No love for Daniel Thomas

[roy_miami]

The reason people have a difficulty with Thomas, in my view, is that he is the embodiment of Ireland's draft philosophy, ie to go for low downside safe picks in the top of the draft. Worse still, Ireland put such a premium on him being a solid, low risk, starting player that he moved up for the guy.

Then to top it off, the guy turns out to be not so safe after all. I feel for him, despite him being underwhelming, because its Jeff Ireland most of us are disappointed with, more so than Thomas.

We owe Daniel Thomas a debt of gratitude, in that he is a lesson to Ireland that you can never be sure of a safe, cant-miss starter. I think Ireland took more risk on playmakers in the last draft (Tannehill, Miller, Egnew, Vernon) and hopefully will refine his style and do it better this time round. But his failed Thomas ploy was probably one of the factors that pushed him to be more aggressive last time out.

This. Plus all 4 of our running backs on the roster from 2010 became free agents, typical Ireland with no foresight is forced to panic in the draft to fill a gaping hole. Remember we were giving guys like Tiki Barber and Jerome Bettis workouts that offseason? Plus Ricky Williams couldn't stand to be on a team with these buffoons anymore so he took his services elsewhere.

[ckparrothead]

Did You Know

...that Daniel Thomas ranks #93 out of 108 for yards after contact per carry amongst all tailbacks that took 50+ carries in 2011 & 2012?

[NorFlaFin]

If Jonas Gray can makes Daniel Thomas trade-able then so be it.

[roy_miami]

If Jonas Gray can makes Daniel Thomas trade-able then so be it.

Trade-able? We might be able to get a bag of pretzels for him...

[ckparrothead]

I agree. Bush and Thomas run like *******. I want them both gone.

And to your point, Reggie Bush only ranks #75 of 108 in yards after contact per carry...which is still higher than Daniel Thomas' #93 of 108 but not very high overall.

Lamar Miller ranks #27 of 108 but it should be noted his 51 carries only barely squeaked him above the 50 carry cutoff.

[Fins1971]

Reggie Bush in 2011 & 2012 took 14 carries for 64 yards on 3rd/4th & 1-2 yards to go. He took 18 carries for 26 yards inside the opponent's 10 yard line. Together that's 32 carries for 90 yards (2.8 YPC). Exclude those and he gained 1982 yards on 411 carries (4.8 YPC).

Lamar Miller in 2012 took 1 carry for 1 yard in these situations, which means excluding them he ran 50 times for 249 yards (5.0 YPC).

Daniel Thomas in 2011 & 2012 took 42 carries for 50 yards (1.2 YPC) in these situations. Excluding them he ran 214 times for 856 yards (4.0 YPC).
.

You are leaving out the 1st, and 2nd down and less than 2 yards.

This is important becuase instead of going for the big play our offense decides to slam DT into the line to pick up the 1st down.
The D is waiting for this just like on 3rd and 2. take way those short yardage plays and Dt shoots up to above 4 yards per carry.

If you expect him to be better than a former #2 pick with 6 years experience than i don't know what to tell you.
And Millers attempts are so low that you cant really consider them until he handles a heavier load.

---------- Post added at 04:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 PM ----------

And to your point, Reggie Bush only ranks #75 of 108 in yards after contact per carry...which is still higher than Daniel Thomas' #93 of 108 but not very high overall.

Lamar Miller ranks #27 of 108 but it should be noted his 51 carries only barely squeaked him above the 50 carry cutoff.

Yeah not enough carries for the D to get familair with Miller. Hopefully he can keep up the average when he has to carry the ball 100 times or more.

[ckparrothead]

You are leaving out the 1st, and 2nd down and less than 2 yards.

First off, a 1st & 1 or 1st & 2 is by definition a goal line carry so no, I did not leave those out at all. I just refused to double-count them.

Secondly there's nothing suggesting that a 2nd & 1 or 2nd & 2 run play is going to be a dive that only gains 1 or 2 yards. Reggie Bush, for example, gained 4.1 yards per carry on 2nd & 1-2 yards, and Lamar Miller gained 5.1 yards per carry on 2nd & 1 or 2nd & 2.

This is important becuase instead of going for the big play our offense decides to slam DT into the line to pick up the 1st down.

Just because a 2nd & 1 or a 2nd & 2 is a run play doesn't mean it's a dive play. I think you've got the wrong perception of play calling on 2nd & Short. Like I said, Reggie Bush gained 4.1 yards per carry and Lamar Miller gained 5.1 yards per carry on those same downs and distances 2nd & 1 or 2nd & 2.

If you expect him to be better than a former #2 pick with 6 years experience than i don't know what to tell you.
And Millers attempts are so low that you cant really consider them until he handles a heavier load.

You don't have to compare Daniel Thomas to Reggie Bush. You can compare him to just about any back in the league if you want a proper means of evaluating his inadequacy. And with 51 carries under his belt yes absolutely Lamar Miller has enough under the belt to deserve comparison to Daniel Thomas.

[DudeleBroski]

We could have finally beat the texans 2 years ago but he fumbled the damn ball away.

[DphinBillkiller]

I had high hopes for Thomas, but so far they haven't panned out.

[normaldude]

There's nothing special about Daniel Thomas. He doesn't have game breaking speed. He doesn't punish defenders. He isn't a consistent short-yardage guy. His durability is questionable.

We could grab some random free agent running back, who is now working at a supermarket, and that guy could do the same thing as Daniel Thomas.. average 3.5 yds/carry, fumble the ball, then get hurt.

I have nothing against Daniel Thomas. He seems like a good guy. But the only reason he's given so many chances is because of his draft status. Fact is, he's a very unremarkable running back.