What if we drafted Addai last year ?

[Captain Cliche]

Re: What if we draft Addai last year ?

What I personally saw was the tale of 2 halves.

In the beginning of the season he was like lightning in a bottle.

Holy mackerel, he was blowing through the line and breaking tackles in the secondary. Ripping off yardage with apparent ease. Showing a burst that was awesome.

What little I saw of the second half, the running game in general sucked.
I thought I read somewhere he had some separated rib cartilage. I also felt he was mis-used as a power running back and that may not suit his skill set.

What was encouraging was how quickly he got into the secondary and how he was breaking tackles. Kevin Faulk has the ups, but always seems to go down with the first contact.

Let's hope next season we get the early, healthy Maroney.

He may really be something special.

But, yeah, round one goes to Addai.

 

[Remix 6]

Re: What if we draft Addai last year ?

if we had Addai it would be no different. even if we had Bush...or MJD..

Maroney was not the problem. run blocking and playcalling was. *****

 

[stinkypete]

Re: What if we draft Addai last year ?

I believe we would be looking at our 4th SuperBowl by now.

Talent-wise, I believe Maroney is better than Addai. I can remember a few great runs that Laurence had. However, Addai is a great NFL rusher. I define it by always getting the needed yardage for first downs. Addai cannot and will not break a lot of long runs like Maroney, but Addai would not dance behind the line so much either. Addai will just get the ball and run into the hole following his linemen. Always getting the 3-4-5 yards he needed to move the chain.

The problem with Maroney since his college day is that he is a great runner, but he dance too much and try too much to cut-back. He has to see the holes and go into it. Do not hestitate too much. I believe on one of the interviews last year by WEEI, Maroney said that Coach B told him not to cut back. (way back when Maroney is the best runner of the NFL days, so I don't understand why at that time) Now, I know why Coach B said that after seeing Maroney dance forever behind the line in the playoff.

I believe that this was a downside to Maroney's game heading out of college. Scouting reports suspected that it would take Maroney some NFL seasoning to un-learn this habit.

 

[Michigan Dave]

Maroney is a better back than Addai. We made the right choice. RB was not the reason we failed in the 2nd half in Indianapolis.

 

[zoostation]

Re: What if we draft Addai last year ?

Addai is already "great?" Please. Using that word is a tremendous knock against the truly great players that have played, or still are playing. Addai is good, he's not even close to great after his first season in the league...And Maroney doesn't dance, he averages 4+ yards per carry.

Ditto....calling him great is a stretch ???

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Re: What if we draft Addai last year ?

Addai is already "great?" Please. Using that word is a tremendous knock against the truly great players that have played, or still are playing. Addai is good, he's not even close to great after his first season in the league...And Maroney doesn't dance, he averages 4+ yards per carry.

Maroney both dances, and averages 4+ yards per carry. Working on decisiveness might catapult him to elite status. For now, his average yards per carry is, well, a little more than average.

I want him to be The Great One. I feel that sometimes when I watch him play. I know he is athletically capable of it.

Thus far, though, he is a second year back, who split carries his rookie year. He may be a monster. In the cold hard light of day, he may develop into (ulp) a bust. But if he does so, it will be a decline, not the status he occupies now.

What's the most likely scenario? Good back, good for our system, does what we need him to do. He+Dillon were just that last year.

No, "Woulda/Coulda/Shoulda" Addai thinking is not at all germane. It is what it is, not what it coulda been. And by the way, it wasn't RB that lost the game, as one earlier poster put it.

PFnV

 

[Steamer86]

I believe we would be looking at our 4th SuperBowl by now.

Talent-wise, I believe Maroney is better than Addai. I can remember a few great runs that Laurence had. However, Addai is a great NFL rusher. I define it by always getting the needed yardage for first downs. Addai cannot and will not break a lot of long runs like Maroney, but Addai would not dance behind the line so much either. Addai will just get the ball and run into the hole following his linemen. Always getting the 3-4-5 yards he needed to move the chain.

The problem with Maroney since his college day is that he is a great runner, but he dance too much and try too much to cut-back. He has to see the holes and go into it. Do not hestitate too much. I believe on one of the interviews last year by WEEI, Maroney said that Coach B told him not to cut back. (way back when Maroney is the best runner of the NFL days, so I don't understand why at that time) Now, I know why Coach B said that after seeing Maroney dance forever behind the line in the playoff.

What are you talking about? When was Maroney the best runner in NFL? Addai went over 100 twice last year and went over 65 in 1 out of last five regular season games. Maroney tailed off a little and danced a bit too much - but he is a big time talent, who will figure it out with more reps. If we had the deep threats the Colts had, we would have had a much easier time running.....

 

[Peytonsbetter]

Both backs will have long, productive careers and they'll both probably lead the league in rushing at some point, as well. It's too early to proclaim one better than the other.

Toss in Maurice Jones-Drew and Jerious Norwood and you have the next generation of great running backs in the NFL.

 

[stcjones]

Re: What if we draft Addai last year ?

Getting "blown up" behind the line of scrimmage would suggest the OLine missed assignments. Watch a game or two, you will realize how wrong you are.

yup...good post.......JDP 1
Borg 0

 

[cringelyindy]

personally I really really wanted Maroney over Addai.. pre draft he was the whisper guy the Colts really wanted if all possible. Addai was the second choice. I think the jury is still out for me. Having a choice Ii would take Maroney over Addai. I think NE got the better player in the long run. But I am happy with Addai of course.. could be worse.

 

[drewdagreat]

Maroney would have had about 200 yards in the Super Bowl then...

Maroney > Addai

 

[Krazy Koz]

I think there is a point to be made here. I am in disbelief of Addai's skills as a runner because he gets set up against bad defenses all the time. When Peyton walks up to the line and sees the other team has a run hard defense he switches it up to a pass so the play is more effective and he "puts the pressure on the D" rather than the other way around. As a result, Addai's stats don't suffer or he isn't tested going up against run defenses. Visa Versa, when there is a pass defense out there (nickel, dime, whatever) he'll go up to the line and switch to a run and then Addai just slices and dices against an poor defense formation and his stats would go up. So Addai's stats, as I see it, are a direct product of Peyton manipulating the play calling and Addai running over DB's (pass defenses) instead of LB's (run defenses). So in my book anyone that runs behind Peyton is a fraud, or at least suspect until proven other wise.

 

[Real World]

I believe we would be looking at our 4th SuperBowl by now.

Talent-wise, I believe Maroney is better than Addai.

With Addai we would have won the SB, but Maroney is better?

HUH? How does that work? The guy on the team that beat you is not as good as the guy on the team that lost, but with the lesser player, the losing team would have won?




It's far easier to run draws from the single back set with Manning/Harrison/Wayne/Clark in front of you. It's especially easy to gain yardage in such a formation when you run your 2 wides deep sideline, or short curl, with you TE toasting you in the middle. It's easy because you push the middle LB's in the 3-4 out of position, and enable the RB to run free. For Maroney, it ws the opposite. When your recievers can't get open further than 10 yeards down field, you push no one out of position, and only enable the opposition to put 8 players in the box.

 

[Krazy Koz]

It's far easier to run draws from the single back set with Manning/Harrison/Wayne/Clark in front of you. It's especially easy to gain yardage in such a formation when you run your 2 wides deep sideline, or short curl, with you TE toasting you in the middle. It's easy because you push the middle LB's in the 3-4 out of position, and enable the RB to run free./QUOTE]

these are other good points that add to my previous argument.

 

[37Harrison]

I don't see how you can even compare the two. They are two totally different RB's in two totally different offensive schemes.

Asking this question is good for debate reasons but there is no way in knowing which view is correct unless both RB's played on the other team for an entire season. It's easy to ask should we have drafted this guy instead after his team wins the SB. Would you even have asked this question if the Pats won the SB? Were you asking this question halfway through the season? Maybe Maroney would have lit it up in the playoffs if he wasn't hurt. Maybe Addai wouldn't have been as effective without that stellar line in Indy and without the WR's they have.

 

[zippo59]

Addai is a more mature player which I think we saw this year. Maroney is younger and is maybe a little bit less refined. I think Addai's all around maturity fit into Indy's system because he could make more of an immediate impact and has more experience with blocking and receiving. And really Maroney had a very good rookie year, so it's not like we have as little to go on as say, Chad Jackson. I think Maroney is going to be really great.