Originally Posted by kozzman555:
Is anyone else like super bothered by the way he runs? I mean his stride. It looks like he's just willing his legs to run faster than they can. Dude is fast, no doubt, but I wonder if maybe a running coach could help help out or something.
Not "bothered" per se, but yeah there's something that's a bit off with it. Like he's flailing his limbs. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Bowser:
If he can win the returner gig, so much the better. That will allow Hardman to concentrate on WR2/3 and show if he's worthy of a new contract.
I'm thinking the opposite actually. With Skyy Moore on the team this allows Mecole resume full PR duties and still maintain his gadget play responsibilities. Skyy Moore is basically the end of Hardman. [Reply]
I just went back and watched 5 games and I have to respectfully disagree with you on just about everything DJ.
I like his vision. When there is a crease, which is a bit on the rare side with his absolute shit offensive line, he finds it and he gets good positive yards. Found himself having to churn to get what he could far too often because there just was no hole at all or he was getting hit in the backfield and jammed up at the LOS.
If there is anything there that I didn't like, it's not his vision but him pressing the line too quickly at times. This looks to be more evident when he's had a string of plays where he's just hitting a wall and then suddenly there's an outside zone run that opens a bit and he isn't quite patient enough. It's not that it ends up negative but maybe he gets a few more yards if he lets it develop just a bit more. That said, he does show plenty of examples of having as much patience as he could given the circumstances.
I thought he performed quite okay as a pass blocker. I think he can clean it up a bit more but I liked what I saw from a college back. The one thing he does too often is he remains focused to one side instead of keeping his head on a swivel and picking up backside breakthrough rushers. He was also fairly decent in a lead blocker role on sweeps and such.
Man, those QBs are such shit. They routinely were late with throws to everyone, but especially to the backs. Hung those guys out to dry way too much. I think Pacheco does a really solid job of making something out of dogshit on quite a few plays. Only one bad drop that I saw and nothing screamed out to me that he can't be a good pass catcher in the NFL. He may need to run with more conviction on wheel routes. Probably needs to work a bit better at finding and sitting down in the soft spots in the zones.
This guy runs hard and fast and excels as a one-cut outside runner. I thought he did a good job of trying not to press the sidelines too hard too fast and being patient for that cutback lane. He can gain the corner on pitches to the outside. I also like that he ran hard and low between the tackles. I absolutely like his pro projection over what he had in college.
I really do think that he can clean up his deficiencies just by having the opportunity to run in a situation where he isn't always trying to pick his way through so much garbage. It's pretty obvious that Rutgers shouldn't be sending any O-lineman to the league in the near future. At the same time, he's got the experience of looking for the small windows that the NFL will have.
I mean, no guarantees the kid will be a stud but he's got some solid pro qualities. I like him. I'd love to see him running through the holes a guy like, say, Spiller had. [Reply]