NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

[Jeff1220]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/9905656

This season's rookies were off the chart

By Bryan Morry
Special to NFL.com

(Jan. 3, 2007) -- Summer is when the hope of winter glory saturates NFL training camps. Anxious teams, all 0-0, line up in sweltering heat eager to see how new and young faces blend with the old.

Well, in 2006, someone forgot to tell that to the impressive crop of drafted players who stormed into the league and made sizable contributions for contending and non-contending teams alike. The list of impact rookies is lengthy and the playoff rosters include a heavy dose of the Class of '06.

A whole flippin article about this and no mention of Whitner or Simpson!

[ParanoidAndroid]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

I love it! Get them nice and pissed off in preparation for the offseason so they can come back and smack some people in the mouth.
We didn't have any "superstars," but I bet no team had the overall contribution from as many rookies as the Bills did and the 2 not starting have a solid chance of doing so next year, especially McCargo. Five rookies became regular starters and looked good. One of the former 2 was getting more playing time up until the season ending injury. The other was basically out of football for a month including all of training camp and was decent in spot duty near the end of the season.
People will notice once these guys are leading us into Super Bowl contention over the next few years. Until then, the quieter the better.

[gr8slayer]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

Whitner really did not live up to the #8 pick this year. He like every other rookie gets three years in my book so I hope for much bigger things next year.

[jamze132]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

Whitner really did not live up to the #8 pick this year. He like every other rookie gets three years in my book so I hope for much bigger things next year.

How many rookies had over 100 tackles? I think he deserved the #8.

[Statman]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

Whitner really did not live up to the #8 pick this year. He like every other rookie gets three years in my book so I hope for much bigger things next year.

That's the alternative viewpoint going against the flow of the mentality here that questions why Whitner and Simpson aren't at the top of every DROY list.

[Statman]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

How many rookies had over 100 tackles? I think he deserved the #8.

Could it be because none of our DTs could stop the run leaving Fletcher and Whitner as the guys in the middle to stop them?

It also doesn't help that we often leave the space on the DL between the tackles completely unmanned by defensive linemen leaving the back seven to do the job.

In essense he had the opportunity to do it. The Ravens safeties didn't have that kind of opportunity because so few players needing to be tackled got to that level.

[Statman]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

How many rookies had over 100 tackles? I think he deserved the #8.

Also, consider that in our system there is a premium on passes defensed, not for tackling RBs that get past the front seven.

Simpson had a mere two PDs and Whitner four. That's not very good for PDs, even for safeties, but especially safeties in a Cover 2/Tampa 2.

My guess is that if we had a defensive line we'd see those numbers improve. But that would be the same for any Ss and CBs.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

Everybody ran on us. There were relatively few pass attempts and some good pass defense. Whitner did his job. He wasn't a big playmaker but he was clearly more productive than Huff. Ok....Huff.....so what? Of all the rookie safeties, I'm pretty sure he was the most productive and made tackles all over the field. Simpson was a 4th round pick and his production was good also considering that he was suddenly a starter in game 2.
Rookie Year Stats for some veteran safeties:
Dawkins

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
1996	Philadelphia Eagles	14	85	63.0	22	1	3	41	13.7	30	0	6

Deion Grant

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
2000	Carolina Panthers	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0
2001	Carolina Panthers	16	71	59.0	12	1	5	96	19.2	43	0	8

Archuleta

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
2001	St. Louis Rams	13	56	47.0	9	2	0	0	0.0	0	0	3

Chavous Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
1998	Arizona Cardinals	16	28	22.0	6	0	2	0	0.0	0	0	6

Rodney Harisson

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
1994	San Diego Chargers	15	20	17.0	3	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0
1995	San Diego Chargers	11	33	29.0	4	0	5	22	4.4	17	0	0

Sean Jones

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
2004	Cleveland Browns	0	0	0.0	0	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0
2005	Cleveland Browns	16	23	16.0	7	0	0	0	0.0	0	0	0

Sammy Knight

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
1997	New Orleans Saints	16	93	76.0	17	0	5	75	15.0	39	0	7

Milloy

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
1996	New England Patriots	16	84	54.0	30	1	2	14	7.0	14	0	5

Polamalu

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
2003	Pittsburgh Steelers	16	38	30.0	8	2	0	0	0.0	0	0	4

Williams

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
2002	Dallas Cowboys	16	99	88.0	11	2	5	90	18.0	85	2	3

Wilson

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
2001	Arizona Cardinals	16	32	24.0	8	0.5	2	97	48.5	61	1	6

Wire (lol)

Year	Team	G	Total	Tkl	Ast	Sacks	Int	Yds	Avg	Lg	TD	Pass Def
2002	Buffalo Bills	16	96	71.0	25	3	0	0	0.0	0	0	1

[jamze132]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

Also, consider that in our system there is a premium on passes defensed, not for tackling RBs that get past the front seven.

Simpson had a mere two PDs and Whitner four. That's not very good for PDs, even for safeties, but especially safeties in a Cover 2/Tampa 2.

My guess is that if we had a defensive line we'd see those numbers improve. But that would be the same for any Ss and CBs.

Whitner and Simpson did what they were asked to do. Try and find something positive to talk about.

[CuseJetsFan83]

Re: NFL.com article on Rookie contibutions this year...

I love it! Get them nice and pissed off in preparation for the offseason so they can come back and smack some people in the mouth.
We didn't have any "superstars," but I bet no team had the overall contribution from as many rookies as the Bills did and the 2 not starting have a solid chance of doing so next year, especially McCargo. Five rookies became regular starters and looked good. One of the former 2 was getting more playing time up until the season ending injury. The other was basically out of football for a month including all of training camp and was decent in spot duty near the end of the season.
People will notice once these guys are leading us into Super Bowl contention over the next few years. Until then, the quieter the better.

well in the case of the jets you had mangold and d-brick (minus that buffalo game in dec) playing extremely well, and not to mention washington playing rb...... as well as brad smith, and a few of the others on d........ i'd much rather have my team play under the radar rather than be in the news all the time ala TO.