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Mathis Competing for #2??

He'll get pressure off of AJ no doubt. Having those 2 guys in the slot in a couple of years will be awesome. I wonder if we'll keep JG as the #3 guy if that happens or what.
 
I really do hope he becomes the suprise of our draft. That would make two starters we've picked in the fourth round that made an impact on our offense.
 
I see you caught my sense of humor.

I could just imagine, reversing it one way with Johnson, then the other with Mathis and then finally running the reverse with Gaffney who throws it down field the other way incomplete to David Carr.

Chad Stanley set to punt!!!
 
Vinny said:
He will probably be the WR2 starter by 2006.
He is 5'11" btw
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I dunno.... easy to get ahead of ourselves on this guy. We know he is fast
but can he run routes, what kinda hands does he have, can he hold on to the ball when he's taken a hit, is he much of a runner after he's caught the ball, does he even know anything about downfield blocking, etc. If you say yes to one or more of those things, then I'd be apt to say "so what, he did those thngs at Hampton, I bet they really have inferior competition".
I mean this Hampton is really small time, the only thing I can think of when I hear the name is a rodent. If he becomes our #2 WR, it will be mainly luck because if Cass had any idea he was that good, he would have picked before the 4th round. Sorta like the D.Davis for a comparison.
 
just because an athelete goes to a lower division school doesnt mean he is less of an athlete.. a lot of times the athletes might not have the grades to get into the upper ranked schools, or came from a small town and didnt get the name... A lot of more athletically gifted, but academicly challenged atheletes are in junior colleges and stuff like that, so to say he is from a smaller school, so he mightn ot have quality talent is not correct
 
THEFUTURE said:
just because an athelete goes to a lower division school doesnt mean he is less of an athlete..
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Not talking about his athletic abilities as a sprinter because that is not an issue. He is reportedly a 20.3 something 200 meter man - that is fact. Whatever his sprint times were and however he places in NCAA competition, etc. he does that whether he competes in Track for Hampton or a big time program.
Football is an entirely different thing - to measure his abilities accuratley he
needs to compete against against top flight comp. He would if he went to
a school in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, etc. At Hampton, most likely no. This
is not to say he won't be successful in the NFL, there's just a lot more uncertainty.
 
cptnbreakdance said:
not to mention about .4 seconds faster running the 40.

Moses runs around a 4.6

Mathis runs a 4.26-4.28

both are really shifty too, so I would have to say that Mathis is our KR and PB is our PR
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I'm looking forward to watching this guy in punt returns .... JJ may be 4.6 in the first 40 but he's about 8.6 in the second 40 ...
 
you can measure his ablilities either way, the only thing you can look at is how he uses them.. his abilities dont change playing for Hampton or USC, but how effective he is, is what may or may not change
 
chuckm said:
I'm looking forward to watching this guy in punt returns .... JJ may be 4.6 in the first 40 but he's about 8.6 in the second 40 ...
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well jesus, if jj is returning punts 40 yards, then id say his position is safe
 
Mathis at mini-camp today:

mathis_slideshow042905.jpg
 
nunusguy said:
I
I mean this Hampton is really small time, the only thing I can think of when I hear the name is a rodent.
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I'll take that as a joke and move on. There have been numerous numerous players from "really small time" schools that have made an impact on the pro -level. Don't get caught up in "big name" schools all the time. Mathis ate up the "big name" competition in the Gridiron Classic. Jerry Rice - small school
Steve McNair - small school
Walter Payton - small school
Donald Driver - small school
Antonio Gates -small school
Ashley Ambrose - small school
Art Shell-small school
Darrel Green - small school
Doug Williams- small school
Aneas Williams - small school
 
Look at those arms. This dude is by far not some skin and bones track guy. Like I said before, Everytime I hear about him something good is being said.
 
the great thing about mathis and our situation is our recieving corp we have the ability to give mathis the time needed to adjust to the NFL...i think we give him this year to work the slot and return game...give him time to work a relationship with carr and johnson(on the field)...and then come in next year as our number 2 guy...he has the speed...soon he'll have the hands and the route running ability
 
This is the one pick that intrigued me the most. Now watching him on video is just making me want to see more. C'mon AUGUST! Good pick up IMO. This kid could really be something in due time...and in our uni!!!!

I think we all are wanting to see more of Mathis. :thumbup Character issue was 2 years ago, and Mathis said he has grown up since. No issue to me, we all mess up once when we are young. This was a minor one. Maybe with due time, he can develop and open it up for AJ. The article stated-

On the field, he sacrificed individual glory by often acting as a decoy to open things up for HU's other receivers. As a result, he caught just 30 passes but still led Division I-AA with 29.8 yards per catch. Taylor says Mathis never complained about the role on the team that finished 10-2 and won the MEAC title. I like the sound of this.

Can the public go to mini camp? :)
 
if someone gets the opportunity to watch Mathis.. could ya please clue me in on his change of direction ability?

I wanna know if he is capable of juking and such without losing his speed. That, to me, is gonna be the biggest difference between being a superstar or a bust.
 
cptnbreakdance said:
not to mention about .4 seconds faster running the 40.

Moses runs around a 4.6

Mathis runs a 4.26-4.28

both are really shifty too, so I would have to say that Mathis is our KR and PB is our PR
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Mathis has that break away speed in the open which JJ doesn`t. JJ couldn`t out run that last guy. You will see Mathis fly past the last guy. Hopefully Special teams will block well to see him explode :thumbup
 
HamptonGuy said:
I'll take that as a joke and move on.
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It was a silly remark on my part, if I offended my apologies.
Charlie Casserly talks about the importance of "matchups" when assessing
the talent of a prospective Draft pick. A player in the SEC or Big Ten, for example, has a far higher volume of talented matchups than a player from
say, Hampton or NW Missouri State because they play a superior level of competition. Therefor its less difficult to measure the ability of a player from a team that faces better competition because the competition is closer to what he would see in the NFL. This is not to say that smaller schools/programs don't produce outstanding NFL players, I'm just saying there's a higher level of uncertainty for identifying small college guys that
will succeed in the NFL.
 
nunusguy said:
It was a silly remark on my part, if I offended my apologies.
Charlie Casserly talks about the importance of "matchups" when assessing
the talent of a prospective Draft pick. A player in the SEC or Big Ten, for example, has a far higher volume of talented matchups than a player from
say, Hampton or NW Missouri State because they play a superior level of competition. Therefor its less difficult to measure the ability of a player from a team that faces better competition because the competition is closer to what he would see in the NFL. This is not to say that smaller schools/programs don't produce outstanding NFL players, I'm just saying there's a higher level of uncertainty for identifying small college guys that
will succeed in the NFL.
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Sure, and that's why Mathis was available in round 4. It's simply harder to guage these small school players, so they tend to drop some in the draft. He is a little on the smallish side, but he has rare speed. I'm really excited to see what he brings to the table. I smell a steal!
 
I think he is our #2 WR by midseason or rather i hope he is. I'd like to see him opposite AJ so that frees AJ up from double coverage and allows him to work more underneath against LB's and Safeties.

I think we drafted him with every intention on becoming our #2 and most mocks had him going in the 2nd.
 
tacoman_j said:
If he does become our #2 reciever, I guess that would be a steal. Too raw and too small to ever contribute to our offense.
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according to espn.com:
Steve Smith - 5'9" 185
Laveranues Coles - 5'11" 193
Deion Branch - 5'9" 193
Troy Brown - 5'10" 196
Lee Evans -5'10" 197
Santana Moss -5'10" 185

I wouldn't mind having a single one of these guys as our #2... well, not T. Brown because of age, but you get my point...

what is too raw? He didn't play enough in college, didn't play against big school competition? He'll have more than enough chances to get experience...
 
tacoman_j said:
If he does become our #2 reciever, I guess that would be a steal. Too raw and too small to ever contribute to our offense.
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well if he is anywhere as fast as marvin harrison, then he could be effective in the deep passing attack....however, our west coast system wont allow him to get many opportunities over AJ.
 
TexanFanInCC said:
however, our west coast system wont allow him to get many opportunities over AJ.
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Interesting that you say that, because SUPPOSIDLY our offense is a vertical one and not the WCO. Has the look of a short passing one though. We are suposidly going to a more timing route type offense this year and I think that may be a BIG thing. Troy Aikmin had LOTS of problems with protection etc. and then they changed to a timing type and then as they say "The rest is history". Hope that is what happens here also.
 
Mathis has one thing going for him.. playing against Drob and Buchanon..

Can you imagine the practices?
Buchanon ran a 4.31 forty before his draft...
Mathis runs a 4.2ish...forty before his draft ...


Someone get the memrecam

:shocked :heh:
 
You're welcome to write my Comm class persuasive speech on why the Rockets will win the championship if you get really bored.
 
ledzeppelin269 said:
You're welcome to write my Comm class persuasive speech on why the Rockets will win the championship if you get really bored.
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Oh that's easy. Here goes.

Speech:Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!Yao! T-Mac!

Done, and a for sure A+. :thumbup
 
The returns were primarily up the right side after it was sealed off. The team he played for did an excellent job of setting up the return. We don't do that. He received the ball in stride on most occasions, but he did come back and wait on one. His speed is desepitve as he has that easy stride. Reminds me of the great Tommie Smith of Lemore in our area. Watched him run when he was at San Jose State. The guy was unbelievable and he had that stride that looked like he was just moving along and then you realized he was just flat out blazing fast but he looked just like he was loping along. Watched Smith take a hand off in the 440 relay 10 yards behind the other guy and won going away by 10 or 20 yards. Again the easy stride is deseptive. It fools the defense. Looks like the guy has excellent hands. Its obvious he's a football player unlike Bob Hayes. The young man has excellent potential, but it's hard to judge because the level of competion was not the greatest.
 
Ibar_Harry said:
Looks like the guy has excellent hands..
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WRONG WRONG WRONG, one of the biggest knocks on the kid is he drops balls, i think he will be a very productive WR, but it is a habit he will need to "drop" so to speak. AJ had the same knock, that he dropped some passes, and AJ has worked on that every year that he has been here, if Mathis puts in that kind of work, then he will be very good
 
This guy was a verry good pick, simply just because he's a 4'th round pick that will definatly return kicks if nothing else. The main thing about kickoff or punt returns is speed and recognising when to change direction. It's the one area af the game that their is verry little change in speed from NCAA division 2, 1-AA, or 1-A, or the NFL, although it may seem like their would be a big change, most football players on special teams run anywear from a 4.5 to 4.7 40, and those kinds of guys are a dime a dozen. One coach who loves to recruit returners from small schools would be Bill Parcells, one example of that would be Eric Metcalf.
 
I just hope that Palmer let's Mathis run down the field and doesn't just throw him wr screens and lets him run a reverse.
 
Texan Dave said:
This guy was a verry good pick, simply just because he's a 4'th round pick that will definatly return kicks if nothing else. The main thing about kickoff or punt returns is speed and recognising when to change direction. It's the one area af the game that their is verry little change in speed from NCAA division 2, 1-AA, or 1-A, or the NFL, although it may seem like their would be a big change, most football players on special teams run anywear from a 4.5 to 4.7 40, and those kinds of guys are a dime a dozen. One coach who loves to recruit returners from small schools would be Bill Parcells, one example of that would be Eric Metcalf.
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Wasn't Eric from UT or am I thinking of someone else?
 
Sorry, Metcalf did go to Texas, but I believe he was drafted by the Browns. The Player I was thinking about was Dave Megget, who played for Townson State.
 
THEFUTURE said:
WRONG WRONG WRONG, one of the biggest knocks on the kid is he drops balls...
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I will disagree with this statement. An in depth scouting report does says he will occassionally drop a ball when he loses concentration and tries to run before securing the ball. But this same scouting report also says he does not drop many balls, despite a tendency to body catch.

So far in mini-camp, he has impressed with his hands - "I like the way his hands have looked to this point in time"...Capers. Of course the balls have not been the bullits thrown by Carr.

The Chronicle reported that Mathis did not have a position coach for the past two seasons. He obviously has some bad habits, but IMO the book is still out on him just as to how good a player he can develope into with professional coaching.
 
tacoman_j said:
If he does become our #2 reciever, I guess that would be a steal. Too raw and too small to ever contribute to our offense.
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with his kinda speed he dont have to be tall to contribute on offense. if he can burn them he can catch and he can score !!!!
 
Dunno, Coles can hold onto the football. I haven't seen this guy play at all, but with his speed he will open up the middle of the feild some for AJ. The knock on him right now is that he drops too many balls. Maybe if he doesn't pan out we could trade him to Seattle (They seem to love Wide outs that drop the pigskin).
 
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