shaunpinney said:
great presser - he sure likes Pead tho... are we going to see more of him in 2013?
Pead can play some ball. His college was one of those that had late graduations. There is an NFL rule that rookies cannot report to training camp until they graduate. Because of that rule, Isaiah was later reporting to camp than other Rams rookies, and I felt that's how DR gained an advantage over him with respect to the playbook and practice reps. I later understood that Isaiah's collegiate team did not have the greatest OL, and, consequently, he developed the penchant to freestyle somewhat instead of running disciplined run plays.
When I saw Isaiah last pre-season, to these eyes he didn't seem to be on page with his blockers, didn't seem as though he knew where they were supposed to go. This could be due to not being playbook-ready. He often would run right smack into the backs of his lead blockers as though he wasn't pacing his running rhythm properly. He also needed to get out of that East-West freestyle running mode. NFL defenders are too fast, too smart, too good at closing off angles & tackling to freestyle indiscriminately. He needed to learn what angles he could get away with at this level, that every cut must be designed to lose the least amount or gain the most amount of yards. He also had to learn the hard way that NFL defenders are taught to tackle and strip the ball, so ball security became an issue to master.
It wasn't until near the end of the year that he started to flash his true potential. If DR hadn't been so good so soon, Isaiah would have had more opportunities to show up even sooner. He is supposed to be a bit faster than DR in track shorts and possibly even faster in pads. In his collegiate videos, he cuts and changes directions at full speed & with great ease. Plus, he supposedly has better hands for receiving than DR. If he becomes more disciplined, we may start to see why the Rams envisioned him as a legitimate replacement for SJ---not just a change of pace guy.
