JR4 said:
Well last year he seemd to start coming around. What was expected from him
in NO won't be what he's asked to do with the PATs.
If he is used as Wilfork's rotation it may work out just fine. You say he
likes to take plays off .... so what you're saying is he is not an every down
guy. With PATs he won't have to be. His ex-coach says he's explosive and
powerful. I guess he meant some of the time.
If Saints were asking too much from him then this change could be just what
Sullivan needs. I'm excited to see if BB and his coaches can use this guy
effectively.
His potential is awesome. I'm not so quick to write this guy off as a bust.
If he turns out to be a difference maker with the PATs, i would imagine it won't
sit too well with Saint fans. But remember the system makes a difference.
Systems do make a difference, no doubt. But I wasn't trying to imply that Sullivan was "not an every down player" because he
can't sustain intensity for long stretches (although that's certainly been true his entire career so far as well); he doesn't sustain intensity mainly because he doesn't
care to do so. He doesn't like to take "plays" off--he likes to take "months" off. After his rookie season, when it became apparent that no combination of forced conditioning work, threats, cajoling, positive reinforcement, or peer pressure was having any effect on the guy as far as getting him to grasp the concept of "personal responsibility", even the last coaching staff had figured out that Sullivan couldn't be counted on to play more than a few downs at a time. For the past two seasons he was essentially a "back-of-the-rotation" guy when he was active for game days...fairly often the staff (and his teammates) were so disgusted with him that they didn't even include him on the active game day roster.
Physically, the guy
can make some eye-opening plays, either shooting a gap by beating the O-line off the snap, or by pursuing runs down the line of scrimmage. So whichever ex-coach you're referring to is precisely right about that. The problem is that apparently Sullivan has never been asked to work at anything yet in his life, and the concept's pretty foreign to him. There has been a series of veteran players on the team who have made concious efforts to "mentor" the guy on what it means to be "professional" and to work at a craft in order to succeed, but they've all eventually given up in disgust. I can tell you that the general consensus among the current players on the team according to the Saints beat reporters is that although they're sorry to see a guy totally waste a physical gift, they're plenty happy to see him go waste it somewhere else. The guy who's been the Saints reporter for years for WWL radio, which carries the games and whose sports coverage focuses on the team, has been saying since his rookie season that Sullivan's standard reply to teammates who've tried to convince the guy to apply himself has been "$7.4 million, bro'." That's his guaranteed signing bonus figure, which is in the bank no matter what he does.
I wish the Patriots good luck with the guy, and every time a "bad attitude" guy can be made to "see the light" it's a good thing for the world in general, but in closing I'd like make this last statement about Jonathan Sullivan that pretty well sums up his career so far. As you may know, the Saints had another overweight DT with talent a few years back in Grady Jackson, who was finally released after, having been told he would be inactive for a game the following day, left the team hotel for the night, skipped the mandatory morning meeting sessions on game day...but showed up for the pre-game team meal. The statement about Sullivan would be that he's a whole lot like Grady Jackson...just not nearly as motivated.
