West TX Hawk":2mqvl1c6 said:
For the Prosise advocates, what is it about his play from last season and his 1 preseason game this year that makes you feel he's an impact player? I'm genuinely curious what other folks see that I don't with this player.
Playing late in the 4th qtr in preseason is usually indicative of where Pete views one on the depth chart.
The case for Prosise is summarized in the 'Hawks road win at New England in Nov.2016.
https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/footb ... -patriots/
I've shared my hypothesis that Prosise had a severe shoulder/arm/wrist injury to one side, and a series of reinjuries to those parts, involving shoulder rotator cuff, labrum, nerves (e.g. ulnar nerve that runs full length of neck to hand, and median nerve) that the team has withheld information on, and has listed secondary "injuries" as the reason for holding him out. That hypothesis includes it seeming well enough to play on, and then getting reinjured/aggravated when Prosise did play on it.
Further, that type of shoulder/arm/wrist injury would be consistent with the supposed "injured in pregame warmups" phony story we get when Prosise is unavailable. I expect they ask Prosise to warm up with the team and try to go, and he reports what he feels, and the team then decides play, or no-play, based on what they think is best for his full recovery. Best guess is that one significant part of the injury happened sometime in Aug/Sept 2016, and that it has never fully healed to NFL-ready level, and keeps getting reinjured.
For another data point on NFL shoulder injuries and botched recoveries, read about Andrew Luck's shoulder injury.
https://sports.yahoo.com/andrew-luck-no ... 25003.html
I think Prosise is a good-character, smart, hardworking athlete trying to work through a debilitating shoulder/arm/wrist injury that typically takes normal mortals 3-4 years to fully heal from, and even for elite athletes with the best medical support, can easily take 2 years to get back to full ability, and is prone to reinjury and setbacks during the process.
As far as playing late in the 4th quarter and depth chart, it's meaningless for a guy in a situation like Prosise's. It is basically the same as a MLB team sending a starting pitcher recovering from injury to a AA or AAA affiliate for a rehab assignment.
I've laid out what I believe to be the case. I could be wrong, I could be right. I think I'm probably 70-80% right, and the parts I'm wrong about would involve the detailed specifics of the major injury and repeated related collateral injuries. In any case, believing as I do, I can't find it in my heart to do anything but root for Prosise. So it seems a little cruel and short-sighted that so many are ready to kick Prosise to the curb (and then watch him excel for another team, most likely the Patriots). But hey, after all, this is the NFL - Not For Long, and it's a cutthroat business.
I hope that Prosise-haters can pause long enough to truly consider the alternate hypothesis I've shared, and give him the benefit of the doubt, and give some thought on whether to root for him, or continue down the "cut the malingerer yesterday" path. I think Prosise is a good character, hardworking, talented, smart, elite NFL athlete, and that he has many big plays *as a Seahawk* still in him, so I choose to root for him.
