Ricardo Lockette thread

Victor Cruz came out of nowhere, who knows?

Originally posted by oregonniner:
Victor Cruz came out of nowhere, who knows?

Around here, if he were on the team and it was the year before Victor Cruz broke out, zoners would be rushing to their keyboards to chastise and/or make fun of anyone for even suggesting Cruz might be a factor. It would be, "why are people talking about an undrafted free agent practice squad material guy as if he's a contributor? No way he'll be a factor. We need a Megatron or a Julio Jones!"

Lockette has a good chance of making the team if he beats out Marlon Moore

Originally posted by AmpLee:
Yeah. The overly-optimistic give the cautiously optimistic a bad name. We've had countless threads about pre-season standouts and camp fodder. There's always a lot of talent to be optimistic about. However, just because those threads have existed, doesn't diminish the fact that sometimes guys come out of nowhere. I am very optimistic about two long-shots this year, Okoye and Lockette. My optimism stems from my confidence in the coaching staff to get the most out of talent. Likely one or both won't amount to what their physical ceiling would allow, but reading between the lines, there's a lot going on in their favor. For Lockette, before the Crabtree injury he was a fringe guy. Now he's not only on the inside but he's fighting two young guys for a spot to play a lot this year. Combined that with the possible repport he seems to be developing with Kaep (not too mention the unsolicited gushing by Harbaugh), he is a realistic option for a breakout candidate.

Okoye on the other hand is well more on the fringe. His story of just making the 53 would be unique to modern NFL football. However, his strength explosiveness, and mental ability gives him a shot. What tells me that they aren't just 'kicking the tires', is that they seem to be investing a lot of time to teach him the game. It sounds like they want him to learn and succeed and if he does, he could also make a major impact.

Rarely do championship caliber teams have such intriguing stories about training camp fringe bodies, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how these two, and others, we might not even consider greatly, do this off-season.

"The overly-optimistic give the cautiously optimistic a bad name." Very well-put!

To me, the off-season is the time for cautious optimism. You can never be sure of anything, but sometimes you see prospects who look like they just have tremendous potential. And, I have to say that this particular coaching staff is really one of the best I've ever seen with the Niners. I think it approaches the various staffs of the 80's which are benchmarks for the Niner franchise. I agree with you on both these players because they are just such awesome physical specimens and they both seem to have good heads on their shoulders. They're both extremely motivated and they're both getting real good coaching. Michael Carter is a good example - he never played football in high school and though he went to college on a football scholarship, he concentrated on track and field and went to the Olympics. He was a fifth round pick. He went on to be a huge reason why nobody could run on the Niners in the late 80's and early 90's. Walsh experimented with Renaldo Nehemiah at receiver who was another speed burner. He never really could catch the ball with any consistency and a lot of people call him one of Walsh's few mistakes, but he drew mad coverage deep every time he was split. Lockette actually has Renaldo Nehemiah speed so if Johnny Morton can teach him to catch the ball with consistency, he would be a real factor.

Originally posted by GNielsen:

Originally posted by oregonniner:

Victor Cruz came out of nowhere, who knows?

Around here, if he were on the team and it was the year before Victor Cruz broke out, zoners would be rushing to their keyboards to chastise and/or make fun of anyone for even suggesting Cruz might be a factor. It would be, "why are people talking about an undrafted free agent practice squad material guy as if he's a contributor? No way he'll be a factor. We need a Megatron or a Julio Jones!"

Not if he played like he did during that preseason game against the Jets when he completely dominated them.

18 PGS FOR RICARDO LOCKETTE

Hope springs eternal!

Originally posted by AmpLee:

Originally posted by GNielsen:

Originally posted by oregonniner:
Victor Cruz came out of nowhere, who knows?

Around here, if he were on the team and it was the year before Victor Cruz broke out, zoners would be rushing to their keyboards to chastise and/or make fun of anyone for even suggesting Cruz might be a factor. It would be, "why are people talking about an undrafted free agent practice squad material guy as if he's a contributor? No way he'll be a factor. We need a Megatron or a Julio Jones!"

Yeah. The overly-optimistic give the cautiously optimistic a bad name. We've had countless threads about pre-season standouts and camp fodder. There's always a lot of talent to be optimistic about. However, just because those threads have existed, doesn't diminish the fact that sometimes guys come out of nowhere. I am very optimistic about two long-shots this year, Okoye and Lockette. My optimism stems from my confidence in the coaching staff to get the most out of talent. Likely one or both won't amount to what their physical ceiling would allow, but reading between the lines, there's a lot going on in their favor. For Lockette, before the Crabtree injury he was a fringe guy. Now he's not only on the inside but he's fighting two young guys for a spot to play a lot this year. Combined that with the possible repport he seems to be developing with Kaep (not too mention the unsolicited gushing by Harbaugh), he is a realistic option for a breakout candidate.

Okoye on the other hand is well more on the fringe. His story of just making the 53 would be unique to modern NFL football. However, his strength explosiveness, and mental ability gives him a shot. What tells me that they aren't just 'kicking the tires', is that they seem to be investing a lot of time to teach him the game. It sounds like they want him to learn and succeed and if he does, he could also make a major impact.

Rarely do championship caliber teams have such intriguing stories about training camp fringe bodies, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how these two, and others, we might not even consider greatly, do this off-season.

Also, Patten Manning has a way of getting productivity out of any wide out you put in front of him. If Kaepernick can take the next step, which I actually expect him to, I think a lot of these guys can shine.

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Hope springs eternal!

Hope dies last

can this guy learn the playbook? read where kaepernick quizs him on the plays which he has converted locketts route to a color and a car to make it easier for him to process--would kaepernick have to continue to do so in regular games, and how would that work? would plays gey off even slower?

It is possible Lockette could play the Torry Smith role for us to get some snaps

Originally posted by Pillbusta:
It is possible Lockette could play the Torry Smith role for us to get some snaps

Wow, if Ricardo can be a Torrey Smith we have hit jackpot !! That is quite a lot to ask for. But, say if he can be 75% of Torrey Smith, that will contribute to our vertical game big time.

There is a lot of hype in the press right now with the roomate story with Kaep. I am just going to be cautious with my expectations. I like the guy and I think Kaep must have helped him out a lot in understanding the routes and the playbook.

Let's keep our fingers crossed !!

Originally posted by Rascal:
Let's keep our fingers crossed !!

Yep. Tis the season for crossed fingers. If you think about a player like Lockette who has all the physical skills he needs, it seems like the only things holding a player like that back are, 1. the ability to catch the ball; 2. learning the playbook and what he has to do on every play; and, 3. motivation.

As Sando has already written, if Lockette can't do those things with the attention he's getting from Kaepernick and the coaching staff, he'll never be able to do it. He's got a great chance and he's got all the motivation in the world.

Nice new article on Lockette. Wishing him the best going into this preseason...

http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/jun/29/lockette-closing-starting-spot-49ers/?sports

Originally posted by PineNut:
Nice new article on Lockette. Wishing him the best going into this preseason...

http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2013/jun/29/lockette-closing-starting-spot-49ers/?sports

Interesting that Marshawn Lynch hangs out with Lockette and Kaepernick.