside Corey Mays; second year man Mays would execute his assignment as I understood it, while Lua was charging around leaving cutback lanes open and overrunning plays while he looked for someone to hit. More than one Lua fanatic took me to task for my critical assessment, but Corey Mays is on the Kansas City roster and Lua is out of football.

Mays isn't just on the roster he is starting and he looked good in his last preseason game.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Mays isn't just on the roster he is starting and he looked good in his last preseason game.