RAY RICE

[Smidgeon]

I like our guys. Swain and Flynn both have a good chance to have long NFL careers. Brohm and Patrick Lee picks were awful though.

You don't know about Pat Lee yet. That's premature speculation. Especially since it's injury based. It's not like he's been around in the program enough that he was cut because he was bad and nobody put a waiver on him... Kind of like how Harrell isn't a bad pick because he has talent, but until there's no more hope, you can't quite write him off. This is only Lee's second year. Give him another to see what happens.

Pat Lee was a project coming out of college and has shown little since coming to the Packers. I hope he'll turn it around next season but so far I have not seen anything from him to make me think he is not a bust.

Personally, I think the sign about whether a player is a bust or not is how quickly and why a team moves on from a player. Which is why Brohm is a bust (considering how quickly and why the team moved on) though he was on the team a shorter time than Harrell who appears to still be in the team's plans. Same thing with Lee. The team hasn't given up on him. The NFL is a cutthroat business. Players don't stick around no matter how high they were drafted if they are talent busts (see: Mandarich, Tony). I would expect Harrell to get one more year and Lee to get two more. Until either get on the field and suck consistently (see: Carroll, Ahmad), then they can't even be considered talent busts because the injuries precluded that. By that logic, I would also say that Cedric Benson was a bust for the Bears despite doing well with the Bengals.

Granted, you have to stay healthy to stay on the team, but you can't control all injuries (or even most). GB's top 2 rookies both had injury issues early in the year. Harris and Kampman are both on IR and have reputations of keeping their bodies in amazing condition. So though some injuries can be placed on the shoulders of the player (see: Hunt, Cleditus), I don't think you can hold a player responsible for the injuries they happened to be a part of. So personally (and I stress personally), I don't consider a player a bust due to injuries unless it's injures the player knew better than to have (see: Wynn, Deshawn).

[rbaloha1]

Thought RR was a good college rb (like Ian Johnson) due to a lack of speed.

Just shows how far desire and toughness can take you.

[woodbuck27]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-ravens-packers&prov=ap&type=lgns

Ravens RB Rice provides test for stingy Packers

[swede]

Everybody misses, but what if Rice was a Emmitt clone?

Emmitt would've been an average RB if he wasn't behind an elite OL. If you think you are going to be getting a stud out of some shrimp of a RB, then you better have the OL of the Cowboys in the early 90s to work with.

Agreed, although he did have the ability to plant, stop, and fire off in a new direction. I remember one play in particular from the 4th quarter of an NFC Championship game against Dallas where he did that while his line kind of seal blocked as he stopped in the backfield and cut back to the right. I think he either got an important first down or he might have even scored. Dayum! We were leading in the 4th quarter!




Once Emmit blew out his groin he became really average.

As for the running back, I don't think it looks good for Rice or any other exciting RB prospect. TT doesn't nudge RB's up his draft board because it would be really sweet to see this guy or that guy run in the pros the way he ran in college.


I suddenly have a question. Would TT have taken Adrian Peterson if he had had the 7th pick tin 2007? Hmmmmm?

[Brandon494]

Everybody misses, but what if Rice was a Emmitt clone?

Emmitt would've been an average RB if he wasn't behind an elite OL. If you think you are going to be getting a stud out of some shrimp of a RB, then you better have the OL of the Cowboys in the early 90s to work with.

Agreed, although he did have the ability to plant, stop, and fire off in a new direction. I remember one play in particular from the 4th quarter of an NFC Championship game against Dallas where he did that while his line kind of seal blocked as he stopped in the backfield and cut back to the right. I think he either got an important first down or he might have even scored. Dayum! We were leading in the 4th quarter!




Once Emmit blew out his groin he became really average.

As for the running back, I don't think it looks good for Rice or any other exciting RB prospect. TT doesn't nudge RB's up his draft board because it would be really sweet to see this guy or that guy run in the pros the way he ran in college.


I suddenly have a question. Would TT have taken Adrian Peterson if he had had the 7th pick tin 2007? Hmmmmm?

You guys are crazy if you did Emmit was an average RB if not for his O-line. I remember when he held out in the 1993 season and the team looked horrible without him losing their first two games. When he game back the team went on to go 12-4 and won the SB. Its a reason Aikman never threw 20 TDs in his career, because Emitt carried that team.

Also Ray Rice is good in all but he is no where near a clone of Emitt Smith. Rice has much better hands than Smith but is no wear near the runner he is. If you want to compare a smaller back to Smith it would have to be Maruice Jones Drew.