Ingtar, question on Willis...

[BillsMan80]

coming out of college, obviously with his stats and measureables, what recent player does he remind you of? I was having an argument with Fin fans on Finheaven that Willis is a better overall prospect as a Running Back for this year than Ricky was when he came out, LT, and Deuce, when considering production and measureables. Would you tend to agree with that? Because I kind of see Willis as a cross between Marshall Faulk and Freddy Taylor down in Jacksonville. Also, I noticed while watching Miami games and came to my conclusion based on a number of things. Number 1, Willis to me has great vision and once he sees the hole, he hits it. Number 2, his acceleration once he sees the hole is world class as he always seemed to hit the hole hard and before it plugged up. Number 3, he always seemed to set up his blockers well which helped him on his big gainers. Number 4, the biggest thing is that he is much more of a gamebreaker than any recent back in memory. I remember watching a game against BC when BC had been leading the whole first half, and Miami got the ball inside their own 10 with about 2 minutes left, and Willis exploded for a 77 yard run and took it into the end zone a little later which swung the momentum of the game. It just seemed to me that he is the complete package at RB, whereas others had questions about themselves.

[The_Philster]

Sporting News' Draft Guide had him listed as a Fred Taylor-type

[Earthquake Enyart]

Hey! You're not Ingtar!! :eek:

[Ingtar33]

OK... to help argue some fin fans I'm more than happy to help.

WilMc was the coconscious no.1 pick in our FO before the Fiesta Bowl. After it he fell all the way to no.45 (on my list). After our docs got a chance to look at him (they gave him a 90% chance to recover completely, and a 50/50 chance of being ready for week one), and when we started to put together our draft board WilMc ended up as the no.3 prospect in the draft (behind Leftwich and Rogers).

That no.3 ranking is the highest RB spot I've seen since I've been a part of the NFL draft, except for LT. LT was also rated a no.3, but he was viewed as more of a workhorse than a game breaker (of course the reason he was so high is because he could tear off the big run every once in a while). RW, was rated a no.9 (we were worried about fumbles and the huge amount of mileage on him already), and McAllister/Portis were 20-30 picks.

Now, I'm not the world's greatest talent evaluator... I think my FO likes me because I turn up some good guys in later rounds, and I've really laid a few eggs (I thought both Stalworth and Lelie were destined for failure for example). But when I look at WilMc, I see a guy with limitless potential. He has all the physical tools, he produced in college against good competition (the Hurricanes played very quality teams last season), and he's has an ideal personality (team first, tough as nails, hard worker, quite leader type, extremely competitive).

Do I really know how he'll do in the pros? Lord no! No one does. Anyone who tells you other is lying or can actually see the future. But I can tell you that either in this talent thin draft or in one of the better ones he would have been at or very near the top of everyone’s draft board without that knee injury. I also know that James and Portis, even Gore (in the few limited times I saw him on tape), never looked as good as McGahee did last year.

BTW: I'm not really sure who he most reminds me of... Taylor is a good comparison, but so is Marshal Faulk. I'm a bit of a football junky, and while I never got to see him play live, I did get to see him on tape, and I like the OJ comparison best of all (of course OJ couldn't catch a cold... so made that’s not all that good a comparison).

My biggest concern with WilMc (other than his knee) is that most speed burners who run a sub 4.4 tend to suffer an excessive number of hammy pulls... and while WilMc has never really suffered one of those (to the best of my recollection), it is a concern.