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Originally posted by Charge!
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Maybe Latham works out...maybe the first Alabama OT was ahem, a Fluke... -
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True...besides Fluke, there was Chance Warmack and linebacker Rolando McClain...here's an old story about Bama Busts:Originally posted by Charge! View Post
Did u know Bozeman is from Bama? Along with these guys:
Bradley Bozeman
Deonte Brown
Jonah Williams
Jedrick Wills
Alex Leatherwood
Ryan Kelly
Cam Robinson
Lester Cotton
Evan Neal
JC Hassenaeur
Landon Dickerson
Tyler SteenComment
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Part of a story on Jaylen Wright on Go Long (you have to subscribe to read):
‘Weapon:’ Why Jaylen Wright is the best running back in the draft
Meet the man who gouges defenses with distinct anger and purpose. There's a reason this Tennessee Vol is capable of detonating any given play.
Jaylen Wright speaks much like he gashes defenses. There’s no wasted effort, no bullshit. He gets from Point A to Point B in as few strides (on the field) and few words (in conversation) as possible. He accelerates in.. the… alley with force that’d bust Vince Lombardi’s chalk into crumbs. The Tennessee running back ran a 4.38 at the NFL Combine, yet also tips the scales at 210 pounds of muscle. A rare combination.
This is not a prospect eager to regale an adoring audience with tales of perseverance even though those stories do exist.
But he is also a straight shooter. Blunt. There’s no hesitation in his voice.
Of course Wright views himself as the No. 1 running back in this year’s class.
“I know who I am,” Wright says. “People who pass up on me in the draft are going to be the people who are going to have to play me. So, that’s up to them.”
A warning shot that harkens back to another Vol. Quarterback Peyton Manning famously told GM Bill Polian a few days before the draft that he’d kick the Indianapolis Colts’ collective asses if they passed on him. The plan is simple for the kid who turned 21 years old this month: Assert himself as the best running back in the sport. About halfway through this conversation with Go Long — detailing his running style — Wright is filled with unexpected irritation.
Wright believes he has been overlooked his entire football life.
“I run like I’ve got something to prove all the time,” he says, “which I do.”
In his mind, the world has forever viewed him as good when he’s unquestionably great. Back to being labeledthe 40th-best running back in the nation out of Southern Durham (N.C.) High School. His senior year was completely wiped out by Covid, so there wasn’t any film to study after Wright rushed for a cartoonish 10+ yards per carry as a junior. Right on through his collegiate career with the Vols. Wright averaged 7.4 yards in the nation’s top conference but felt exceptionally disrespected.
This spring, Wright feels love for the first time in his football life. Not that he’ll change a thing. He’ll continue to run angry — “like I am being overlooked” — because he believes that’s his edge.“I’m explosive. I’m a threat,” Wright says. “I don’t need a lot of touches to take it to the house. If I see a seam, and there’s nobody in front of me, I’m gone. There’s not a lot of running backs that have that and I’m saying that humbly. I’m somebody that can get into the game and change the whole game.”
Athletes claiming to possess a chip on their shoulder is not a new phenomenon.
But rewind the highlight reel and it doesn’t take a degree in scouting to realize Jaylen Wright runs different. Arms chop, legs churn, dreads flow with determined vigor. One-fourth of his carries went for 10+ yards, the highest rate in the country. And he did this while averaging 4.35 yards after contact, third-best in the country. Generalizing the modern running back an N64 relic is a lazy exercise because teams that do hit the bull’s eye on this mashup of speed and power win. San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey was the best offensive player in football last season with 2,023 yards and 21 touchdowns. Detroit’s Jahmyr Gibbs was drafted 12th overall — the nation gasped in horror — and all he did was meet McCaffrey’s crew in the NFC title game.
Wright is the closest the 2024 NFL Draft has to this breed of lit-fuse running back.
There’s more than perceived disrespect fueling his long runs. There’s two years of homelessness, and the day an emotional 15-year-old Jaylen told Dad he’d make it to the NFL. There’s track, and all the horsepower gained in the 400 meter. There’s the endless hours spent studying Adrian Peterson and Terrell Davis. There’s the maturation he needed in Knoxville. All of it created this draft’s preeminent weapon at running back.
Curtis Wright, his hype man of a father, predicts nothing but wreckage in his son’s path.
“You can stack the box, he’s going to run through you. You can spread it out, he’s going to shift past you. You can open it up, and he’s going to run right between you,” says Curtis. “You want to go ground and pound? He can run ground and pound. You want to open it up? He’s going to blow by you with his raw speed and acceleration and home-run ability. He’s a weapon. He’s literally a weapon. I look at every running back in this draft and I look at all the running backs in the NFL. One thing I can say about Jaylen, he is one of a kind. I don’t see a comparison. Jaylen is in a league of his own.”
Dad is not finished.
He’s certain his son’s career will conclude with a trip to Canton, Ohio.
“Jaylen will be a Hall of Famer in the NFL,” he repeats. “Jaylen is going to be one of the best running backs that's played the game. Jaylen is a seat-filler. He’s exciting. He’s explosive. When he runs out on the field, it’s Showtime.”
Given a chance to cool his expectations, to be a bit more realistic here, Curtis sounds taken aback that his son’s career could possibly end any other way.
“He’s going to definitely be a Hall of Famer,” he insists. “I’m telling you.”
A lofty bar to set. He also knows why Jaylen Wright runs the way he does.
When Curtis Wright left the police force in Durham, N.C., his world turned upside down. His intentions were pure. Jaylen was heading to high school and he wanted to be a more present father. The best way to do that, in his mind, was by changing professions. All he knew was policing. From age 20 to 38, he worked wildly unpredictable hours as cop. It was time for a change.
He wanted to “create something better.” Not in financial terms, either.
By becoming an entrepreneur, Curtis figured he’d be able to carve out more time in his day to be a father. Vague on details, he says he struggled starting his own business while toggling between “labor-ridden jobs” at FedEx and delivering bread as a truck driver and whatever else he could. Money suddenly became tight. Bills, harder to pay. And none of it would’ve been that big of a deal if he had a place to stay. One major perk of his profession in law enforcement was a place to live. Unable to afford his own home, he was S.O.L.
“I was homeless,” Curtis says. “When I stopped being a law enforcement officer, my life changed. I had to do a restart. Being a police officer was a way of life. Once you’re out of that, that’s a lifestyle change. You have to learn how to be normal again.”
Son easily could’ve moved in with mother. She was remarried in Raleigh, 25 miles away. Instead, he stayed with his father in Durham — inside the home a friend — and visited Mom on the weekends.
Jaylen wanted to help, so Jaylen was content sleeping on the floor for two full years.
Curtis didn’t even have a vehicle. Any money was spent putting food on the table.
“I was just glad to at least have a roof over my head,” Jaylen says. “But having people walk around you while you’re sleeping, those are hard times. Times I’ll never forget. That’s why I’m as humble as I am and grateful for all the things that’ve come my way.”
Jaylen has always been a kid who listens and watches more than he speaks. Witnessing his father’s day-to-day, meal-to-meal struggle created a fight of his own. “To where,” Curtis adds, “he would not be denied.” Curtis kept on encouraging Jaylen in sports, in school and never had to assist with homework. Head down, his son lived with a purpose. Nor did life at rock bottom mire Curtis in depression. After all, the reason he left the force was to become a better father and to help his son play collegiate football. This is precisely when Dad made a decision that’d forever change his son’s life.
He got Jaylen into track.
Ever since Jaylen played Pop Warner football at four years old — full tackle, never flag — his father detected a rare resolve. A complete absence of fear. If his son failed in a tackling drill, he couldn’t wait to dust himself off and face that same kid again. He craved contact, revenge, the final word in this duel. “He’ll size you up,” Dad adds, “and he ain’t going to stop until he’s past you.” All of which hardened him. So once Jaylen’s speed was obviously a cut above his peers, at age 14, Curtis convinced his boy to give track a shot.
That same year, 2017, they were able to scrap together enough funds to travel to Kansas for the USA Track & Field Championships. Jaylen placed first in the 400 with a time of 50.97 seconds against the best 13- and 14-year-olds in the country. It took generous sponsors and donations to even travel to the event considering the family’s bleeding finances, but this gold medal fueled Jaylen with belief at a very fragile stage in life. Pro sports now felt like a realistic goal.
The next year, at 15, Jaylen told Dad that he wouldn’t need to work at all one day because he’d be scoring touchdowns in the NFL.
He wasn’t daydreaming — there was a seriousness to his voice.
Some genetics are at play. Jaylen’s uncle played tight end at Concord University and Dad played high school ball. But mainly? This world-class speed was built through track.“Track and field built something inside of him,” Curtis says. “It built a monster when it comes to speed and explosiveness because track is a sport to where it's all about you. You line up and it’s either them or you. It’s all about you.”
The 400 became Wright’s go-to event. Sprinting the length of four football fields paid direct dividends at running back. Built power. Built explosion. All shorter distances — be it a 55-meter dash indoors, a 100 outdoors or any run on a football field — soon came easy. His time of 6.25 seconds in the 55 ranked top 10 nationally. Wright would actually get more nervous for the 400 than any football game under the lights. Anticipation of the event was downright nerve-wracking because he knew he was about to push his body to its absolute limit. “You’re by yourself,” Jaylen adds. “You’re on your own in track.”
Wright straight-up “hated” the 400, but what we hate most in life is often what’s best for us.
Track became the ultimate training tool for his true love. Football.
When the ball was stuffed into his chest and a lane opened up, Wright gained an extra gear nobody else on the field possessed. Track fed his competitiveness, too. He still takes pride in one 60-meter triumph, when he toasted a kid who went on to run for Clemson and another kid who’d play baseball at N.C. State.
After that USATF race in Kansas, Curtis made it his mission to pull everything he possibly could out of Jaylen. This led to the two bumping heads. There were times his son wanted to quit, but he kept going. Dad would tell him that if he’s bored to work out. Drop down to all fours and do push-ups. Then, sit-ups. Then, more push-ups. “Train your body,” he’d say, “to be a weapon.” The burden was heavy. After one football practice in 11th grade, Jaylen was overwhelmed with frustration. He had dropped a pass and could not forgive himself. When the coach asked why he was so down, Jaylen told him he couldn’t afford to fail because he needed to create a better life for his family.
Together, father and son studied the greats on YouTube. Jaylen loved Adrian Peterson’s tenacious running style, Christian McCaffrey’s receiving ability and Alvin Kamara’s patience.
It all pieced together a running style one NFL scout would later describe to Go Long as vengeful.“I run angry,” Wright says. “I know it’s going to put fear in other people’s heart when they see me. My mindset is to not be taken down and to be the best person on the field each day. I reflect back on a lot of stuff that I've been through and that’s what fires me up. … I think about family, think about all the stuff I’ve been through with my family and all of the sacrifices they made for me. That’s just what really gives me my fire.”Comment
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ESPN's Adam Schefter wrote: "Ossenfort (Arizona Cardinal GM) has told teams around the league that have inquired about trading up that he wants to wait until he is in position to pick before agreeing to any trade."
Meaning that only when the Cardinals are on the clock will they be willing to trade out.Comment
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I see the QBs as overvalued and falling. QBs going top 4 is a reach for me.Originally posted by ChargerTrader View PostNow, if you excuse me, I have some Charger memories to suppress.
The Wasted Decade is done.
Build Back Better.Comment
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This is why Kool Aid falls to the 2nd.
A Jones fracture is a broken bone in a specific part of the fifth metatarsal of the footbetween the base and middle part[8] that is known for its high rate of delayed healing or nonunion.[4] It results in pain near the midportion of the foot on the outside.[2] There may also be bruising and difficulty walking.[3] Onset is generally sudden.[4]Now, if you excuse me, I have some Charger memories to suppress.
The Wasted Decade is done.
Build Back Better.Comment
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That’s not the AJ way.
And do you really want to make a critical decision like that while the clock is running. InNow, if you excuse me, I have some Charger memories to suppress.
The Wasted Decade is done.
Build Back Better.Comment
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Just for fodder, PFF has a new 7 round mock:
5 - We stay put and take Nabers from LSU. We pass on Odunze, Alt, Latu & Bowers.
37 - Mike Sainristil CB Micigan
69 - Michael Hall Jr. DI Ohio State
105 - Bucky Irving RB Oregon
110 - Christian Jones T Texas
140 - Michael Barrett LB Michigan
181 - Tip Reiman TE Illinois
225 - Josh Cephus WR UTSA
253 - Jarius Monroe CB Tulane
Interesting look at this. No smaller schools until round 6, No help at center at all and just one 4th round addition to the OL. No TE help until the 6th. I like Barrett in the 5th. With taking Irving at 4 we passed on Goncalves, Keegan, Stover, Zinter, Eichenberg, T Smith, etc. Oh well, it's just 48 - 72 hour fodder until Thursday.Comment
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Mensah would be taking a huge risk by not using #11 & #23 to move up to #5.Originally posted by ChargerTrader View Post
Once he went and acquired the ammo, it is not time for a cease fire.
There has to be a QB MIN really likes.
We do not play modern football.Comment
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I sure would luv for Hortiz to have 3 picks in the top 37, instead of just two.Originally posted by wu-dai clan View PostComment
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So, maybe when the Cards are on the clock, they lower their demand to the Vikes from 3 first rounders to only 2 first rounders and a second...what a bargain...Originally posted by powderblueboy View PostComment
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