Let's talk about speed

[mossdeep]

For all the stat lover's out there. Are you people really aware how fast Donte, Randy and Ben are?

When these guys healthy, they're not only fast. They're the FASTEST at their positions. I think we've only seen the tip of the iceburg on Donte's potential.


Some blurbs I've cut and pasted from various articles on the web:


"While at Florida State, Moss ran a 4.25 40-yard dash"

"(Moss reportedly ran a 4.29 for the Patriots in a recent workout)"

"Many claims about Michael Vick running a 4.15 are not true, the fastest electronic 40 time ever recorded by the NFL was Donte' Stallworth's 4.26 this year which broke the old electronic record of 4.29 by Deon Sanders."

(On Ben Watson): "Regarded as one of the premier tight ends in the country after a stellar junior campaign, Watson was hampered most of his final season with a nagging ankle injury … Fine athlete with tremendous quickness, boasting the fastest 40-yard dash (4.44) of any tight end in college football"

 

[Phokus]

If Stallworth is that fast, he better be getting wide open down the field a lot more often!

 

[cartmen]

Nice little thread...but Speed has very little to do with being successful. The ability to get open in tight spaces is vastly underrated. Moss is 6-4 so its easy for him to catch a ball while being double covered but Troy Brown is 5-9 and he can get open with the best of em. Those guys, Moss, Stallworth and Watson, are extreemly fast but BW still has to learn a little more how to run a clean seam route and get open. When he does get good at it he will then start being compared to the guy who every Pats fan thinks he can be, Ben Coates

 

[363839]

If Stallworth is that fast, he better be getting wide open down the field a lot more often!

You gotta remember that the other wr is a guy name Randy Moss.
Also competing is Wes Welker.
Besides that, speed does not neccasarily translate to a lot of catches but
it still stretches opposing defenses.

 

[363839]

Good post, Eric....,I mean Cartman.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

Watson is the second fastest TE in the league behind Vernon Davis. He ran a 4.38 and when he gets the ball in the open field, it's very difficult to catch up to him. He could easily play WR. If the 9ers had a better QB, Davis would be unstopable.

 

[Seacoast Fan]

I agree with the comments about the need to run precise routes, but the thing I really like about the way the Pats went about the off-season acquisitions, is thtat they kept the heart of the tough, cold weather, outdoor, sloopy field Pats, but at the same time added alot of speed, players like Moss, Welker, Adalius, who are going to do great in a dome, ie, Indy in the playoffs if we end up there again.

 

[cstjohn17]

Do they look good in swim suits also?

I love the draft and stats as much as anyone but history has proven that speed and measurables are overrated. The minimum standards for an NFL player immediately place the athletes among the best in the world.

Didn't Jerry Rice run a 4.6? and Welker a 4.65? Bethel Johnson has damn fast and look at him.

 

[ClevTrev]

wrong Moss I think...why would Randy Moss get timed at FSU?

Ditto, second the question.

They're all fast and becoming more precise this season under the tutelage of Brady.

 

[Flying Fungi]

Ditto, second the question.

They're all fast and becoming more precise this season under the tutelage of Brady.

he tried out for Bobby Bowden at FSU before joining Marshall...bad memory on my behalf...I was thinking Santana Moss, but he was Miami...

 

[ClevTrev]

Thanks for the clarification. Evidently and unbeknown to me, Moss was actually a Seminole until he was kicked off the team for a marijuana infraction.

 

[Flying Fungi]

Thanks for the clarification. Evidently and unbeknown to me, Moss was actually a Seminole until we was kicked off the team for a marijuana infraction.

and even a Fighting Irish before a different infraction...

 

[javajunky]

When the Pats didn’t have any deep speed, they stretched the field horizontally to compensate. This allowed opposing defenses to bunch up at the line of scrimmage. Cover 2 defenses, in particular, took advantage of this and often smothered our offense.

Now that our team has true deep speed, we are forcing the safeties to stay back. Bigger gaps in the defensive zones have opened up and blitzes are more difficult to hide.

I love deep speed.

 

[Fencer]

Speed also matters because of matchups. If there's too great a speed difference, you simply can't single-cover a guy. That affects the defense's choices.

 

[jaytyme]

okay lets talk about speed:

the two fastest players in nfl history helped their teams win super bowls

1.) Bob Hayes (olympic 100m dash champion) helped the cowboys win it all in 1971. Also had more than 1000 yards in 1 of his seasons.

2.) Renaldo Neamiah (world record 110m high hurdles) helped the 49'ers win the super bowl in 1984. Mostly acknowledged more as a decoy than a weapon during his 4 year career. never gained 500 yards in a season.

Does speed help?..... damn right it does ...... it stretches defensive coverages in ways they dont want to stretch. If Brady stares down either moss or stallworth on go routes, the safeties are 5 yards further away from the ball when watson or welker get the ball underneath. This simple fact equals more yards after the catch.

Oh, and here's the kicker, unlike Bethel (i'm a girl) Johnson, u gotta repect donte and randy's ability to catch anything in the same hemisphere where they are running.

Conclusion: good luck everyone
guard us long...we'll beat u short
guard us short...we'll beat u long

 

[LoveDemPats]

Nice little thread...but Speed has very little to do with being successful. The ability to get open in tight spaces is vastly underrated. Moss is 6-4 so its easy for him to catch a ball while being double covered but Troy Brown is 5-9 and he can get open with the best of em. Those guys, Moss, Stallworth and Watson, are extreemly fast but BW still has to learn a little more how to run a clean seam route and get open. When he does get good at it he will then start being compared to the guy who every Pats fan thinks he can be, Ben Coates

I think that Randy catches the ball really well because of a lot of things. His hands are amazing. They may be very big, I am not sure. But, when he makes a catch, the ball does not move around much at all. It is as if he has a really nice baseball glove. He catches it away from his body, like a basketball player would. His eyesight must be very strong. He has no problem seeing exactly where the ball will be. That catch that he made on the sideline last game was truly amazing. You could tell that it was just his finger tips, (all ten) that caught the ball. I am not saying that it was like an ice cream cone catch, it was just really sweet like he had a lacrosse basket and just snatched the darn thing right as it hit this sweet spot, furthest from the defender, yet right in perfect location to smoothly guide it in to his body and continue on his merry little way.

Route running, I agree is also huge. The timing is lost if the route is not run to precision

Speed is really a huge benefit to someone who can catch. I mean, it is the quintessential "you can't coach that" quality. The pats have a lot of speed now. I brought up a thread about the turf yesterday and someone mentioned that they had heard BB state that he builds his team in a different way now that the field turf is there. Certainly, the pats have not shied away from speed when selecting members of the 2007 pats team.

 

[cstjohn17]

u gotta repect donte and randy's ability to catch anything in the same hemisphere where they are running.

Respect Moss = Yes, he is a freak and catches every in site.

Donte catch everything in site = No, he is fast but doesn't have great hands.

Speed is nice but not essential
Boldin - 4.7, Owens 4.6, Rice 4.65, Chad Johnson 4.55, Reggie Wayne 4.55, etc. etc. etc.

 

[javajunky]

Respect Moss = Yes, he is a freak and catches every in site.

Donte catch everything in site = No, he is fast but doesn't have great hands.

Speed is nice but not essential
Boldin - 4.7, Owens 4.6, Rice 4.65, Chad Johnson 4.55, Reggie Wayne 4.55, etc. etc. etc.

This is true for individual players but not for offenses. Slow offenses seem to be eaten up in the modern NFL. Great quarterbacks can mitigate it, but great quarterbacks cover up a lot of sins.

 

[MrClutch]

Speed kills. I think that applies to pretty much every physical sport. The Pats probably have the most speed they've ever had, and while they may not be impossible to stop, they will definitely be tough to stop.

 

[sebman2112]

Stallworth's actually been timed at 3.24, 3.27, 3.26, and I believe he had a wind added 40 of 3.18. If I remember correctly the 3.27 was against the wind.

Let's not forget Chad Jackson has a 4.32-40 yard dash, and while Welker doesn't have great 40 times he's short shuttle was very good. I think Stallworth, and Jackson had good short shuttles as well.

While I am impressed with that kind of speed and it speed can do damage in the NFL you still need to run the routes and make the catches, if you can't do that it doesn't matter how fast you are. Considering Stallworth has almost gone over 1,000 before and actually has better career numbers than Deion branch I don't think we should worry about that with him.