Who Is Sony Michel?

Nunchucks said:

I think Sony put up a nice game, but IMO it is clear he still has a ways to go to get more comfortable in this offense and running the ball in the NFL. He still showed some hesitation and looked inexperienced. He is much improved over the last two games, but I expect him to get better.

Also, he was really not featured in the passing game, something that we should expect to see moving forward into the season.

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I'm not all that interested in seeing him "featured" in the passing game. I'm ok if hes just a checkdown or a dump off guy and show more than Blount did. This team needs him to become elite in running the ball.

White is the playmaker in the passing game. He needs to be featured more than Sony.

robertweathers said:

I'm not all that interested in seeing him "featured" in the passing game. I'm ok if hes just a checkdown or a dump off guy.

White is the playmaker. He needs to be featured more than Sony.

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Seeing him get the ball in space on first or second down would be a good thing, especially since it would go a long way to break the run tendencies when he is in the game.

Nunchucks said:

Seeing him get the ball in space on first or second down would be a good thing, especially since it would go a long way to break the run tendencies when he is in the game.

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Agree completely with throwing a ball or two to Sony to keep the D honest but featuring him as the #1 option on a specific pass play is not in the best interests of this offense.

Nunchucks said:

Seeing him get the ball in space on first or second down would be a good thing, especially since it would go a long way to break the run tendencies when he is in the game.

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He's got 49 carries and 5 targets can any tendencies really be gained from this? And can't this easily be different following one pass happy game?

Who is Sony Michel? He's our new awesome RB, at least for this week!

I hope Sony is working hard on his pass catching to become a three down player. It's going to be tough with all those weapons on the outside and inside for the D worry about the RB. Our RB's should get chunks of free yardage if the Defense is staring at the likes of Gronk - Gordon and Edelman.

PatsFan2 said:

I hope Sony is working hard on his pass catching to become a three down player. It's going to be tough with all those weapons on the outside and inside for the D worry about the RB. Our RB's should get chunks of free yardage if the Defense is staring at the likes of Gronk - Gordon and Edelman.

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He'd be a lot farther along if Tom showed up to passing camp.

Sony is improving.

Just like I coach em'!

Sony is a rookie who missed a lot of preseason training and has some lingering injuries. With that being said, and with his being thrown into the fire, he has exceeded expectations by turning in a solid game in his third start.

I think they drafted him to be more of an all purpose 3 down back so looking for him to make more progress on passing plays, but he is definitely a strong runner.

Sony is a household name

Said in the game thread, and will say it again here: for as much as Gannon kept emphasizing that Michel looked more decisive than he did against Detroit, I'm not sure I agree. I think Michel looked more explosive--more burst, better able to shrug off arm tackles--which is to be expected as he gets into game shape. More than anything, though, I think the performance disparity comes down to OL performance. Against Detroit, he just didn't have much opportunity to make plays. Against Miami, it was just a better team performance across the board. Guards were pulling better, he was being given more opportunity to get outside and turn the corner, WRs were blocking better - it was a full team success to the same extent that last week's running game was a team failure.

robertweathers said:

Agree completely with throwing a ball or two to Sony to keep the D honest but featuring him as the #1 option on a specific pass play is not in the best interests of this offense.

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Agreed, on one hand it's important to telegraph as little as possible with your personnel. One side of that coin is being willing and able to run effectively with White, which traditionally the Pats haven't been able to consistently rely on but definitely came through yesterday. The otehr side of that is being able to use Michel in the passing game, which I'm sure the Pats want and intend to do--you don't draft a RB in the first round anymore unless you think he can be a dual threat--but so far they've been hesitant.

His drops last week are likely part of it, and this is pure speculation but I'd also bet they aren't 100% comfortable with his pass blocking yet either. Which is reasonable and pretty much par for the course for a rookie, and I suspect is why the Pats drafted White while they still had Vereen and Vereen while they still had Woodhead, because they seem to like their backs to have a full year in the system before extensive use in the passing game. It takes time to develop that phase of the game, and until they're fully confident with Michel as a blocker I'd rather they don't force the timeline at the risk of Brady's health. For those of us who remember how Brady's knee got blown out (Faulk suspended, Morris playing out of role, subpar block), I'd bet that's a pretty noncontroversial take.

TheFlyingWedge said:

Sony is a rookie who missed a lot of preseason training and has some lingering injuries. With that being said, and with his being thrown into the fire, he has exceeded expectations by turning in a solid game in his third start.

I think they drafted him to be more of an all purpose 3 down back so looking for him to make more progress on passing plays, but he is definitely a strong runner.

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I know people here won't believe it, but Sony can catch the ball. They didn't target the RBs that much at Georgia in the passing game, but he's a smart kid. Watch his 1st TD vs Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl, he snuck out of the backfield and made a 1 handed catch look easy and ran into the end zone. They didn't even make that big of a deal of it being a 1 handed catch, because he made it look so simple. I watched him for 3 seasons, the kid can catch. It just wasn't something Georgia did a lot of. Also, a very accomplished pass blocker, one of the best in his class. I think he can catch 30-40 passes a year, easy.

scott99 said:

I know people here won't believe it, but Sony can catch the ball. They didn't target the RBs that much at Georgia in the passing game, but he's a smart kid. Watch his 1st TD vs Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl, he snuck out of the backfield and made a 1 handed catch look easy and ran into the end zone. They didn't even make that big of a deal of it being a 1 handed catch, because he made it look so simple. I watched him for 3 seasons, the kid can catch. It just wasn't something Georgia did a lot of. Also, a very accomplished pass blocker, one of the best in his class. I think he can catch 30-40 passes a year, easy.

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I have no doubt in my mind the kid will be able to catch the ball coming out of the backfield. Hes too good of an athlete and at U of GA was so smooth catching the ball.

I think here it'll take time. The only RB who was catching passes silky smooth Day 1 was Woody. Everyone else took about a year before they became a Brady fav.

Sony has to learn and get down the timing on the running plays, the pass blocking and the route running. Thats a lot to learn and perform flawlessly in an complex offense and for a fussy QB.

Nunchucks said:

Seeing him get the ball in space on first or second down would be a good thing, especially since it would go a long way to break the run tendencies when he is in the game.

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And, now that McD has established that tendency, you know he's going to leverage it successfully. Maybe not Thursday, but soon enough.

douchebag massarotti: If you are a RB and drafted that high in the draft you need to be like Todd Gurley

This is the take I saw on twitter he is going with

Todd Gurley was drafted top 10. Michel was drafted closer to the 10th pick in the 2nd round than he was the 10th pick in the 1st round. Also it completely ignores that taking Michel in the 1st means there is now a 5th year option and then there was also the fact the draft played out

27th Rashard Penny
31st Sony Michel
35th Nick Chubb
38th Ronald Jones
43rd Kerryon Jones (Lions traded with Pats for this pick)

When Seattle picked Penny it started a run on the rest of the next best RBs after Barkley. There was no guarantee Michel would have been there with the 49ers pick

JMC00 said:

douchebag massarotti: If you are a RB and drafted that high in the draft you need to be like Todd Gurley

This is the take I saw on twitter he is going with

Todd Gurley was drafted top 10. Michel was drafted closer to the 10th pick in the 2nd round than he was the 10th pick in the 1st round. Also it completely ignores that taking Michel in the 1st means there is now a 5th year option and then there was also the fact the draft played out

27th Rashard Penny
31st Sony Michel
35th Nick Chubb
38th Ronald Jones
43rd Kerryon Jones (Lions traded with Pats for this pick)

When Seattle picked Penny it started the run on the rest of the next best RBs after Barkley. There was no guarantee Michel would have been there with the 49ers pick

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It’s stupid to choose the best be in the nfl and say anyone picked in round 1 should be as good as him. That would mean there are 15-20 gurleys in the nfl.

JMC00 said:

douchebag massarotti: If you are a RB and drafted that high in the draft you need to be like Todd Gurley

This is the take I saw on twitter he is going with

Todd Gurley was drafted top 10. Michel was drafted closer to the 10th pick in the 2nd round than he was the 10th pick in the 1st round. Also it completely ignores that taking Michel in the 1st means there is now a 5th year option and then there was also the fact the draft played out

27th Rashard Penny
31st Sony Michel
35th Nick Chubb
38th Ronald Jones
43rd Kerryon Jones (Lions traded with Pats for this pick)

When Seattle picked Penny it started a run on the rest of the next best RBs after Barkley. There was no guarantee Michel would have been there with the 49ers pick

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Spazz is a goddamn hot take troll.

JMC00 said:

douchebag massarotti: If you are a RB and drafted that high in the draft you need to be like Todd Gurley

This is the take I saw on twitter he is going with

Todd Gurley was drafted top 10. Michel was drafted closer to the 10th pick in the 2nd round than he was the 10th pick in the 1st round. Also it completely ignores that taking Michel in the 1st means there is now a 5th year option and then there was also the fact the draft played out

27th Rashard Penny
31st Sony Michel
35th Nick Chubb
38th Ronald Jones
43rd Kerryon Jones (Lions traded with Pats for this pick)

When Seattle picked Penny it started a run on the rest of the next best RBs after Barkley. There was no guarantee Michel would have been there with the 49ers pick

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Todd Gurley's career rushing stats are barely better than Stevan Ridley's in the aggregate; they have the exact same yards per carry. That's not to say they're comparable players, it's not even close, and Gurley's a far better receiver, but to say Gurley's some unstoppable force of nature would demonstrate that the commentator's only experience with Gurley has been on his fantasy team.

In Gurley's first career game, he rushed 6 times for 9 yards. In his second season, which was just an utter disaster, he had two total games with a yards per carry above 4, and then just barely. Even this year, in his second game against the hapless Cardinals, he carried the ball 19 times for 42 yards, a 2.21 yard per carry clip, and hardly looked like a superstar.

It's almost like running backs sometimes have bad games (or, in Gurley's case, an entire bad season), and the best ones still need an offensive line to have any hope of doing anything.

It's why you don't draft one in the first round, but hey, they did.

robertweathers said:

Spazz is a goddamn hot take troll.

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He's also other things: lazy and stupid. And I'm not exaggerating. He is.

robertweathers said:

I'm not all that interested in seeing him "featured" in the passing game. I'm ok if hes just a checkdown or a dump off guy and show more than Blount did. This team needs him to become elite in running the ball.

White is the playmaker in the passing game. He needs to be featured more than Sony.

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Sony should be a beast on screen passes.