Vonta Leach

[bobblehead]

You're joking right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqfHVHIaEqI

The left-handed truck of his is his signature. Saw it dozens of times throughout the season.

It's OK to think outside the box, but when you're the only one that has your opinion, it's probably wrong. No offense.

He's a bruiser.

James Starks

No offense taken. Often when I am the only one of a different opinion its because I don't generally take my cues from what others say. I tend to analyze the evidence and form my own opinion...sort of like the Ryan Grant incident of whatever the hell year it was. Sort of like defending James Jones when everyone hated him for dropping over the shoulder catches. I could go on.

Anyway, I never said Lacy COULDN'T deliver a nice shoulder, just that he rarely does. Starks runs with reckless abandon. Starks knocks out Merriweather. Lacy misses games due to merriweather.

Lacy is awesome and difficult to bring down. That is a combination of nice size and superior balance. The ability to stay on his feet when others would be brought down puts him in position to take punishment far more often than deliver it. I am not knocking him, just saying his career has about a 6 year shelf life if he doesn't change his style.

[woodbuck27]

The FB position is slowly dying in the NFL.

Without the huge play of our FB John Kuuuhhhnnn !!

Aaron Rodgers likely doesn't get that pass off to Randall Cobb and put the Packers into the playoffs over da Bears. It sure looked like Kuhn's block on this ** guy ** sprung ARod to his left to make that throw.

** http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/3530/julius-peppers

Overall I liked John Kuhn's play in 2013.

GO PACK GO !

[Carolina_Packer]

They drafted Quinn Johnson out of LSU in 2009, but then soured on him and traded him a couple of years later. They have not really looked to use a FB as a lead guy since. Well, that was a bit of a wasted 5th round pick. I was looking any established guy who was drafted in the same round after that pick, and it looks like the Packers could have drafted Chris Clemons, S, who was picked by Miami. He's now possibly going to free agency. Quinn Johnson is struggling to stay on a team.

[mission]

No offense taken. Often when I am the only one of a different opinion its because I don't generally take my cues from what others say. I tend to analyze the evidence and form my own opinion...sort of like the Ryan Grant incident of whatever the hell year it was. Sort of like defending James Jones when everyone hated him for dropping over the shoulder catches. I could go on.

Anyway, I never said Lacy COULDN'T deliver a nice shoulder, just that he rarely does. Starks runs with reckless abandon. Starks knocks out Merriweather. Lacy misses games due to merriweather.

Lacy is awesome and difficult to bring down. That is a combination of nice size and superior balance. The ability to stay on his feet when others would be brought down puts him in position to take punishment far more often than deliver it. I am not knocking him, just saying his career has about a 6 year shelf life if he doesn't change his style.

Starks didn't exactly knock Merriweather out. I think Merriweather knocked himself out a bit there... obviously that's impossible to determine, but I can maybe remember only a couple plays all year where I thought "wow, Starks is tough". Those two plays aren't apple to apples comparable. He runs with reckless abandon, but that usually results in him being out of control and leaving some yards out on the field from not having enough balance or not breaking down to make a proper cut. He's definitely more of a slasher who needs an alley/crease to gain yards.

I think if you did a survey of NFL secondaries asking who they would rather tackle: Lacy or Starks... the results would be close to 100% Starks. Guys don't like getting mixed up with Eddie Freakin' Lacy.

I do agree with you on shelf life with Lacy and think even 6 years is optimistic.

[pbmax]

I tend to think of Lacy as someone who will not go down a bit more than someone who delivers punishment.

[bobblehead]

I tend to think of Lacy as someone who will not go down a bit more than someone who delivers punishment.

+1

Mission, I am not saying Starks is a better player or anything crazy like that. I would be willing to put money on that poll of who guys would rather tackle though.

The Merriweather analogy is exactly the one I wanted, while not apples to apples. Lacy ended up in a bad position because he didn't go down with forward lean. He kept his feet and ended up in a position to get cheap shotted. When Starks dropped the boom on Merriweather he probably should have put the brakes on and tried to cut back inside the field against him, but that isn't how he plays.

[Brandon494]

Eddie Lacy's game reminds me a lot of Jerome Bettis. Bigger back with nibble feet who is hard to take down.

[mission]

+1

Mission, I am not saying Starks is a better player or anything crazy like that. I would be willing to put money on that poll of who guys would rather tackle though.

The Merriweather analogy is exactly the one I wanted, while not apples to apples. Lacy ended up in a bad position because he didn't go down with forward lean. He kept his feet and ended up in a position to get cheap shotted. When Starks dropped the boom on Merriweather he probably should have put the brakes on and tried to cut back inside the field against him, but that isn't how he plays.

Lacy got knocked out because he was in mid-air, hurdling a player. I wish he would have kept his feet in that case. He had no chance to put a little force INTO Merriweather like Starks was able to having both feet on the ground.

[woodbuck27]

No offense taken. Often when I am the only one of a different opinion its because I don't generally take my cues from what others say. I tend to analyze the evidence and form my own opinion...sort of like the Ryan Grant incident of whatever the hell year it was. Sort of like defending James Jones when everyone hated him for dropping over the shoulder catches. I could go on.

Anyway, I never said Lacy COULDN'T deliver a nice shoulder, just that he rarely does. Starks runs with reckless abandon. Starks knocks out Merriweather. Lacy misses games due to merriweather.

Lacy is awesome and difficult to bring down. That is a combination of nice size and superior balance. The ability to stay on his feet when others would be brought down puts him in position to take punishment far more often than deliver it. I am not knocking him, just saying his career has about a 6 year shelf life if he doesn't change his style.

" I am not knocking him, just saying his career has about a 6 year shelf life if he doesn't change his style." bobblehead

or less.