Zeearend":28mzxqhw said:
Thank you TasteTheBeastmode for sharing your view. Interesting to read that PC and JS are apparently more willing to take a player that doesn't fitt the ideal picture. Sounds to me that there looking to gain an advantage by doing things differently. Sometimes with great succes and some other conversion projects with less.Just increasing their odds by seeing as much players as they can. Sound like a good plan and to execute that you apparently only need balls
You are more than welcome.
Just to further emphasize the pressure that exists for General Managers and Head Coaches to make the safe, defend-able picks in the draft, check out this article from a nationally read website condemning the Seahawks for the that 2012 draft and their selection of Wilson.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1165 ... -draft-day
The writer calls the selection of Wilson the worst pick of the draft! He grades the Seahawks draft an F based not just on Wilson but also on Bruce Irvin, another guy who didn't fit the prototype for an NFL position. Irvin was considered a "tweener", a guy who physically falls between the ideal size (prototype) for a Defensive End and the ideal size (prototype) for an Outside LineBacker. Tweeners are considered not big enough to anchor the edge or to push a tackle for sacks (DE) and to big/not fast enough to cover backs out of the backfield (OLB). A poor trade off.
The writer specifically ridicules Pete Carroll in his F grade of the Seahawks. When coaches are getting national press like this and don't make the playoffs they can count on being run out of town in short order. Bad press tends to undermine fan support and good press of course lends itself to more fan support. While wins and losses are ultimately what should be the factors in a coaches career, for right or wrong, human nature is to want public/fan support in the hopes that it will buy some leeway if the wins don't come. And, right or wrong, ownership can bow to negative press and fan pressure and cut loose a coach who might well deserve another year. Fans have to be kept happy to buy tickets.
The pressure is HUGE to make the safe picks and avoid the bad press.
Of course history is the ultimate judge and vindicator. Pete Carroll and John were obviously right with both of those two, seeing things that didn't appear obvious to the press and others. Wilson had the "It factor" between the ears that only a handful of humans on the planet have when it comes to playing QB regardless of size. He also has Huge hands, 10.5" handspan, completely disproportional to his frame. That eliminates one of the truly legitimate problems with small QB's, they tend to have small hands and drop the ball more. He also has a very vertical throwing motion so his release point is higher than it would be if he used more traditional 3/4 angle . This means his throws come out of his hand the same distance off the ground as a typical QB several inches taller than him. Important when another criticism of short QB's is that with the ball coming from a lower spot they have a higher percentage of passes knocked down by linemen. Then there's his speed. Truly unique for his position. It warps the field and changes the way the opponent has to defend. It opens up options for the offense not normally seen in the NFL.
You are correct that Pete and John are taking chances looking for an advantage. But they don't just throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks with every out of the prototype guy. They do their homework on those guys looking for reasons the typical rules of thumb shouldn't apply. Like those things I listed about Wilson above. Also they look for something truly special or unique, a talent that guy has that no one else has. With Wilson the speed and it factor made it worth taking the risk of seeing if his hands and throwing motion could negate the traditional criticisms of guys under 6'. With Irvin it was his speed as well. He has elite speed and quickness almost superhuman in a guy his size. The prototypes exist for a reason. No one his weight had been successful at DE. They get pushed around and can't shove a tackle back into the QB. But with his speed Irvin was able to launch off the ball and beat the tackle around the corner. He racked up 8 sacks his rookie year.
That leads to the second thing that John and Pete do. When they find that unique talent they find a way to maximize it while limiting the shortcomings of not fitting the prototype. With Wilson they added the read option to make use of his speed. They also run a lot of their plays out of shotgun giving Wilson a good view of the field. Under center the QB has to stoop or squat to take the snap. (Maybe an unpopular thought here but I think Wilson would have less success in a pure traditional West Coast offense where there's no shotgun, every play is under center and slants and short crossing routes are emphasized. Not suck or fail, just a little less success as that's not his best strength) With Irvin they used him as an edge rusher and didn't try to use him to set the edge against the run. They put him in a position to best succeed. They are willing to be creative and think outside the box with guys.
One last note, the press has no shame. They will shred a coach for not making the safe choices and then simply pretend it didn't happen when they were dead wrong. Check out this article from the same website that called the 2012 draft a failure, mocked Pete and called Wilson and Irvin the 2 worst moves of the draft. In this 2016 article about Irvin's big free agent contract with the Raiders, (The single best indicator of how a pick performed BTW) they refer to the Seahawk's 2012 draft as "epic" and credit it for Seattle's rise and Super Bowl win, without a single mention of how they trashed it at the time.
It takes a lot of guts to stand up to that.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/260 ... d-reaction
