Smitty's pre-draft analysis of Nalo

[MHS831]

Smitty probably envies a 6-5 guy and sees him taking his gifts for granted.   He had to work his butt off to play outside at 5-9.  I think perspective has a lot to do with his evaluation.

TMac played on a bad team.  He was on the field a lot.  Maybe he makes an assumption when he states that TMac loafed when the ball was not coming to him. Maybe he was advised to catch his breath during those plays--conditioning, coaching, etc. could have been an influence.  Smitty can say what he sees, but not why he sees it, if that involves assessing TMac's mindset.

[rmoneyg35]

I just remembered that they said Mike Evans problem was he took plays off in the NFL. I remember the season that Jameis Winston threw 30 INTs that the announcer was talking a lot of crap about Evans taking plays off. 
 

Evans still put up over 1,000 yards that season and had 8 TDs.

 

I say that because Evans is the guy who Tet is always compared to. I think even if he does take plays off then he will still probably be decent. Hopefully the whole “takes plays off” is blown out of proportion and he balls out.

[Waldo]

Tet isn't Evens. He isn't as quick or uses his body as well, something Evans was known for in school. Tet catches well but he won't be the threat Evans is unfortunately IMO. It was like drafting Bryce and thinking your getting Wilson. Evans ran a 4.53 40, 7.08 3 cone, 4.26 shuttle and at the combine and not his proday. He was also 12 lbs heavier. If your expecting Evans your going to be disapointed unless you give Tet a bit of a discount on expectations IMO.

Lol now it's saying they had Tet as a 4.48 at his proday when people were reporting 4.6+ at that time. It's going to be interesting to see what is real and what is BS. Proday numbers are so rounded in positive directions.

Edited 1 hour ago by Waldo

[MechaZain]

If you think Smith's hating on McMillian or tall recievers you didn't watch the video. He may have been guilty of that in the past but he says outright that his problem is people see a tall reciever and tend to overlook everything else about him. He was complimentary and believes the guy will pan out.

His only real criticism was comparing Tetairoa to himself actually, saying like he felt like he took plays off when he wasn't the primary target. 

EDIT: The AJ Green comp they made is way better than Evans. Small finesse reciever in a tall frame.

Edited 1 hour ago by MechaZain

[tukafan21]

2 hours ago, ChibCU said:

Steve Smith has a dislike of tall receivers. I feel like Smith's main purpose is to boost up small, lesser-known receivers.

Every time I've heard T-Mac speak, he just seems to have that it-factor vibe. I love how natural of a catcher he is. He's going to make some fascinating plays that's for sure.

Yep, even if you put aside any discussion about what you think about him as a player or how good he'll be, the one thing that is a 100% certainty is that he's going to make some plays that just drop your jaw and question how he did what we just saw.

2 hours ago, MHS831 said:

Smitty probably envies a 6-5 guy and sees him taking his gifts for granted.   He had to work his butt off to play outside at 5-9.  I think perspective has a lot to do with his evaluation.

TMac played on a bad team.  He was on the field a lot.  Maybe he makes an assumption when he states that TMac loafed when the ball was not coming to him. Maybe he was advised to catch his breath during those plays--conditioning, coaching, etc. could have been an influence.  Smitty can say what he sees, but not why he sees it, if that involves assessing TMac's mindset.

This is interesting as it was something I'd never even thought/heard of until he was walking on stage after we took him.  One of the analysts on NFL Network brought it up saying something like, "I don't agree with this idea, but I know a lot of college coaches tell the star WRs to purposefully take plays off when they know it's not coming to them"

It was interesting because the way he said it, almost sounded like he's heard that it was something the Arizona coaches would tell T-Mac to do.  Which on a team like ours last year, actually makes a ton of sense, because we had NOBODY else who the defense had to worry about.  So instead of taking him off the field to give him a breather, just throw him out there on the far side of the field as a dummy to keep the defense's attention and then run a play in the other direction.

12 minutes ago, Waldo said:

Tet isn't Evens. He isn't as quick or uses his body as well, something Evans was known for in school. Tet catches well but he won't be the threat Evans is unfortunately IMO. It was like drafting Bryce and thinking your getting Wilson. Evans ran a 4.53 40, 7.08 3 cone, 4.26 shuttle and at the combine and not his proday. He was also 12 lbs heavier. If your expecting Evans your going to be disapointed unless you give Tet a bit of a discount on expectations IMO.

Lol now it's saying they had Tet as a 4.48 at his proday when people were reporting 4.6+ at that time. It's going to be interesting to see what is real and what is BS. Proday numbers are so rounded in positive directions.

You're right, he isn't "as quick" as Evans, because he's quicker.  Sure, Evans does use his body better than T-Mac does, but T-Mac is a better athlete with more wiggle to his game and better at making a defender miss whereas Evans is just more likely to run through you.

5 minutes ago, MechaZain said:

If you think Smith's hating on McMillian or tall recievers you didn't watch the video. He may have been guilty of that in the past but he says outright that his problem is people see a tall reciever and tend to overlook everything else about him. He was complimentary and believes the guy will pan out.

His only real criticism was comparing Tetairoa to himself actually, saying like he felt like he took plays off when he wasn't the primary target. 

EDIT: The AJ Green comp they made is way better than Evans. Small finesse reciever in a tall frame.

And your edit here is basically just an add on to my above comment, as personally, I've used the AJ Green comp for him ever since his first game for us at Arizona, it was always who I saw in his game.  He has that fluidity that Green had to him, and at their size it stands out.

Actually saw another comp last night that I hadn't seen before, and while I'll admit it's been YEARS since I've seen any film of him, my immediate reaction was, "oh wow, that might be a real solid comp for style of play"

And that was of Plaxico Burress.

I'd like to see T-Mac have a better overall career than Plax had (especially off the field), but from what I remember about his game, the comp for body/style of play actually seems pretty solid

[pantherclaw]

Tmac has elite hands..  and elite body control.  

Argue against those things all you want, I'll just ignore the bullshit as usual. 

 

[MHS831]

27 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

 

It is probably harder to justify taking plays off in a draft where you are drafted six picks after a freak of nature--How Hunter did it is beyond me--and in Colorado of all places!  WRs run sprint after sprint.  Arizona was playing from behind a lot and that means pass every play.  I get it.

 

[tukafan21]

1 minute ago, MHS831 said:

It is probably harder to justify taking plays off in a draft where you are drafted six picks after a freak of nature--How Hunter did it is beyond me--and in Colorado of all places!  WRs run sprint after sprint.  Arizona was playing from behind a lot and that means pass every play.  I get it.

 

I see what you're saying, but Hunter is also just a freak of an athlete, and while it's impossible to quantify it in any way, there's a legitimate argument to be made that Hunter has the best conditioning of any player to ever get drafted in the NFL.

Which if that was the case, it wouldn't really be fair to compare any player to him in that sense.

Also, I'm not going to pretend I watched enough of Colorado to know, but maybe they took Hunter off the field at times to give him a play or two off as his breather.  We really never did that with T-Mac, he was more or less out there for every offensive snap.

So if the coaches were telling him to take those plays off as opposed to standing on the sideline for the breather, just so he's out there as a dummy distraction, you also can't really then fault him for it either, it's not a lack of effort, it's doing what your coaches are telling you to do so you can then be the impact player they need the other 95% of the plays.

[CRA]

6 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

I see what you're saying, but Hunter is also just a freak of an athlete, and while it's impossible to quantify it in any way, there's a legitimate argument to be made that Hunter has the best conditioning of any player to ever get drafted in the NFL.

Which if that was the case, it wouldn't really be fair to compare any player to him in that sense.

Also, I'm not going to pretend I watched enough of Colorado to know, but maybe they took Hunter off the field at times to give him a play or two off as his breather.  We really never did that with T-Mac, he was more or less out there for every offensive snap.

So if the coaches were telling him to take those plays off as opposed to standing on the sideline for the breather, just so he's out there as a dummy distraction, you also can't really then fault him for it either, it's not a lack of effort, it's doing what your coaches are telling you to do so you can then be the impact player they need the other 95% of the plays.

I'm not sure Hunter is some super conditioned athlete that stands out among professionals.  I think he was afforded opportunity that just doesn't happen in football.  That's the most unique aspect.  He plays relatively light contact positions.  I mean, I might wager there are tons trash players on MLS rosters better conditioned than Hunter. 

but I also saw Travis Hunter get absolutely cooked late in a couple games.   That's why I don't think he can play both ways in the NFL.   It was largely a sideshow IMO at Colorado.  If you are getting cooked late in games because you are tired at Colorado......you can't pull it off in the NFL outside of some situational package. 

 

[tukafan21]

7 minutes ago, CRA said:

I'm not sure Hunter is some super conditioned athlete that stands out among professionals.  I think he was afforded opportunity that just doesn't happen in football.  That's the most unique aspect.  He plays relatively light contact positions.  I mean, I might wager there are tons trash players on MLS rosters better conditioned than Hunter. 

but I also saw Travis Hunter get absolutely cooked late in a couple games.   That's why I don't think he can play both ways in the NFL.   It was largely a sideshow IMO at Colorado.  If you are getting cooked late in games because you are tired at Colorado......you can't pull it off in the NFL outside of some situational package. 

 

Well, sure, nothing you're saying is incorrect (and yes, professional soccer players would run circles around any NFL player conditioning wise).

But if we're comparing Hunter to just NFL prospects, he still might be the best conditioned player to come into the league.  Even if he did tire towards the end of games, which would be expected, the overwhelming majority of players couldn't come close to doing what he did and play that many snaps every game.

And yes, while WR and CB may be relatively light on contact, they are the two positions you actually run the most on the field and thus require greater conditioning/endurance than other positions.

I also agree that he won't be able to play both ways full time, at least long term, but I think it's less about tiring out in games/seasons, as much as I don't think he'll be able to do it and stay healthy.  Every season he plays both ways full time, it's the equivalent of playing two seasons for any other player.  So if he plays both ways for 5 seasons, he just put 10 seasons worth of wear and tear on his body.

His best chance at a great career is a Terrell Davis type, short but super elite before his body just tapped out.