1961 wrote:
At the NFL level it is actually quite rare that a player can change position and be successful. A lot of your draft busts are players who are projected to be something else in the pros than what they were in college. Solomon Thomas comes immediately to mind. I am an older guy and the only player I can remember that really changed his playing weight was Jerry Rice who decided to play 10 pounds lighter later in his career because he was concerned about his running speed. Other than that I have no idea where the whole "MFN speed thing" comes from. You might have SOME realistic cases of a DE getting smaller to play linebacker or a big WR bulking up to play TE but nothing like the stuff that happens in this game. Obvious problem. I don't understand how anyone can defend the speed / position change thing.. That and the talent distribution problem are much bigger issues than the "game code" (and I would think easier to fix) imho. Everyone bitched about 4.4 but, hey, if you tried to cover the 87 speed TE up the seam with a 62 speed SAM linebacker your extra point defense team was going to get a lot of practice... :)
I watched Gronk beat falcons LB , who runs a 4.5 fourty, on a simple flag pattern last week. Gronks old and slow but he got plenty of separation..... this is how I see 4.6 , and no other versions, as if you have skills and not only speed you can still beat those fast guys with less skills on routes other than flys and seams. Only on 4.6 ... at least with consistency.