Originally posted by baltien:
This again.
First of all, Reggie Bush is bar none the most overrated player in the league. Personally, I think the constant hype surrounding his name is just critics trying to save face for calling him the "next Gale Sayers" in spite of the fact that he so far has been a bust. The way he's talked up (especially around here) you would think that he takes it to the house everytime he touches to the ball. I'll save you a little guesswork by linking his stats:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/stats?playerId=9588
Sure, you could do worse in the league, but we should still hold off until Bush has an above average season before anointing him "the one." And while I'll give you Percy Harvin you have to remember that for every one of him, there's a Donte Stallworth.
Players who are very fast and not much else.
With that said, having a team of world class sprinters isn't suddenly going to make you a Super Bowl contender. More than speed, we need ability at skill positions. That's what we were lacking most, and I think we've done a good job of addressing that this offseason. Our receivers (generally) had no problems getting open last year. We just had a sorry O-line that was so soft it couldn't block a newborn baby. As a result, Hill/Smith took a lot of sacks, hurries etc. And Frank had a tough time finding running lanes. That's not a speed issue, that's a competency issue.
Now if you're talking speed in the secondary, you have an argument. Specifically at safety. Now that we have Mays and a healthy Nate coming back, I think our secondary will be fine.
Of course only time will tell.
I agree, why do people keep bringing up this "speed" thing?
I thought this debate was settled when we drafted Crabtree and the Raiders drafted "speed". Who's the better PLAYER?
So far, obviously its Crabtree, not even close.
Not only that but Crabtree got wide open down field on several occasions because of his burst and because he is just GOOD.
How many times did that track star the Raiders drafted get wide open down field last year?
We now have Ginn, we'll see how much better he is than Crabtree because of his world class speed. We'll see; and for the 99th time it will be demonstrated that good football players leave track stars in the dust.
I agree with the above poster about Reggie Bush, and lets see how much "speed" Percy Harvin has without Bret Favre throwing him passes. Something gives me the feeling he will be much "slower" without him.
Devin Hester, Bo Jackson, Chris Johnson, Vernon Davis, there are others, but there are not too many players who I can think of that one fears so much because of their speed. Those above 4 players were/are so fast, so athletic, that you fear them mostly because of their athleticism.
As I recall, Jerry Rice had plenty of long touchdown runs, and almost never got caught from behind. I'd rather have Rice over any super athlete "speed" player. Speed is the last of our teams problems.
