Suggestion: Convert James into a Harvin

Originally posted by dhp318:

Watched James enough to see him slow down before getting hit all the time. James is like a weaker version of Sproles.

He doesn't slow down every time he is hit in the videos posted in this thread and I don't recall him slowing down before every hit as a 49er.

This thread is pretty silly. How did turning Devin Hester into a wideout / playmaker on offense work for the Bears? He did okay I suppose but nothing special. The WR position is one of the toughest in the NFL to learn. 49ers fans should know that as much as any team. We had to wait three years for Crabtree to have a break out season. It took Vernon Davis as a pass catcher four years. AJ Jenkins did zero in year one. If this LMJ at wideout / runner hybrid were to work out it, which is a big if, it would be years until it paid any real dividends.

LMJ is one of the pound for pound toughest players in the NFL. An ideal runner between the tackles or hitting the edge. Leave him in the backfield please. With Gore nearing the end (it's inevitable) it could be down to Hunter and LMJ as our one-two punch.

Originally posted by 49erFaithful6:
This thread is pretty silly. How did turning Devin Hester into a wideout / playmaker on offense work for the Bears? He did okay I suppose but nothing special. The WR position is one of the toughest in the NFL to learn. 49ers fans should know that as much as any team. We had to wait three years for Crabtree to have a break out season. It took Vernon Davis as a pass catcher four years. AJ Jenkins did zero in year one. If this LMJ at wideout / runner hybrid were to work out it, which is a big if, it would be years until it paid any real dividends.

LMJ is one of the pound for pound toughest players in the NFL. An ideal runner between the tackles or hitting the edge. Leave him in the backfield please. With Gore nearing the end (it's inevitable) it could be down to Hunter and LMJ as our one-two punch.

The idea behind the thread is not silly. The original poster identified a legitimate problem. We have a lot of talent at running back and would like to make use of all of that talent. The examples you gave with Devin Hester and other receivers are worth nothing, but not as similar as one may believe. Devin Hester came to the University of Miami as a receiver and he was moved to CB, which suggests at the college level, he could not play receiver well enough. With AJ Jenkins, the ability is there, but the lack of opportunities is all speculation. Vernon Davis is the most accurate comparison because in Davis you have an athlete playing TE and his dominance comes from the mismatches he creates all over the field. Well in LaMichael James you have a great athlete, who is clearly a running back. But I don't see what the harm is in moving him around to get him involved in the passing game. Considering he is going to be covered by a linebacker if and when this idea were to happen, I'd say it's another potential mismatch that would work out in our favor. If he can catch, great, if he can't, then he is just primarily used as a runner. We have nothing to lose by trying to find ways to keep him involved.

Seeing some of the comments in this thread is exactly why I never post in NT anymore lol.

Maybe if he is used as slot receiver from time to time, getting as many playmakers on the field is always a good thing

Or else in the backfield with Gore & Hunter in the Pistol , with Davis and Crabtree as Receivers ....lot of weapons for a defense to account for

It's NEVER a silly idea if it works!

BRILLIANT!!

Originally posted by InconvenienTTruth21:

James is too much of a p***y
Harvin is tough as hell and one of the hardest players in the league to bring down. James is easy to bring down

I'm on board with going for Harvin, but this whole post is nonsense.

Originally posted by 49erRider:

Originally posted by InconvenienTTruth21:
James is too much of a p***y
Harvin is tough as hell and one of the hardest players in the league to bring down. James is easy to bring down

I'm on board with going for Harvin, but this whole post is nonsense.

Agreed ....

You could call it a Harvin role...could also be a Sproles role. Take your pick, but the objective's the same...get the ball in your playmaker's hands in various ways to garner some big plays. Sounds great to me. We have plenty of KR's...Cox, Hunter, Jenkins, Hampton, KW, in addition to James. He's got plenty of quicks and can dodge and dart around a defense. Just have to make sure he doesn't get hurt like Harvin has. Methinks the Vikes overused him...

Originally posted by TheWooLick:

Originally posted by dhp318:
Watched James enough to see him slow down before getting hit all the time. James is like a weaker version of Sproles.

Okay, that's just crazy. If you see him slow down at all, it's because he's trying to make someone miss by hesitating for a move and than exploding by him. That's the way shifty runners do their thing.

While I think LaMichael James is a weapon, he and Percy Harvin do not have the same skill-set... with James obviously being a runningback and Harvin being a receiver.

If we wanted a quick shifty wide receiver, we'd get the ball to Kyle Williams or Mario Manningham or A.J. Jenkins (though we didn't seem to have that benefit in the end of the season with injuries and A.J. Jenkins not being ready).... LaMichael James, though he has good hands, doesn't have the route-running ability that some of our pure receivers have. Yes, he can probably run a few routes and if we develop a screen game, he'll be a monster... but if you line him up in the slot, he'll have a very limited set of routes to run (which isn't bad).

I think, as awesome as it sounds to put LaMichael James and Frank Gore on the field at the same time, it's still rather limiting. If it's a run to Gore, it's probably a power, down-hill type run, which LaMichael won't really be of much benefit to the play. I'd rather have Bruce Miller or a blocking tight end. Again, same thing if it's some sort of outside run to LaMichael, Gore wouldn't be the best blocker to have out there.

If it's a passing play to LaMichael, be it a quick screen or something of that nature, that could probably be given to one of our slot receivers, with better overall results. While I have no doubt that LaMichael James can spring one, defenses can key in on the limited set of routes he'd run as a receiver. At least with a pure receiver, like Kyle Williams or Mario Manningham, they have to expect the full route tree they can run.

In the end, the current arrangement we have now works fine. Have LaMichael mix it up with runs to the outside, and the occasional swing pass option. I suppose we can resort to trickery every now and then, by having LaMichael line up at different positions, but I think we'd be sacrificing the full potential of the play in order to confuse the defense. He'd be good as a mixer.

I don't know if we'll see that many 2 runninback packages, but I *WILL* say that with the creativity of our coaching staff that we have a very good set of people to devise ways to get LaMichael James the ball in open space... which is his BIGGEST strength, and what does indeed make him similar to Harvin.

Not the same kind of player. Different skill sets.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
Not the same kind of player. Different skill sets.

this

Harvin was a WR who played pseudo RB at Florida with the Tebow option. James is a RB who only caught 17 passes a season most on wheel routes from the backfield IIRC. If you want a Harvin 2.0 you need to look at the draft.

round 1 talent

Tavon Austin 2012
114 receptions
72 rush attempts
33 kickoffs
15 punts


day 2 talent(probably late round 2 early 3)

Marquis Goodwin 2012
30 receptions
13 rush attempts
13 kickoffs
0 punts

Markus Wheaton 2012
91 receptions
20 rush attempts
2 punts
0 kickoffs

I'm not sure you really need to reinvent the wheel here. Just a simple swing pass to get the little fella into space should work wonders.