Originally posted by elguapo:
Originally posted by Aguirre86:
You do realize Miller was a starter and played virtually every single down where as Smith was a situational player. He was mostly on the field when the other team was going to pass and rarely if ever was he in there for running situations. Miller had about 100 more snaps and both were inconsistent but again if Smith was so good this year and better than he would have been starting every single game or at least one game but he didn't.
You must not understand this concept so I will try to explain it in a very simple way. Bad teams with glaring weaknesses start rookies usually right away. That was denvers defense. Miller was a starter bc they had nobody in front of him that was even AVERAGE. The niners had brooks and haralson who are both good. We did NOT have to start right away but he played a lot of snaps and I got more news for you. MOST teams passed against the niners bc they couldn't run. So smith was in a lot of the time and was like a starter. Even if he wasn't an every down player that DOESN'T mean he was not as good. The niners could afford to use smith on nickel packages and sometimes base.
Here's some more logic for you. If gore was backup to let's say Barlow and is not the starter and gained 1000+ yards and 5-6ypc and more tds as a rookie than another rookie starting RBI that did worse as a full starter that didn't share many carries......that still means gore is better than the other rookie player that was a "starter" I hope you follow bc most of the vets and other people on the forum do agree that smiths stats were better than miller hands down and again smith did not get benched like miller did.
Awards don't always go to the best players, they go to the best of the most "visible" players.
So how does one become "visible"?
1) Starting games -- No one cares why what or how.
2) Making the Pro Bowl -- Again, starting games helps a player get here.
3) Have the media talk about you -- Being a higher draft pick helps you out here.
4) Accumulating stats -- Stats make you stick out, but if you don't have the above three, they are easily discarded.
Von Miller had all four of the above things.
Everything snowballs into itself to create more hype for Von Miller. Aldon only had stats, and a little bit of media. He didn't start, so he wasn't even on the Pro-Bowl ballot. He wasn't as high a pick as Miller, and was even considered a "reach", so fewer people (including players and coaches) had him on their radar.
Why didn't Aldon start? Because he was transitioning from DE to OLB. That is the only reason. He didn't start, therefore he didn't get as much recognition, therefore he didn't make the Pro Bowl, therefore he didn't win DROTY.
Almost forgot, he also had the DUI thing. That alone might have done it.
[ Edited by BrianGO on Feb 4, 2012 at 7:37 PM ]
