LifetimeBillsFan
01-16-2007, 01:28 AM
An interesting article on Ellison and Pennington from BB.com.
"....By season's end Ellison had seven starts under his belt and contributed 61 tackles, an interception, a fumble recovery, a sack and three pass breakups."
I knew that Ellison had played well, but I hadn't realized that he had been that productive over the course of the season. Obviously, he still has a lot of improving to do, but those numbers, given his playing time, indicate that he certainly is off to a good start.
"We thought he was good enough to play in this league," said head coach Dick Jauronhttp://www.buffalobills.com/images/relatedicon.gif (http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=4570#). "But he's even better than we thought he was and we thought he was pretty good. He's so smart."
"He came in and played SAM linebacker, he played the WILL and he's played nickel WILL. The kid has done a remarkable job. He's the diamond in the rough in this draft class."
That is certainly high praise from Jauron. I would take it as an indication that the Bills coaching staff will be looking for big things from Ellison in the future. Considering that both Cato June and Gary Brackett took a year just to develop, I could see the Bills taking the approach that Ellison will be their Cato June at OLB come next season.
"I'm excited to get back out here in March and I think it will help my game out a lot," Ellison said. "As coach told me you make the biggest jump from year one to year two so I'm looking forward to getting back to work when we come back later this offseason and get ready to go for next year."
And, it sounds like he has the right attitude towards what he needs to do this off-season to get better.
"Next to J.P. Losmanhttp://www.buffalobills.com/images/relatedicon.gif (http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=4570#), Jauron calls Pennington one of the most improved players....
"He had to be on our roster thinking, 'I just need to learn what's going on and hang in there and spend a couple of years learning this stuff and I'll have a chance to play,'" Jauron said. "And in year one he became our starting right tackle. And you know what? He did okay. We knew we'd have to help him some and we did, but there were times we left him alone and he was fine. He's just going to get better. I believe that. He's going to have to work just like everybody else, but I don't think he'll have a problem with that."
Considering that Pennington gave up just two sacks and commited only one penalty in his nine starts, even though did get help, especially early on, I think Jauron is right in saying that the kid did OK. We all could see that he needs to get a lot better, especially in his run blocking, but, like Ellison, Pennington has to be considered a pleasant surprise.
"He was playing," said Jauron. "There's no substitute for that. Playing the game is the deal. Preparing and playing and learning. Terrance is pretty good and I think we're just scratching the surface. We didn't think Terrance would blossom like he did, which really is a credit to him and Jim (McNally) and (assistant offensive line coach) Larry (Zierlein)."
A lot of players who come into the NFL are pretty good and I'll bet that most of us Bills fans didn't even think Pennington would make the team on draft day, but a lot of times it can be the ability of the position coach to get through to the player and the willingness of the player to trust and listen to the position coach that can make all of the difference in the world. For all of his talent, it seemed like no one was able to get through to Mike Williams after his rookie season, but as with Jason Peters, it seems like Pennington is on the same wave-length with McNally and Zierlein. And, that's a good thing--let's hope it and Pennington's improvement continues.
"Pennington plans to return to Buffalo prior to the report date in mid-March for the offseason conditioning program to get a head start on sharpening up his techniques.
"I will be here in early March to work with the coaches," Pennington said. "You'll see my face a lot in Buffalo this offseason trying to get ready. I can only go up from here so that's what I'm excited about."
How can you not like the guy's attitude?
The article concludes with Jauron saying that, while all of the young guys performed well, it's a tribute to these two that they really stood out.
URL: http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=4570
While watching one of the college all-star games over the weekend, I heard one of the announcers say that good NFL teams are really built on their second day draft choices and, in my experience of watching the game for many years, I believe that that is true. Every team expects its Day One draft picks to contribute and become stars, but it is the teams that are able to find solid players and the occasional star on Day Two of the draft and in the UDFA market that get a leg up on the competition. It not only takes skill to find players at the bottom of the draft who can help a team, but also luck: finding guys with not just talent, but the right attitude and work-ethic needed to get better.
I know that a lot of Bills fans despise T.Brady and B.Belichick, but I recall hearing Belichick talk about Brady after the Pats won their first SB and I will never forget that Belichick said that, of all of the players that he had ever coached, Brady was the player who had made the greatest improvement between his rookie season and his second year. Belichick intimated that he never expected Brady to make that kind of improvement and that Brady would never have been able to led the team to that SB, let alone win it, if he had not made that improvement. It takes players from the bottom of the draft who surprise coaches by making that kind of big improvement--as rookies and between their first and second years--to build great teams, but that is not something that coaches or GMs can necessarily predict.
Both Ellison and Pennington have already shown more than their coaches expected. Let's hope that, having done that already, they can both now take it to the next level this off-season. If they can, both they and the Bills, as a team, will be in good shape for the future. The Bills did a good job of coming up with these two players last off-season, but they are going to have to continue to find guys like these two, who can improve right away and will continue to work to get better, if the team is going to be able to step up to the next level soon.
"....By season's end Ellison had seven starts under his belt and contributed 61 tackles, an interception, a fumble recovery, a sack and three pass breakups."
I knew that Ellison had played well, but I hadn't realized that he had been that productive over the course of the season. Obviously, he still has a lot of improving to do, but those numbers, given his playing time, indicate that he certainly is off to a good start.
"We thought he was good enough to play in this league," said head coach Dick Jauronhttp://www.buffalobills.com/images/relatedicon.gif (http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=4570#). "But he's even better than we thought he was and we thought he was pretty good. He's so smart."
"He came in and played SAM linebacker, he played the WILL and he's played nickel WILL. The kid has done a remarkable job. He's the diamond in the rough in this draft class."
That is certainly high praise from Jauron. I would take it as an indication that the Bills coaching staff will be looking for big things from Ellison in the future. Considering that both Cato June and Gary Brackett took a year just to develop, I could see the Bills taking the approach that Ellison will be their Cato June at OLB come next season.
"I'm excited to get back out here in March and I think it will help my game out a lot," Ellison said. "As coach told me you make the biggest jump from year one to year two so I'm looking forward to getting back to work when we come back later this offseason and get ready to go for next year."
And, it sounds like he has the right attitude towards what he needs to do this off-season to get better.
"Next to J.P. Losmanhttp://www.buffalobills.com/images/relatedicon.gif (http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=4570#), Jauron calls Pennington one of the most improved players....
"He had to be on our roster thinking, 'I just need to learn what's going on and hang in there and spend a couple of years learning this stuff and I'll have a chance to play,'" Jauron said. "And in year one he became our starting right tackle. And you know what? He did okay. We knew we'd have to help him some and we did, but there were times we left him alone and he was fine. He's just going to get better. I believe that. He's going to have to work just like everybody else, but I don't think he'll have a problem with that."
Considering that Pennington gave up just two sacks and commited only one penalty in his nine starts, even though did get help, especially early on, I think Jauron is right in saying that the kid did OK. We all could see that he needs to get a lot better, especially in his run blocking, but, like Ellison, Pennington has to be considered a pleasant surprise.
"He was playing," said Jauron. "There's no substitute for that. Playing the game is the deal. Preparing and playing and learning. Terrance is pretty good and I think we're just scratching the surface. We didn't think Terrance would blossom like he did, which really is a credit to him and Jim (McNally) and (assistant offensive line coach) Larry (Zierlein)."
A lot of players who come into the NFL are pretty good and I'll bet that most of us Bills fans didn't even think Pennington would make the team on draft day, but a lot of times it can be the ability of the position coach to get through to the player and the willingness of the player to trust and listen to the position coach that can make all of the difference in the world. For all of his talent, it seemed like no one was able to get through to Mike Williams after his rookie season, but as with Jason Peters, it seems like Pennington is on the same wave-length with McNally and Zierlein. And, that's a good thing--let's hope it and Pennington's improvement continues.
"Pennington plans to return to Buffalo prior to the report date in mid-March for the offseason conditioning program to get a head start on sharpening up his techniques.
"I will be here in early March to work with the coaches," Pennington said. "You'll see my face a lot in Buffalo this offseason trying to get ready. I can only go up from here so that's what I'm excited about."
How can you not like the guy's attitude?
The article concludes with Jauron saying that, while all of the young guys performed well, it's a tribute to these two that they really stood out.
URL: http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=4570
While watching one of the college all-star games over the weekend, I heard one of the announcers say that good NFL teams are really built on their second day draft choices and, in my experience of watching the game for many years, I believe that that is true. Every team expects its Day One draft picks to contribute and become stars, but it is the teams that are able to find solid players and the occasional star on Day Two of the draft and in the UDFA market that get a leg up on the competition. It not only takes skill to find players at the bottom of the draft who can help a team, but also luck: finding guys with not just talent, but the right attitude and work-ethic needed to get better.
I know that a lot of Bills fans despise T.Brady and B.Belichick, but I recall hearing Belichick talk about Brady after the Pats won their first SB and I will never forget that Belichick said that, of all of the players that he had ever coached, Brady was the player who had made the greatest improvement between his rookie season and his second year. Belichick intimated that he never expected Brady to make that kind of improvement and that Brady would never have been able to led the team to that SB, let alone win it, if he had not made that improvement. It takes players from the bottom of the draft who surprise coaches by making that kind of big improvement--as rookies and between their first and second years--to build great teams, but that is not something that coaches or GMs can necessarily predict.
Both Ellison and Pennington have already shown more than their coaches expected. Let's hope that, having done that already, they can both now take it to the next level this off-season. If they can, both they and the Bills, as a team, will be in good shape for the future. The Bills did a good job of coming up with these two players last off-season, but they are going to have to continue to find guys like these two, who can improve right away and will continue to work to get better, if the team is going to be able to step up to the next level soon.