On Aaron Maybin, Patience, and Coaching

The key to successful coaching is recognizing the player’s strength and positioning him/her to take advantage of that strength. However, the additional ingredient is a willingness on the player’s part to do whatever is necessary to succeed. The right player, the right situation, and good coaching usually wins out.

How many ‘stars’ played for Bobby Knight? How many ‘stars’ play for Belicheck? On the flipside: how many ‘stars’ played for the Redskins and, now, the Eagles. You could have a roster full of ‘stars’ and go nowhere. Give me players who listen, are disciplined, know their position inside and out, as well as the players’ around them, are dedicated to give it their all each and every play and, then, expose them to good coaching and you’ll have a contending team year in and year out.

Bobby Knight, Wooden, Belicheck, Landry, Lombardi, et al: they all got the most out of their players, regardless of skill level. Know your position and excel at it. That’s all the player needs to do to succeed with good coaching!

Ducasse’s strength is perfectly suited for Guard NOT RT. Focusing him on that ONE position will make him a Pro Bowl guard within 3 years from today. He’s got the physical tools. He’s got the brains (MA grad). He’s dedicated. He’ll flourish at RG. Your example of Kyle Wilson is spot on — perfect Nickle. McKnight — perfect KR and 3rd down back.

We’ve got a bunch of guys just waiting to succeed and we’ve got the coaching to make that happen…except OC. It just takes patience.

The guys only 24 yrs old. he will only get better. he needs to bulk up and work on different technique so he is not a one trick pony. I am glad he is on the Jets. He has a motor second to none.

You lose out on time that could be spent developing another guy and set back the team if you have TOO much patience on a guy that simply doesn’t have it. I think there’s something you look to see specifically in some guys, even if they aren’t lighting the league on fire as a 1st or 2nd year player, that makes you think they can be a player and are worth the effort. I would say that we spent too much time on Vernon Gholston when the fact that he still couldn’t get on the field by his 2nd year should’ve shown that we should pan for other pass rushers. Raiders did it with Russell. Sometimes you get rewarded for patience (like SF with Alex Smith, who most reasonable teams would’ve gotten rid of like 2 or 3 years ago), sometimes you get burned for it (like Detroit with Joey Harrington). It’s all a matter of opinion and hope that you trust your scouting and are right in your beliefs, and if you are a good scout you should be right more often than you aren’t. Some people may see Vlad Ducasse and say “he just needs more time, he has physical tools and size, he could be a beast or at least a quality player” and I’d look at that and say “WTF are you smoking, Vlad has no explosion off the line and he’ll never be a player in this league, I’d draft another OL high to see if that guy is capable of taking Vlad’s spot”. One person is right.

…Vlad’s NFL position is going to be at (RG) and that may end up working out for the “TEAM”. It is a shame that the departure of D. Woody was handled so poorly. W. Hunter has been coached up however and is playing at a higher level than early this year. The RT position appears to be the weak link on offense. The addition of A. Maybin turned the B. Thomas injury into a “blessing in disguise”. The pressure he brings is intense and while he is yet to muscle up he has changed the weakpoint of the defense to (S) in my opinion.
A. Maybin is benefiting from coaching as well as being utilized properly. Imagine the upgrade we can all expect to see on the offensive side of the ball once we get an “OC”(see B. Callahan).