See, I'd say that giving up on a guy before his second season begins is overboard. With this attitude, neither D'Brickashaw Ferguson nor Brandon Moore would be Jets right now.
The Brick hate was bullshit. He had starter capability right away. People wanted him to be Jon Ogden from day one. Anyone who hated Brick immediately is a fucking idiot.
Brick played at Virginia and Moore played at Illinois. That's a massive leap in talent from UMass. Whatever division/conference that is in.
Vladimir Ducasse, by every interview and printed quote he has made, looks like he could very well be the stupidest human being I have ever seen. He really doesn't even look human from some angles. We all know that you do not have to be an academic to play football, unfortunately after watching the looks of utter bewilderment that are so at home below that gargantuan sloping brow, I marvel that this man knows how to tie his own cleats. You cannot win with every draft pick. An unfortunate truth.
Just watching this now and jesus he is scary.....he may have physical set off the charts but his awareness is scary.
That didn't stop many, many people from declaring these players busts when they weren't lockdown starters from day 1. You want some fun reads, search this site for some '06 D'Brick threads. Especially when Marcus McNeill made the Pro Bowl after the '06 season. Waste of a pick, never be any good, shoulda taken Winston Justice, etc., etc...
I just remember watching Vlad get smoked by that edge rusher once he shifted to right tackle. Who was that guy, Brahman? I've never heard of him. All I know is Vlad knew he had to block that guy and he didn't even get a finger on him. Dude ran right around him and exploded Greg McElroy like a pumpkin on Halloween. One more year of learning from the bench under Billy C, Vlad. There's no way in hell I want to see Vlad Ducasse protecting Mark Sanchez from Lamar Woodley or James Harrison. I don't think I could watch that game and still have fingernails left.
How you can play rt and let a dlineman run staright past you as you step forward and block caspar the ghost is beyond me. Guy has no football brain thats my concern
Why is that? Seriously you need it explained? The guy comes from a small school and he isn't someone who has played his entire life. He missed out on offseason where he would have been looking at game film with coaches, working out with NFL trainers as well as learning from his teammates. People say he is raw because he is not because it sounds nice. Coming into the league that raw and missing the first full offseason as a pro is terrible for anyone's development, even worse for someone who was drafted as a project. The project basically got put on hold for 6 months. I already said he looked terrible in pass protection tonight but I'll say it again so all the alarmists don't have a heart attack.
I'm going through the tape now: On the first series he was fine. He got off the ball fast on run blocking. He handled Watt and didn't make a mistake. The only bad thing he did was not get to his guy on Greene's screen pass. Big deal, it was still a positive play. That whole first series he gets a B+. He loves run blocking. That he has down pretty well. I don't like how he ducks his head at the point of contact. That's a bad habit. No other Jet offensive lineman does that. Start of the 2nd series, he sells the play action fine and pushes his assignment across the line. Does his job. Watt started to get better by this time, because that kid Watt is lightening fast off the ball. Next two plays are quick passes, so there is no need for long protection. But here's the fun play. He knocks Watt off balance right off the snap. The next play is when he gets his ass kicked by Watt and hurts turner in the process. Watt rolled on Turner's ankle. Watt got great leverage with his long ass arms and beat Ducasse. Watt will go to the pro bowl in his career. I guarantee it. A guard of Moore's caliber would be needed to beat that rush by Watt. I'm not trying to defend Ducasse. You have to tip your cap to Watt on that play. He used great leverage and got the separation needed to hook his right arm underneath Vlad and swim his way to a sack. Watt plays like a 2nd year player, and it was his first preseason game. Okay, you hate Ducasse at this moment. He got Turner hurt and gave up a sack. He sucks! Well, the next play he responds. Not only does he decleat Sharpton with a nasty punch to the ribs, he fucking taunts him as he runs by him and gets to the second level. If anyone recorded the game, you want to fast forward to 3:10 in the 1st qtr to witness this play. Its a pitch to Greene going left, but Ducasse completes his assignment just as good as Moore would have, if not better. That one play gets a perfect 100%. Tip your cap to the young player.... oh, but it was Patrick Turner's holding play. So his great play is for naught. In the 2nd quarter, he played RT. He's a good run blocker. We cannot call him a turnstile if he plays one aspect of the game very well. On the two runs to start the 2nd string offensive series, he beat the shit out of his guy. On the 2nd run, he made his assignment about-face. Then it happened again... He got off the ball so late, he didn't get a hand on Nading and it was a sack fumble turnover. His pass pro is needs work. He is, IMO, half way there. But half way means he's a year away from being viable. 3rd and 22, 2:34 left in the 1st half... His pass pro looked good. Absolutely raped his rusher. It looked like a bully in a school yard. Vlad looks more natural at RT. He's not a guard. He gets beat when a pass rusher makes a strong move on him, because he hasn't seen a ton of moves at this level and he doesn't know how to deal with them. Time. All he needs is time, and he won't be shit on like he was tonight on two snaps. Even Rex praised his play in the post game. Yes, Rex praises everyone - but its not wrong to say Ducasse didn't suck today. He had two atrocious snaps. I'd say 6 snaps overall where he could have done his job better. Saying he's completely worthless is unfair. He's not. All we remember without further analysis are the two plays where he got embrrassed. But the other snaps he took, he played pretty well. I'm not going to analyze his LG play, because if he's playing in Slauson's spot, the Jets are in real trouble with OL injuries. Pray it never happens. Let's also praise him for playing 3 positions on the line today. That's a lot to ask from a project who had a limited offseason.
That sentence makes no sense. He's going to ruin a season, but let's hope he doesn't go in the game. So if he's not in the game how can he get anyone hurt?
Lots of NFL players have come from smaller schools. When someone the size of Vlad walks into your school, as football coach, you want him on your team, and at that level his size and strength are going to be enough, largely. He is NOT a footballer, and IMHO will never be. How anyone can compare him to 'Brick early career is absurd. Brick showed flashes, but struggled, Vlad on the other hand just shows a complete lack of comprehension. Yes, he like other missed OTAs, TC etc.. Well what exactly did he do? Sanchez held camps and I believe that the D Line and O line did the same, theres nothing to stop him from reading up and watching tape himself, if he can operate the DVD. The one comparison I can level at him with Ghoston is that neither of them have a nasty streak. Too nice and not a footballer. Did the CS think they were drafting the next Michael Oher?? The one thing he is good at is winning the ugliest mug in TC, hands down.
Vlad made numerous nice blocks in the game and had a couple of mistakes. The same can be said of numerous other players. The hilarious reaction of some fans to game 1 preseason is pathetically absurd.
I think both sides of argument have merit however if this was the fins/pats 2nd rd choice of 2010 looking like a stumbling giant at times we would be in hysterics. Finding an argument that presents his strengths and weaknesses is all well and good but we expected to see some improvement his play last night was same as last preseason...good in run blocking but atrocious in the main in pass blocking. We are not talking a 5th rd pick here...he was no 61.... At this moment we are lacking depth in our oline..not what we expected when you draft a 2nd rd tackle!
The dude fucking blows. Yeah there was a lockout and all, so I'll give him one more off-season to prove his worth. After that, no more excuses.
Many of the same things were said about Gholston.... This is not a hilarious over reaction, more a concern that our back up rt and 2rd developmental pick is showing the awareness of a blind hedgehog in pass protection
The worry for me is that in all the positions hes played in, he doesn't look comfortable. I'm not being horrible, but he really looks way out of his depth.
