Packers acquired RB Ryan Grant from the Giants for an undisc

[The Shadow]

"...TT gets my ire at times is because he seems to avoid bold moves"

umm,.....Charles Woodson?

[vince]

A selection from NFL Draft Scout on Grant:

Body Structure
He has a very well-developed, athletic physique with defined upper body muscles, tight waist and hips, good bubble, thick thighs and calves and low body fat.

General Report
1.40

Athletic Ability
1.5
Ryan is a well-built athlete, with good quickness, agility, and balance. He shows good strength and leg drive, fluid change of direction agility and flexibility. He gets good acceleration coming off the snap.

Football Sense
1.4
This is a very focused player who quickly digests the playbook. He learns quickly and boasts a 4.0 grade point average, both in high school and college. He is a double major (sociology/computer applications) scheduled to graduate with his class in May 2005. He has one of the best Wonderlic test scores of any running back in the 2005 draft class.

Character
1.3
This is a solid kid. He comes from a split, but very supportive family, with a large fan base among uncles and aunts. He is well-educated, articulate and the type that will one day run a corporation. He is respected by team and staff, responsible, humble and very mature for a player of his age.

Competitiveness
1.4
He’s the consummate team player, never complaining when Julius Jones returned to take away a bulk of Ryan’s carries in 2003. He is a hard-nose player, real tough and highly competitive.

Work Habits
1.4
He shows a solid work ethic, year round. He is a student of the game, putting in considerable hours in the film room to prepare for the game. He does more than is asked in the weight room and is very team-oriented (see Julius Jones situation in 2003). He leads by example and has a lot of pride in his performance (his own harshest critic).


Athletic Report
1.56

Initial Quickness
1.4
He generates a quick start and hits the holes in a hurry. He shows quick cutting ability and does not need to gear down approaching the line. His starting burst allows him to gain advantage getting into the second level.

Acceleration/Burst
1.5
You can see the burst in his turns and the steady acceleration in the open. He does a good job of varying his speed, showing good cut back ability to bounce off tackle. When taking the ball around the edge, he has enough top-end speed to challenge the secondary.

Instincts/Balance
1.4
The thing that you notice immediately about Ryan is his change of direction agility and body control. When the rush lane is clogged, he’s quick to redirect and bounce outside. He shows the vision needed to see threats and plays the hand that he is dealt. While he can explode past the line, he shows patience setting up his blocks.

Inside Running
1.5
He shows a good burst in his turns, suddenness in his change of direction and good vision. He can find the hole and hit it quickly, but will sometimes run too upright, resulting in him being susceptible to ankle tackles (needs to generate better knee lift).

Outside Running
1.6
He bounces outside with good vision and pick-&-slide ability. When he goes wide, he shows enough confidence in his speed to know that he can consistently turn the corner.

Elusiveness
1.6
He is not a “make you miss” type, but when he gets a sudden burst off the snap, he shows quick cutting agility. He can also make the jump cut, showing the vision to avoid. The thing that sets him apart from most is his intelligence, as he is quick to make good decisions.

Tackle-Breaking Strength
1.5
He has good strength, but when he runs high in his stance, his base gets a little too narrow. He has enough leg drive to run through arm tackles and very seldom gets knocked back through the rush lanes when he keeps his pad level low.

Tendency to Fumble
1.6
He showed much better ball security (one fumble on 143 chances) in 2003, but did have ball security problems in 2002 (six fumbles, four lost on 261 carries). He can handle pitches and generally runs with the ball secured in both hands.

Receiving Skills
1.7
He has good hands and shows concentration on the ball, but the team rarely involves their backs in the passing game. In practices, it appears that he has natural hands, as he can snatch away from the body’s frame.

Route Running
1.9
He runs decent routes, but they are rounded (makes soft angle cuts). However, he knows how to settle in the zone and set up the cornerback in man coverage.

Blocking Ability
1.5
He is not called upon to lead block much, but showed sting behind his hits. He is a high- intensity type with some nasty in him. He has the hip snap needed to block in pass protection and will generally get a piece of the linebacker when picking up the blitz.


Summation
Ryan is a solid character type, who comes from a supportive big-family atmosphere. He is an articulate individual who boasted a 4.0 grade point average in high school and at Notre Dame. While at Don Bosco Prep, he rushed for 1963 yards with 26 TDs and made 61 tackles with seven interceptions as a senior tailback and cornerback. He also excelled in track, clocking 10.7 in the 100-meter dash during his prep days. He played in five games as a true freshmen for the Irish in 2001, suffering an elbow injury vs. Navy that would sideline him for half the season. He is only the seventh player in Notre Dame history to rush for 1000 yards in a season (1085 yards) in 2002, scoring nine times on 261 chances (4.2 avg). He is a punishing straight-line runner who is hard to tackle because of his size, showing explosive speed through the line. He possesses a great work ethic and is willing to play through injuries. A student of the game who always seeks to learn as much as he can, he is a fluid, smooth runner with good vision and field instincts.


He’s made good strides in staying low in his pads, as when he runs upright, his base gets narrow, making him susceptible to ankle tackles. When he runs at the proper pad level, you rarely see him pushed back in the rush lane. He can bounce off tackle and cut back, but even with his speed, he is more of a move-oriented runner with the leg drive and strength to absorb punishment up the gut. When turning the corner, he has the ability to cut back through the lanes and accelerate, showing the legitimate speed needed to challenge the secondary. In practices, he catches the ball cleanly, but the Notre Dame system does not involve their backs much in the passing game. He does take soft angles in his routes, but does a decent job of settling in the soft spot of the zone. He is not asked to lead block much, but shows good form and hand punch to sustain in blitz pick-up. You won’t get excited watching film on this kid, as the team system relies upon their backs to move the chains rather than break off the big play (longest career run was only 48 yards), but do not think that this kid does not have the speed and burst to turn on the burners in the open field. He has excellent size for the position, is a well-built athlete and shows above average quickness, agility, and balance.

He generates good strength and explosion. In blocking, he is tough and has a little nasty in him. He has excellent pick-&-slide agility inside, with real good vision. He bounces outside with good change of direction agility and vision. He runs hard and has the ability to break tackles and make the defenders miss. Overall, this is a solid, hard-working blue collar type that could move up the draft charts quite a bit, if he returns to 2002 form now that he has reclaimed his starting job.

I remember liking him at ND. He could be a classic TT steal.

[retailguy]

"...TT gets my ire at times is because he seems to avoid bold moves"

umm,.....Charles Woodson?

Umm, I could give you 25 examples where he DID NOT pull the trigger...

Try again.....

What Bretsky said was REASONABLE and FAIR.

[The Shadow]

"...TT gets my ire at times is because he seems to avoid bold moves"

umm,.....Charles Woodson?

Umm, I could give you 25 examples where he DID NOT pull the trigger...

Try again.....

What Bretsky said was REASONABLE and FAIR.

Mike McCarthy!

[RashanGary]

Umm, I could give you 25 examples where he DID NOT pull the trigger...

Try again.....

What Bretsky said was REASONABLE and FAIR.

Dude, you need to put down the Vodka. We're all getting along but your tone is just confrontational and completely out of the blue with the way things have been going tonight. All he said was that Woodson was a bold, big move. The Bears havn't made too many big bold moves the last 5 years and they look ok. Sheesh.

[Bretsky]

"...TT gets my ire at times is because he seems to avoid bold moves"

umm,.....Charles Woodson?

If you look at the whole situation Shadow, Woodsen wasn't at all bold IMO.
It was almost necessary.

TT went into that free agency period 35,000,000 under the salary cap.

He signed Manuel and Pickett to pretty fair deals that didn't eat up too much of our remaining cap space. Either he failed to land other free agents or he just sat on his hands while most of the talent in free agency signed with other teams. Personally, I don't think he was ready to go compete and didn't realize how quickly the top players would sign and how fast they'd sign. Quality fell off the board like Chris Hope and Will Weatherspoon very fast. And here we were, still with that loot of money after Manuel signed for about 2MIL per year and Pickett was around 4MIL per year.

TT had too much money and not many spots to spend it; he even had a load of money under the cap after the Woodsen signing. So he pursued Lavar Arrington and Charles Woodsen hard with the purpose of completely frontloading each deal with the main goal of acquiring one quality player, eating up short term cap space, and allowing flexibility for the future. With what was left quality wise, and the huge amount of money TT had, to me this was way too much of a no brainer as opposed to a risk.

[Lurker64]

A selection from NFL Draft Scout on Grant:

*snip*

Interesting, what do the numbers mean?

[The Shadow]

"...TT gets my ire at times is because he seems to avoid bold moves"

umm,.....Charles Woodson?

If you look at the whole situation Shadow, Woodsen wasn't at all bold IMO.
It was almost necessary.

TT went into that free agency period 35,000,000 under the salary cap.

He signed Manuel and Pickett to pretty fair deals that didn't eat up too much of our remaining cap space. Either he failed to land other free agents or he just sat on his hands while most of the talent in free agency signed with other teams. Personally, I don't think he was ready to go compete and didn't realize how quickly the top players would sign and how fast they'd sign. Quality fell off the board like Chris Hope and Will Weatherspoon very fast. And here we were, still with that loot of money after Manuel signed for about 2MIL per year and Pickett was around 4MIL per year.

TT had too much money and not many spots to spend it; he even had a load of money under the cap after the Woodsen signing. So he pursued Lavar Arrington and Charles Woodsen hard with the purpose of completely frontloading each deal with the main goal of acquiring one quality player, eating up short term cap space, and allowing flexibility for the future. With what was left quality wise, and the huge amount of money TT had, to me this was way too much of a no brainer as opposed to a risk.

A bold move was asked for.
A bold move was supplied.
Now it wasn't bold enough???

[Bretsky]

"...TT gets my ire at times is because he seems to avoid bold moves"

umm,.....Charles Woodson?

Umm, I could give you 25 examples where he DID NOT pull the trigger...

Try again.....

What Bretsky said was REASONABLE and FAIR.

Mike McCarthy!

What was bold about MM ? He was an assistant coach. An offensive coordinator who had the reputation of coaching QB's up. A good idea since we had Aaron Rodgers and Favre seemed to need more direction. He led an effective offense in New Orleans. He interviewed well. He was TT's #1 choice. So he hired him.

[Bretsky]

"...TT gets my ire at times is because he seems to avoid bold moves"

umm,.....Charles Woodson?

If you look at the whole situation Shadow, Woodsen wasn't at all bold IMO.
It was almost necessary.

TT went into that free agency period 35,000,000 under the salary cap.

He signed Manuel and Pickett to pretty fair deals that didn't eat up too much of our remaining cap space. Either he failed to land other free agents or he just sat on his hands while most of the talent in free agency signed with other teams. Personally, I don't think he was ready to go compete and didn't realize how quickly the top players would sign and how fast they'd sign. Quality fell off the board like Chris Hope and Will Weatherspoon very fast. And here we were, still with that loot of money after Manuel signed for about 2MIL per year and Pickett was around 4MIL per year.

TT had too much money and not many spots to spend it; he even had a load of money under the cap after the Woodsen signing. So he pursued Lavar Arrington and Charles Woodsen hard with the purpose of completely frontloading each deal with the main goal of acquiring one quality player, eating up short term cap space, and allowing flexibility for the future. With what was left quality wise, and the huge amount of money TT had, to me this was way too much of a no brainer as opposed to a risk.

A bold move was asked for.
A bold move was supplied.
Now it wasn't bold enough???

When did I ask for a bold move ????

I said sometimes he seems to avoid bold moves

[retailguy]

Dude, you need to put down the Vodka. We're all getting along but your tone is just confrontational and completely out of the blue with the way things have been going tonight. All he said was that Woodson was a bold, big move. The Bears havn't made too many big bold moves the last 5 years and they look ok. Sheesh.

Look, I love how you just figure all this stuff out... One signing doesn't make the guy BOLD. It doesn't make him anything. He traded for a running back that has promise but has proved very little. It's exactly what you'd expect him to do. Other than trading a draft choice for a player, and that's the FIRST time he's done that, its pretty predictable for ole' Ted.

As to the move, you're right, I like it. It doesn't make Ted bold though. Not even close. We'll see what happens.

[vince]

A selection from NFL Draft Scout on Grant:

*snip*

Interesting, what do the numbers mean?

I don't know Lurk. I just copied it from Packersnews.com forum. I thought it was a pretty comprehensive report.

This guy is the fastest back we have... Obviously, it takes more than track speed, but Grant can run, that's for sure.

[RashanGary]

Look, I love how you just figure all this stuff out... One signing doesn't make the guy BOLD. It doesn't make him anything. He traded for a running back that has promise but has proved very little. It's exactly what you'd expect him to do. Other than trading a draft choice for a player, and that's the FIRST time he's done that, its pretty predictable for ole' Ted.

As to the move, you're right, I like it. It doesn't make Ted bold though. Not even close. We'll see what happens.

Retailguy, you've been stomping your feet and throwing out sarcastic remarks about how TT would never part with his draft picks all off season and now your calling this predictable like you could have seen it coming. Trust me, RG, I could go dig up a about 10 comments by you that would completely irrealify you right now but we both know that I don't need to. You are being completely stubborn and unreasonable now. The move is looking better and better the more I read about the guy and he did exactly what you thought he would never do. Just admit it and move on. Bold or not, it was a move designed to help right now and you never expected that (again, I could dig all of this up but I don't need to and you know it)

[RashanGary]

We're getting a lot of the same sentiment from Giants fans that we got from Carolina fans about Jarrett Bush last year and Bush turned out to be a pretty good player.

I was skeptical because I thought this move was a desperation move. However, TT hasn't been prone to such moves so maybe this was just a good move. It's looking more like the latter than the former as we dig up info on the guy.

[Bretsky]

I'm OK with desperation moves; they scream of Win Now Baby.