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Jags rookie back Fournette says so far the NFL is easy and slow compared to SEC

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IDEXAN

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Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette, the No. 4 pick in this past NFL draft, thinks his years racking up yards at LSU against SEC competition prepared him adequately for the NFL. So much so that he said the league was "easy" after his first preseason game --a 31-24 Jaguars victoryagainst the New England Patriots on Thursday.
Thursday.

"It's a lot slower than I really thought," Fournettetold NFL.com. "That's how I've been since I first got into the NFL. A lot of people were like, 'It's going to be fast.' But by me playing in the SEC, that kind of helped me a lot. ...I think, to me, it was really easy."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...jaguars-calls-nfl-slow-really-easy/558601001/
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Looks like playing the Pats was a snap for the rook.
 
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IDEXAN said:
Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette, the No. 4 pick in this past NFL draft, thinks his years racking up yards at LSU against SEC competition prepared him adequately for the NFL. So much so that he said the league was "easy" after his first preseason game --a 31-24 Jaguars victoryagainst the New England Patriots on Thursday.
Thursday.

"It's a lot slower than I really thought," Fournettetold NFL.com. "That's how I've been since I first got into the NFL. A lot of people were like, 'It's going to be fast.' But by me playing in the SEC, that kind of helped me a lot. ...I think, to me, it was really easy."
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...jaguars-calls-nfl-slow-really-easy/558601001/
****
Looks like playing the Pats was a snap for the rook.
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Read that and thought 'here is a rookie after his first preseason game'... he hardly faced any first teamers at all in a very vanilla defense. I lol'd
 
JB said:
Read that and thought 'here is a rookie after his first preseason game'... he hardly faced any first teamers at all in a very vanilla defense. I lol'd
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Right, not a very judicious comment by the rook. Maybe somebody like Clowney will run him down behind the los early in the season to intill a little humility.
 
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Lucky said:
September 10th is the first day of school.
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A real question is if he makes it that far.

Fournette's NFL speed comment is correct if he is referring to the trainer's table...................sitting on it is just as slow in the NFL as it was at LSU. Fournette has been a walking injury report to the end of his LSU career. He now has taken it up right from where he left off at LSU. He is once again on the trainer's table with a foot injury for which he was carted off, and which will keep him out of the Jags 2nd preseason game. Evidently he has been dealing with what his HC Marone has referred to as a “nagging” foot injury that has been kind of growing.” This is definitely a compensatory injury. During his LSU career, he repeatedly re-injured his left ankle ligaments missing many games. Chronic recurrent ankle ligament tears lead to loose stretched out ligaments resulting in lower limb instability. This has limited his cutting ability. When you look at his short LSU career, he was actually overworked behind a challenged Oline. He could have been largely "used up" by the time he left LSU compared to 4-year RBs. Foot injuries in a RB are bad enough (especially if it's even a mild Lisfranc), but his ankle is definitely a problem that he will be dealing with until he has his ligaments surgically tightened. His decision to not have the surgery at the end of 2016, may have a significant impact on his NFL future.
 
Maybe the game just really isn't as fast for a talented physical specimen like Fournette in comparison to so many guys before him that were blown away by the transition who just didn't have his physical fortune? Maybe? Is that so terrible?

I bet there are a number of guys who felt the league wasn't quite as daunting as their predecessors made it out to be. They just didn't say it. And yet everyone wants athletes/coaches to give less canned/cliche answers.
 
Mollywhopper said:
Maybe the game just really isn't as fast for a talented physical specimen like Fournette in comparison to so many guys before him that were blown away by the transition who just didn't have his physical fortune? Maybe? Is that so terrible?

I bet there are a number of guys who felt the league wasn't quite as daunting as their predecessors made it out to be. They just didn't say it. And yet everyone wants athletes/coaches to give less canned/cliche answers.
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That could be true in some instances. But as injuries occur, the faster the game is bound to get for him.
 
I will very surprised if this guy isn't a bust. Guy was already injured and overworked in college, couple that with the fact he isn't an elusive make you miss runner and add in the fact he plays for the jags who have a good combination of lacking o-line play/determination to run a ton. He is going to get hit a lot straight on by large humans repeatedly. He will be injured all the time and/or ineffective. Typical Jags pick.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
That could be true in some instances. But as injuries occur, the faster the game is bound to get for him.
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Injuries don't make his point any less relevant at all though. If anything they reinforce it in so far as it takes him being less than 100% for the game to be what everyone told him it would.
 
Mollywhopper said:
Injuries don't make his point any less relevant at all though. If anything they reinforce it in so far as it takes him being less than 100% for the game to be what everyone told him it would.
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The guy only averaged 3.4 ypc with 9 carries and 31 yards..

:rolleyes: If the NFL is "easy" for him and "slower than expected" well then he better hope it gets a hell of a lot easier and a hell of a lot slower, because those numbers aren't impressive at all and at the very least isn't the type of performance you make those comments after.

Dont'a Foreman had the same amount of carries for 76 yards and 8.4 ypc. (4th ovrl pick vs 3rd round pick).

Point is..it's not like he was AP out there, teams haven't even got up to full game speed yet, week 1 of preseason and he wasn't impressive at all, rook needs to pump the brakes. He's about to see NFL speed here pretty soon.
 
Carr Bombed said:
The guy only averaged 3.4 ypc with 9 carries and 31 yards..

:rolleyes: If the NFL is "easy" for him and "slower than expected" well then he better hope it gets a hell of a lot easier and a hell of a lot slower, because those numbers aren't impressive at all and at the very least isn't the type of performance you make those comments after.

Dont'a Foreman had the same amount of carries for 76 yards and 8.4 ypc. (4th ovrl pick vs 3rd round pick).

Point is..it's not like he was AP out there, teams haven't even got up to full game speed yet, week 1 of preseason and he wasn't impressive at all, rook needs to pump the brakes. He's about to see NFL speed here pretty soon.
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You seem to take an inordinate amount of offense over a fairly innocuous comment. And judging his stats from one outing, where 9 carries is hardly much to judge success or failure, is likely an inaccurate relation to what he was taking about. He just meant that the game wasn't blazing fast compared to college like everyone tends to say and he attributed his early transition to having faced sec defenses, which makes sense as they easily put out more nfl defenders than any other conference. He was just making a comment off of a first impression and that was it. Like I said too, it's a shame athletes get pooped on for making comments like these out of one side of people's mouths while out of the other many of the same people poop on boring cliche canned answers.
 
Mollywhopper said:
You seem to take an inordinate amount of offense over a fairly innocuous comment. And judging his stats from one outing, where 9 carries is hardly much to judge success or failure, is likely an inaccurate relation to what he was taking about. He just meant that the game wasn't blazing fast compared to college like everyone tends to say and he attributed his early transition to having faced sec defenses, which makes sense as they easily put out more nfl defenders than any other conference. He was just making a comment off of a first impression and that was it. Like I said too, it's a shame athletes get pooped on for making comments like these out of one side of people's mouths while out of the other many of the same people poop on boring cliche canned answers.
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The point is, he has yet to see the full game speed of the NFL. So in that context..he doesn't know what he's talking about yet when he's making those comments.

Damien Woody even discussed the same thing

http://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/20311701

...and even though he feels that way, it's a stupid comment for a rookie to make after week 1 of preseason, because once he does start playing regular season games and defenses start keying in on him (Blake Bortles is his QB) if he doesn't look like a top 5 pick RB and falls on his face, those comments will be brought up and huant him ALL season. It's just a bunch of unnecessary attention.
 
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Mollywhopper said:
You seem to take an inordinate amount of offense over a fairly innocuous comment. And judging his stats from one outing, where 9 carries is hardly much to judge success or failure, is likely an inaccurate relation to what he was taking about. He just meant that the game wasn't blazing fast compared to college like everyone tends to say and he attributed his early transition to having faced sec defenses, which makes sense as they easily put out more nfl defenders than any other conference. He was just making a comment off of a first impression and that was it. Like I said too, it's a shame athletes get pooped on for making comments like these out of one side of people's mouths while out of the other many of the same people poop on boring cliche canned answers.
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I hear and read this all the time, but I personally have a problem with players or even analysts pointing to this as why college players are supposed to have a smoother speed transition to the NFL. There are 14 teams in the SEC. Even for Alabama (probably consistently the most talented), only a mere handful of their D starters ever get drafted into the NFL. Even though NFL defenses may vary in talent, as a whole they are a picked over concentration of the very best football talent available anywhere...........The SEC D's are a very unlikely match to their pro defense counterparts or against their pro offense counterparts.
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
I hear and read this all the time, but I personally have a problem with players or even analysts pointing to this as why college players are supposed to have a smoother speed transition to the NFL. There are 14 teams in the SEC. Even for Alabama (probably consistently the most talented), only a mere handful of their D starters ever get drafted into the NFL. Even though NFL defenses may vary in talent, as a whole they are a picked over concentration of the very best football talent available anywhere...........The SEC D's are a very unlikely match to their pro defense counterparts or against their pro offense counterparts.
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Didn't say they were a match, just that they're a step up from the general speed/athleticism of other conferences. If only so many players from sec teams see the NFL then even fewer from other conferences do. And so still on average a guy playing and predicting against sec defences more often will see a slight tick upward toward to the speed/athleticism he'll see in the league.
 
I remember my first round of golf. I was about 13 at the time. I (we) went on a weekday for fear of slowing the play of the other players. I shot a 148 at Brock Park.

Humiliated, I went to the driving range and hit 'em until I got blisters. We went back to Brock Park and off the 1st tee I hit a perfect shot. The ball was in perfect position at the top of the ridge between depressions. High fives all around, even by the group getting warm behind us. I walked off the tee thinking I had this game by the balls.........................................I shot a 144.

Good luck against the Texans front 7 on gameday, Mr.Fournette, you'll need it. Hope you're healthy enough to play to see the 144 you have coming...lol.

As I kept playing I began to shoot around 85-90. Had to mention that. :)
 
Showtime100 said:
I remember my first round of golf. I was about 13 at the time. I (we) went on a weekday for fear of slowing the play of the other players. I shot a 148 at Brock Park.

Humiliated, I went to the driving range and hit 'em until I got blisters. We went back to Brock Park and off the 1st tee I hit a perfect shot. The ball was in perfect position at the top of the ridge between depressions. High fives all around, even by the group getting warm behind us. I walked off the tee thinking I had this game by the balls.........................................I shot a 144.

Good luck against the Texans front 7 on gameday, Mr.Fournette, you'll need it. Hope you're healthy enough to play to see the 144 you have coming...lol.

As I kept playing I began to shoot around 85-90. Had to mention that. :)
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ahh good ole Brock Park. Had many humbling experiences there learning the game
 
JB said:
ahh good ole Brock Park. Had many humbling experiences there learning the game
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Lol, I remember a cold round of golf there just after Pittsburgh beat Houston for the 2nd time in the AFC Championship. We were almost done playing a hole the had a street to the left and houses on the other side.

This drunk dude, huge, overalls, no shirt, looking like he came straight out of a Swamp People episode comes out of his house with a shotgun screaming at US(!). "Are either one on you f'ing Steelers fans!!! Huh? You'd better not be goddammit!!!!"

I was saying NO to that question even if I was Art Rooney himself. Effed up a pretty descent round, too. Couldn't quite get my mind back on golf when I was tracking a drunk, pissed off hillbilly with a shotgun...lol.
 
Showtime100 said:
Lol, I remember a cold round of golf there just after Pittsburgh beat Houston for the 2nd time in the AFC Championship. We were almost done playing a hole the had a street to the left and houses on the other side.

This drunk dude, huge, overalls, no shirt, looking like he came straight out of a Swamp People episode comes out of his house with a shotgun screaming at US(!). "Are either one on you f'ing Steelers fans!!! Huh? You'd better not be goddammit!!!!"

I was saying NO to that question even if I was Art Rooney himself. Effed up a pretty descent round, too. Couldn't quite get my mind back on golf when I was tracking a drunk, pissed off hillbilly with a shotgun...lol.
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I think I may have run into that same guy... I just gave him a finger and ran
 
Mollywhopper said:
Didn't say they were a match, just that they're a step up from the general speed/athleticism of other conferences. If only so many players from sec teams see the NFL then even fewer from other conferences do. And so still on average a guy playing and predicting against sec defences more often will see a slight tick upward toward to the speed/athleticism he'll see in the league.
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Lets take a look at the top 29 defensive front seven players in the NFLs top 100 players as voted by their peers in 2017.


Von Miller - Big 12 (when he played)
Khalil Mack - MAC
Aaron Donald - ACC
Luke Kuechly - ACC
JJ Watt - Big 10
Fletcher Cox - SEC
Bobby Wagner - MWC
Vic Beasley - ACC
Michael Bennett - Big 12 (when he played)
Jadeveon Clowney - SEC
Gerald McCoy - Big 12
Ndamukong Suh - Big 10
Cliff Avril - Big 10
Cameron Wake - Big 10
Geno Atkins - SEC
Justin Houston - SEC
Brian Orakpo - Big 12
Sean Lee - Big 10
Clay Matthews - PAC
Mike Daniels - Big 10
Chandler Jones - ACC
Jarrell Casey - PAC
Thomas Davis - SEC
Lorenzo Alexander - PAC
Everson Griffen - PAC
Brandon Graham - Big 10
Dont'a Hightower - SEC
Damon Harrison - NAIA
Joey Bosa - Big 10

Total per conference:

Big 10 - 8
SEC - 6
ACC - 4
PAC - 4
Big 12 - 4
MAC - 1
MWC - 1
NAIA - 1

SEC has none in the top 5. Maybe it is because the players Fournette is playing with are not the caliber of these players?

How about the Top RBs to see if SEC RBs have a advantage:

Ezekiel Elliot - Big 10
Le'Veon Bell - Big 10
David Johnson - MVC
Lesean McCoy - ACC
DeMarco Murray - Big 12
Devonte Freeman - ACC
Jay Ajayi - MWC
LaGarrette Blount - PAC
Adrian Peterson - Big 12

Wow!!!!
Big 10 - 2
Big 12 - 2
ACC - 2
PAC - 1
MVC - 1
MWC - 1

Not a single of the top 9 NFL backs are from the SEC. Seems strange since they are playing against defenses that are noticeably faster in college?

Good luck Fournette, your going to need it, the odds of greatness are not in your favor being from the all powerfull SEC, as shown above.
 
I don't know how successful Fourette will be in the NFL but he's the second straight running back to selected with the 4th overall pick of the Draft as Dallas took thier guy with the 4th pick in the 2015 Draft. Anyway I still think it's really a bad strategy to be drafting backs that high and I'm surprised that teams contineue to do it ?
Oh I know the Cowboys guy had a big-time rookie year but with their OLine so have other backs drafted much lower.
 
IDEXAN said:
I don't know how successful Fourette will be in the NFL but he's the second straight running back to selected with the 4th overall pick of the Draft as Dallas took thier guy with the 4th pick in the 2015 Draft. Anyway I still think it's really a bad strategy to be drafting backs that high and I'm surprised that teams contineue to do it ?
Oh I know the Cowboys guy had a big-time rookie year but with their OLine so have other backs drafted much lower.
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In almost all cases, I wouldn't touch or use a 1st round pick on a RB. I'd use that money and investment in my Line to help my passing game and running game. Average RB's can play well and be productive under strong Lines. Great RB's will always get hurt at some point any way and the survival at that position just isn't a long career.
 
Mollywhopper said:
You seem to take an inordinate amount of offense over a fairly innocuous comment. And judging his stats from one outing, where 9 carries is hardly much to judge success or failure, is likely an inaccurate relation to what he was taking about. He just meant that the game wasn't blazing fast compared to college like everyone tends to say and he attributed his early transition to having faced sec defenses, which makes sense as they easily put out more nfl defenders than any other conference. He was just making a comment off of a first impression and that was it. Like I said too, it's a shame athletes get pooped on for making comments like these out of one side of people's mouths while out of the other many of the same people poop on boring cliche canned answers.
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How many great defenses did the SEC really have?..go take a look at it, seriously.

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/24

Alabama's defense elevates the perception of that entire damn conference and those other SEC teams develop their reputation off the coattails of that one school. One school doesn't make a entire conference. I'm sorry, but it doesn't.

Now since the SEC defenses supposedly prepared Fournette for the NFL and has made the NFL look slow to him, he must've done well against Alabama (which is really the only top defense to come from that conference) during his college career then..

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...abama-defense-puts-clamp-on-leonard-fournette

Opps. I guess the other SEC teams didn't even make Alabama looks slow. Lol, so how the hell are they going to make the NFL look slow?

That's why I think his comments were stupid, not to mention the SEC "slurping" by the media has become so overblown.
 
The best players in college are still just rookies in the NFL. I predict that he will eventually regret saying anything about it.
 
Carr Bombed said:
How many great defenses did the SEC really have?..go take a look at it, seriously.

http://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/24

Alabama's defense elevates the perception of that entire damn conference and those other SEC teams develop their reputation off the coattails of that one school. One school doesn't make a entire conference. I'm sorry, but it doesn't.

Now since the SEC defenses supposedly prepared Fournette for the NFL and has made the NFL look slow to him, he must've done well against Alabama (which is really the only top defense to come from that conference) during his college career then..

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...abama-defense-puts-clamp-on-leonard-fournette

Opps. I guess the other SEC teams didn't even make Alabama looks slow. Lol, so how the hell are they going to make the NFL look slow?

That's why I think his comments were stupid, not to mention the SEC "slurping" by the media has become so overblown.
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Double Barrel said:
The best players in college are still just rookies in the NFL. I predict that he will eventually regret saying anything about it.
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You could easily make the same argument for a QB.:kitten:
 
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#Raiders K Sebastian Janikowski agreed to a small paycut, going from $4M to $3M — fully guaranteed. Could free up space for Donald Penn
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Double Barrel said:
The best players in college are still just rookies in the NFL. I predict that he will eventually regret saying anything about it.
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This whole thing reminds me of that time Rashad Mendenhall was talking smack to Ray Rice about how he was going to run all over the Ravens defense in the 1st start of his career.....lets just say it didn't go well with him being put on season-ending IR after Ray Lewis popped him and broke his shoulder. "Uh, what was that again rook?"
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
Ian Rapoport‏Verified account@RapSheet


#Raiders K Sebastian Janikowski agreed to a small paycut, going from $4M to $3M — fully guaranteed. Could free up space for Donald Penn
1f914.png
Click to expand...
This contract "riff" seems to have surprised many. But Jankowski has been dealing with a back issue for at least 3 weeks. Not a good sign in a 39 year old kicker, whether secondary to a disc problem or "only" a muscle tear. In either case, these can easily become a chronic problem for any kicker.
 
Mollywhopper said:
Good thing for Fournette we didn't welcome him to the league any harder, huh..
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Yeah, I thought about that during the game as he was running all over our front 7. He probably faced stiffer competition in the SEC, sad to say.

Maybe the Titans will teach him this week. They seem to know how to play defense these days.
 
Double Barrel said:
Yeah, I thought about that during the game as he was running all over our front 7. He probably faced stiffer competition in the SEC, sad to say.

Maybe the Titans will teach him this week. They seem to know how to play defense these days.
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Don't be so sure about that...
 
Double Barrel said:
Yeah, I thought about that during the game as he was running all over our front 7. He probably faced stiffer competition in the SEC, sad to say.

Maybe the Titans will teach him this week. They seem to know how to play defense these days.
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Was he really running all over our front 7?
He averaged 3.3 yards per carry on 25 of his 26 carries. A 17 yard run at the start of the 4th got him to 3.8 for the game. That wouldn't have been good enough to crack the top 30 last season.

Lamar Miller averaged 3.8 yards per carry in the same game. Did he run all over the Jags?

Good game for the rookie, 100 yards is 100 yards, but I wouldn't say he ran all over us.
 
Speedy said:
Was he really running all over our front 7?
He averaged 3.3 yards per carry on 25 of his 26 carries. A 17 yard run at the start of the 4th got him to 3.8 for the game. That wouldn't have been good enough to crack the top 30 last season.

Lamar Miller averaged 3.8 yards per carry in the same game. Did he run all over the Jags?

Good game for the rookie, 100 yards is 100 yards, but I wouldn't say he ran all over us.
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Considering this was supposed to be a so-called "no. 1 defense", yeah, I'd say he ran all over them, relatively speaking. YMMV
 
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