Can Battle or McCloud Challenge?

[Who'sYourData?]

On 2/27/2018 at 12:37 AM, charsibb said:

Zachary.

We could have had Tony Dorsett and Hershel Walker in 77 and 78, but instead we took Doug Williams and Ricky Bell.

During Doug's first season in 1978 he was horrible, ineffective, a joke-around-town, and ultimately injured. Same for Bell. Thank goodness we had good punting.

But in the end, it didn't matter, and wouldn't have mattered who we'd drafted, since the O-line was as holey as swiss cheese. Nobody could have been effective behind that line.

Doug was the best we had, but our best wasn't much that first year. Greatness came later. To think we lost him to the USFL because of Culverhouse's stupid pride.

 

Ricky Bell actually had a terrific start to his career, very near Dorsett if not just as good.  Unfortunately the dreaded disease took his career and life far too early.  

[Calibull]

23 hours ago, Who'sYourData? said:

Ricky Bell actually had a terrific start to his career, very near Dorsett if not just as good.  Unfortunately the dreaded disease took his career and life far too early.  

Yeah...  Drafting Ricky Bell actually made a lot of sense.  He was probably more talented than Tony Dorsett and his durability projected better.  Nobody could have known he'd die from a disease in those times.  It's sad... but from a talent perspective he was as close to a sure thing as you could get.

[JTrue]

1 hour ago, Calibull said:

Yeah...  Drafting Ricky Bell actually made a lot of sense.  He was probably more talented than Tony Dorsett and his durability projected better.  Nobody could have known he'd die from a disease in those times.  It's sad... but from a talent perspective he was as close to a sure thing as you could get.

As someone who has never and, likely, will never care much about the Bucs, I can't say I've ever dug into Bell's drafting ahead of Dorsett. That being said, from an outsider's perspective, I don't think durability was ever a knock on Dorsett. The guy had over 1000 carries in his college career. I mean, I guess you could say he had a lot of miles on him before the NFL and that was a red flag and his Wikipedia page says there were questions about his durability...so there's that. But then again, Walter Payton was ok in the NFL and they're about the same size, so it's not like taking a guy Dorsett's size was a flyer. 

Edited March 2, 2018 by JTrue

[Triple B]

3 hours ago, Calibull said:

He was probably more talented than Tony Dorsett and his durability projected better.

 

2 hours ago, JTrue said:

As someone who has never and, likely, will never care much about the Bucs, I can't say I've ever dug into Bell's drafting ahead of Dorsett. That being said, from an outsider's perspective, I don't think durability was ever a knock on Dorsett.

I don't think what Cali was talking about was a knock on Dorsett's durability but just that Bell, at 3 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier, may have been better suited in comparison for the pounding in the pros.

[Bull Dozer]

8 hours ago, Triple B said:

 

 at 3 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier, may have been better suited in comparison for the pounding in the pros.

 

That's what I look for too when I need somebody who can take a pounding.  

 

 

 

[Calibull]

13 hours ago, Triple B said:

 

I don't think what Cali was talking about was a knock on Dorsett's durability but just that Bell, at 3 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier, may have been better suited in comparison for the pounding in the pros.

That's exactly what I was implying.

[Calibull]

15 hours ago, JTrue said:

As someone who has never and, likely, will never care much about the Bucs, I can't say I've ever dug into Bell's drafting ahead of Dorsett. That being said, from an outsider's perspective, I don't think durability was ever a knock on Dorsett. The guy had over 1000 carries in his college career. I mean, I guess you could say he had a lot of miles on him before the NFL and that was a red flag and his Wikipedia page says there were questions about his durability...so there's that. But then again, Walter Payton was ok in the NFL and they're about the same size, so it's not like taking a guy Dorsett's size was a flyer. 

Walter Payton was built differently than Tony Dorsett... they were two completely different backs with different styles.  Payton was a very muscular 5'10 200 pounds.  He was a power runner who could slash and break tackles.  He wasn't a speed guy.  Dorsett was a speed guy who relied on a jump-step and had a sweet spin.  He came out of pit at 185 pounds and at his biggest was 5'11 190.   That 10 pounds is big... also being an inch shorter normally equates to an extra 5 pounds of body weight.  So Payton basically had 15 pounds more of muscle than Dorsett.  I mean that's not a good comparison.  Dorsett also didn't touch the ball nearly as much as Payton and had a better Oline.  If Dallas had used him like the Bears used Payton, he'd been out of the league in 3 years with an injury.  He did have injuries and miss games too... but not Payton.

[JTrue]

53 minutes ago, Calibull said:

Walter Payton was built differently than Tony Dorsett... they were two completely different backs with different styles.  Payton was a very muscular 5'10 200 pounds.  He was a power runner who could slash and break tackles.  He wasn't a speed guy.  Dorsett was a speed guy who relied on a jump-step and had a sweet spin.  He came out of pit at 185 pounds and at his biggest was 5'11 190.   That 10 pounds is big... also being an inch shorter normally equates to an extra 5 pounds of body weight.  So Payton basically had 15 pounds more of muscle than Dorsett.  I mean that's not a good comparison.  Dorsett also didn't touch the ball nearly as much as Payton and had a better Oline.  If Dallas had used him like the Bears used Payton, he'd been out of the league in 3 years with an injury.  He did have injuries and miss games too... but not Payton.

It was a simple comparison. Walter Payton was within an inch of Dorsett and 10 pounds. Dorsett was a smaller back, but he wasn't Darren Sproles compared to the rest of the league at the time. Dorsett also had an insane amount of carries before being drafted and didn't break down at all. There was a comment made about people questioning Dorsett's potential durability, so I pointed out that he was far from being a physical outlier and had a proven track-record. Two of the main ways in which people measure one's potential durability. Are there other people with comparable measurables currently in the league and finding success? Yes, there are people with roughly comparable physical attributes in the NFL. Has he held up in the past? Yes, he had a REALLY large amount of college carries and never got hurt. Also, that Wikipedia was the only place I saw anyone mention his "durability" being called into question. 

Edited March 2, 2018 by JTrue