01-30-2024, 11:30 PM
(01-30-2024, 06:49 PM)Whatever Wrote: If you think Ross was a one trick pony, you never bothered to watch his tape. He broke a number of top draft prospects ankles with his route stems, his whip route was nasty due to his quickness, and he actually showed the ability to break tackles due to often having to wait on the ball forever from a non NFL caliber QB. However, most of deep shots were actually on post routes where he could set the defender up at the top of his stem, not the repeated "go" routes he was running here between the 20's. His big question marks were injuries and whether he could hold up against constant press man impeding his release.
It ultimately didn't matter, though, because as legend goes, Mikey broke a dead lock between Tobin and Marvin on the pick. Tobin wanted Ross, while Marvin wanted Reuben Foster, who had already flunked his drug test at the Combine and only lasted 2 years in the league before being run out with more failed drug tests and domestic violence issues. Marvin apparently had a hard on for troubled LB's(Burfict, Odell), so we would have wound up with a bust if he had his druthers, anyways.
Smith isn't a top G, dude. He's been Top 10 in penalties every year and that's with the Mahomes effect. He wasn't a scheme fit in wide zone anyways. Look at what Orlando Brown is for us, and you'd have a worse version of that if he was drafted here.
It's surprisingly irritating when people insist that Ross was a one trick pony due to his speed. He was a great prospect on paper for all of the reasons you mentioned. Ultimately he didn't work out, but it is such a lazy and misinformed opinion to say that he had nothing but speed. You don't get drafted in the top 10 purely on speed unless you're Darrius Heyward-Bey.
