DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum PD: Prominent Changes Loom

The Dickerson reference was to his style of running, I have no idea what his injury history is, sorry.

[color:"white"]As always, the truth is usually in the middle of the debate somewhere, hehe.

Peterson's running style does trend towards taking more punishment and getting dinged. That's simply a fact of how the world works in the NFL. However, he doesn't have an injury history that's a true red flag in the way Suggs was always hurt with serious issues. Still, he has been dinged from time to time, and that won't get any better in the NFL.

If a team drafts Peterson, they have to be prepared to accept the fact that he's not going to start all 16 games. Marcus Allen he won't be. If a team can accept that risk, they'll get a back who's probably going to be good for 6-8 years. He's allready lost some of the tread off of his tires due to his workload in college.

Nobody can claim Thomas is the next Ogden, nor can they claim that Peterson is the next Dickerson. Both guys have tremendous upside on an allready impressive foundation. When we pick, we need to evaluate need versus who's the best player and balance the equation. Frankly, the need for a tackle is far greater than at RB, where it's far easier to find adequate players. A team can land a great back anywhere in the 1st or 2nd round of virtually any draft, while it's far harder to find a great guy who can play left tackle. Inevitably, someone will point towards McNeil. It's better to deal with what's probable instead of what's possible. [/color]

I'm not going to cry at all if we take Thomas. The guy looks to have some sound fundamentals to me. When they switched him to RT for a few running plays in the game today he looked a little lost but I don't see us switching him if we take him.

[color:"white"]How freakin' odd would it be if we had two guys on this team that played left tackle but struggled when switched to right tackle? <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> That could happen if Shaffer is moved and Thomas is signed.

Only in Cleveland.......[/color]

[color:"orange"] Being injury free in college does not predict a healthy NFL career. No one is making that ascertation. However most players who get continually banged up and miss games in college will continue that trend in the NFL. As toad said if you draft Peterson you need to resolve to yourself that he will not start 16 games in a season. Injury wise I compare AP to DeAngelo Williams. Lots of minor injuries that caused them to miss games every year. As I said last draft season I would avoid DeAngelo because of that injury history and true to my prediction he misses games with injury.


To answer your question about a college pretzel turning into an NFL ironman, there is one guy - Curtis Martin. It can happen but definitely is not the norm.[/color]

Injuries are always a concern..but as a rule with knee injuires it's the second year in that the player either looks recovered or he has a setback..after watching Thomas , he looks o.k..the bigger knock if U want one is strength in the running game..and I feel he can get that..