News Article: Why was Dee Milliner a NFL Bust?
- Thread starter RTR91
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His injuries aside. I think it goes to show the gap between amateur sports and professional. Most athletes with elite God given talent can make it to the college level {including the D1 level} on 80% talent and 20% skill. To flourish at the D-1 level that percentage ratio changes to approximately 50%-60% talent and 50%-60% skill. Then comes the pro level. Where the talent is so elite, the skills are so sharpened, that there's not much room for "holes" in someone's game. One "hole" in one part of your game can be the difference in making the team or getting cut. Where as in college, {even at the highest level of college}, a player can still excel and be a star {Tim Tebow comes to mind here}. It's not that way at the pro level. Then add any sort of injury issues to it and it only compounds the problem and you've got players like Dee. There's a laundry list of "Dee Milliner's" in the wake of the NFL meat grinder.
I feel for Dee but to be honest, he has nothing to hang his head about. It's not a failure to not make it in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA etc. He's not a "bust".
I feel for Dee but to be honest, he has nothing to hang his head about. It's not a failure to not make it in the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA etc. He's not a "bust".
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I feel bad for him. I really felt like he was going to be an above average starter at the very least.
I think it depends on the position you play. Unfortunately, CB is one where technique and football IQ is very important so missing so much time really made it hard for him to catch up.
I'm gonna get creamed here, but I thought he was drafted too highly in the first place.
Make no mistake, I thought he was a decent enough player, but I was shocked he went that high. But I thought he would be more of one of those workhorse type players who is around for awhile, not a Hall of Famer or borderline but a solid, everyday player. I guess by NFL draft hype standards maybe he meets the criteria of a "bust" but I thought that drafting was too high in the first place.
And my point is that I find this a reflection on the Jets failure to evaluate accurately more than "Milliner is a bust."
Imho, the only real 'bust' we had that was high profile was Trent. That one stunned me beyond words.
Make no mistake, I thought he was a decent enough player, but I was shocked he went that high. But I thought he would be more of one of those workhorse type players who is around for awhile, not a Hall of Famer or borderline but a solid, everyday player. I guess by NFL draft hype standards maybe he meets the criteria of a "bust" but I thought that drafting was too high in the first place.
And my point is that I find this a reflection on the Jets failure to evaluate accurately more than "Milliner is a bust."
Imho, the only real 'bust' we had that was high profile was Trent. That one stunned me beyond words.
More so than other levels of sports IMO, the NFL is just as much as about fit and current team situation as it is anything else. I'm not sure that if Tom Brady had been drafted into a situation where he had to start immediately on a team where they didn't know how to use the players on the team to their advantage schematically, that he would have the same success that he's known for now. He was able to not be the starter immediately, and then once he did start, Belichick and the rest of the staff managed him so that he could grow as a passer and ultimately as a leader. On top of that, the front office and ownership respected the coaching staffs decisions and thought process that they didn't rush them or overrule their decisions.
As a 49er fan, I'm excited that they drafted Foster. But I hope they have some plan/structure in place off the field to ensure that he can grow as a player and as a person so that he can maximize the skills he brings to the football field. How they handled Aldon Smith doesn't inspire confidence that they can do it, but with a new coaching staff and GM, maybe that'll change.
As a 49er fan, I'm excited that they drafted Foster. But I hope they have some plan/structure in place off the field to ensure that he can grow as a player and as a person so that he can maximize the skills he brings to the football field. How they handled Aldon Smith doesn't inspire confidence that they can do it, but with a new coaching staff and GM, maybe that'll change.
I felt the same as well. Very solid college player but for the NFL especially with a lot of real shutdown corners/secondary, it's not a big surprise. It takes extreme talent (and all the right breaks -- I don't care what anyone says otherwise) to get into the NFL and stay.
I don't follow the draft or NFL much at all, but I do try to see where Bama players end up. That said, I was also surprised DM went that high. I figured late first round at best. Then again, I was also shocked that Ryan Kelly went as high as he did, and he seemed to have a solid first year. In other words, I think I would have as many hits and misses as guys who get paid a lot to judge talent. I really wonder if these guys just throw darts at names sometimes as they sip their expensive whiskey.
IIRC, he want that high because of his combine workout. He already had good size but his speed was questioned. He ran a 4.37 40 yard dash at the combine and the rest is history. He probably was slightly over drafted but I think injuries and the fact he went to a crappy organization hurt him more than anything..
Injuries, bad teammates, being overdrafted a tad. It all plays a part. Some guys don't work out, it seems like 2/3 of the first round is a bust anyway...I don't get the big deal made of it.
Absolutely. There's just as many free agent busts in the NFL every year as there are draft busts. You see guys who have already been in the league for years go to another team for the big money and totally bust with their new team. It's more about team, fit, coaching, and scheme than talent in the NFL in my opinion.
Furthermore, most of the players in the NFL still have huge holes in their game. Very, very few don't. There's really only a handful of elite players in the NFL. Maybe 2 or 3 per team on average. Then another 20-25 players who are average. The bottom third of NFL rosters are churned constantly....made up of guys who are barely professional talent.
Bottom line is, I think the talent in the NFL gets vastly overrated as a whole by fans. They're not all elite players. Not even close. The perennial losers in the NFL have especially bad rosters. A lot of em are starting guys who wouldn't start for Alabama.
You had me until that last sentence. I don't think you could find a single starter in the NFL who wouldn't start for Bama. MAYBE you could find some RBs that wouldn't start but that's it.
But, you are on to something with the handful of elite players and the rest below that. One of the prominent team building strategies is to try to get 4-5 "Blue" players and then another 30 or so players who would be considered "Red" players. In this case Blue players would refer to perennial pro bowlers and Reds are just good players. Reds vary on value obviously because some Reds might be just a special teams player.
I can find 2 players off the Browns 2016 starting lineup that would have definitely started for Alabama last season....their two pro bowlers, Joe Thomas and Joe Haden. I can find another 5 that I could argue either way.
But the rest I can't. I don't think they had a single player in their front 7 on defense that would've started in Alabama's defensive front 7 last season. You could possibly argue two guys at most, but more assuredly probably only one. I can only see one guy in their secondary that would've started for Bama last year, which as I mentioned would be Haden. The others wouldn't have started over Ronnie Harrison, Minkah, Eddie Jackson.
Offensively, I could argue maybe a guard or two other than Joe Thomas. Gary Barnidge wouldn't start over O.J. Howard last year at Bama. In fact, I think they just cut him anyway. I actually like the QB Kessler, and you could argue he would've started over a true freshman Jalen Hurts last year. But I'm not convinced.
It's really an unimpressive roster. Most of em are only starters by default. Somebody has to. If there were only 28 NFL teams like it used to be, these guys wouldn't be starting in the NFL.
I think it's possible. I think it'd be a lot closer than most think. It wouldn't be some 5 TD beatdown at the hands of the Cleveland Browns. I'm convinced of that.
Furthermore, I don't think it's an apples to apples comparison. The practice time is obviously different. Let Alabama players and their coaches practice and prepare the same amount as an NFL team and see what happens.
These guys don't suddenly morph into some supreme being 6 months after they're drafted. Or even 2 years after they're drafted. A lot of em are the same players in the NFL that they were in college. We've seen kids come straight out of the SEC and physically dominate NFL competition immediately. They're simply physically superior to a lot of the average Joe starters in the NFL.
I remember the Chicago All Star game where the college All Stars would play the Superbowl champions. The college All Stars won sometimes. And that was against the best team in the NFL. Not the worst. Furthermore, underclassman weren't allowed to play in the game. That's the difference between having Cam Newton, or Adrian Peterson, or Julio Jones out there competing for the college All Stars and instead having guys like Ricky Stanzi, Bilal Powell, and Greg Salas.
Will we see "Dee redux" with Humphrey? Wouldn't bet against it. But no matter how long or little time he spends in the league, he's pretty certain not to live down to the biggest NFL first-round corner bust of all, Ahmad "Toast" Carroll of Arky and, uh, Green Bay.
See, this is your problem. You are grading these players like they are up against the same level of competition. They aren't. Danny Shelton and Carl Nassib would definitely start on the DL as would Ogbah and Jamie Collins at LB. I don't know the rest of their front 7 well enough to make an argument about them tbh. I don't know their DBs all that well either so again can't comment but I would bet most of them would start over any of our starters except for Humphrey and maybe Minkah. On offense I would bet on at least 3/5ths of their line starting over anyone we have. Thomas, Bitonio and Greco would and honestly Cameron Erving probably would too. Kessler would almost definitely have started over a TF Jalen as would Brock Osweiler who they now have and probably Kevin Hogan too. We have a ton of RBs but Crowell would be the starter over all of them. Coleman and Britt would start over all of our WRs with possibly the exception of Ridley.
Sure we have a few guys who would push to start on the right NFL teams. Keep in mind we are also looking at one of the WORST teams in the NFL next to the BEST teams in CFB.
I can't disagree more. And I don't think an exhibition game that hasn't been around since the 70s is a good indicator. And even if it was, it's not that impressive that a team full of College All Stars can only sometimes beat a team that is basically playing a preseason game.
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