eh, i don't like to hear that. there is absolutely NOTHING that needs to be evaluated about Ronnie save for where he is on the healing process.
How simple could this be? Hey Tony! Watch last years tapes. That's what you'll get when Brown is 100% again.
seriously. there should be NO "place on the team/roster spot evaluation" for Ronnie. period. he's proven himself already. at this point just rest him as long as need be for him to *fully* heal.
One of the few statements I don't understand from this regime...what is there to evaluate ?? He was a top shelf running back prior to his injury...now if he needs to evaluate his rehab progress, fine..but he has nothing to prove...
Honestly I think that all this is about Ronnie is seeing his toughness level and his willingness to do what the coaches want him to do. Sparano wants to see how driven he is. Seeing Ronnie out there catching EVERYTHING thrown at him with ONE hand was enough for me! Not to mention practicing with his hand wrap.
Maybe Sparanoid of me, I wonder if Ronnie is on the trading block and he has to play a bit to show that he is healthy enough to play? The phrase "talent evaluators" being there is really really odd, what difference would that make if Ronnie was going to be kept? "We've got to play Ronnie because Scouts will be there"? This staff loves to play head games though.
I think , i could be wrong but i think he needs to see where ronnie is not from a talent level but from a recovery level. He needs to see if ronnie is truely recovered or if he will need more time to heal. But i hope ronnie gets 3 rushes and 4 catches for 100+ yards to shut everyone up who doubts him. And a td would be nice too.
Which might be exactly what Sparano talked about. After that thumb injury sidelined Brown for the KC game and most of the Jax game, the coaches simply don't know where they stand with Ronnie. You can't gameplan if you don't know how long you can rely on him, which assignments, blocks, routes he can do and which he probably isn't comfortable doing just yet ... They would do a poor job indeed if they just played him in the regular season and hoped for the best. If Ronnie wants to start he'll have to prove that he's at 100 percent again and I'm totally with Sparano that, until this is the case, Ricky's the guy to carry the load.
Vendigo and Tex i think understood it. Basically they need to see , evaluate and make a call on where he is with regards to the healing process. Of course the media will jump all over that and think they need to see where he is in terms of talent and production.
Really? after last year we need to evaluate Ronnie?? Hopefully Sparano is only referring to his health and the whereabouts of his recovery
Personally, I don't think there's anything to get worked up over here. Nothing at all wrong with what Sparano said. Ten months after his ACL, Ronnie has all of five carries in the preseason. Mentioned this before, but ck did a post last year where it generally took Ronnie that many carries in a game to get warmed up. What can anyone take from those five carries? I'd say about nothing. While the number one goal needs to be to keep him healthy, if Ronnie's going to play football come Week 1, you need to see how he looks - especially if you're considering starting him based on what he did the previous year prior to the injury. And especially with how good Ricky has looked. Can anyone say definitively that Ronnie isn't at 90-100% of last year? OTOH, can anyone say definitively that Ronnie looks way different than last year and below the standard he set? If so, based on what? Most of the practices aren't full contact. The games are. If I were coaching, I don't think I'd be saying anything different. I know Ronnie would rather play than be on the PUP. He worked his arse off to be ready for training camp. If we were going to PUP him, I don't think he'd have gone through what he has. Now, it's just a case if Ronnie's ready to be a feature back. He may be there. He may not. We know we have one with Ricky. If Ronnie is, let's see it, and then let the guy play and help us win. If he's not, he can work his way back slowly as Ricky's back-up until his knee regains health. At full health, with what he did last year, he's certainly in the same class as Ricky as a runner and perhaps his better as an all-around player. Once both are healthy, they both should and will get their carries. Sparano just needs to find out if that's the case.
One of the more disturbing things I read in that article was that Derek Hagan has wrapped up one of the starting WR spots.
Why shouldn't he be evaluated on any aspect? Who the hell should get a free pass because of what they did pre-injury? I dig RB and I hope the guy is a force for the Dolphins for many many years, that being said if the guy just doesn't come back to form I don't want him. How many good players have never recovered completely from such an injury? How many times have you watched them and said to yourself "he just isn't the same since the injury"? I know I don't want to see any 25 carry 63 yard nights because he is reduced to an overpaid backup that's getting carries based on his prior accomplishments. I want the best team on the field and it doens't matter to me if that means RB is on the bench to make that happen. Again, I'm not bashing him and I would love nothing more than to see R&R share about 25-30 carries per game and steamroll the league but facts are facts. S**T happens.
Im not with alot of you on here. While I like Ronnie Brown he has not proven anything yet. For christ sakes he was the #2 Pick in the draft and until last year he showed flashes but seemed to be slow to the hole and was not worthy of the #2 pick in my opinion. Last year he was a bull for the first part of the season and that was a great sign. Than he got hurt. Running back's coming back from an injury this severe can lose alot of confidence and a step. Ronnie needs to heal I agree, but the coaches seem to think he has been given the clearance to play and they do not feel like hes up to speed as of yet. So if the staff thinks he's scared or lost a step they need to evaluate him prior to the season when we are counting on him. I for one would Make Ricky the starter week 1 and make Ronnie earn the #1 spot again. Ricky is playing out of his mind, demoting him now might send the wrong message.
That's the way I take it too. They don't need to see what Ronnie can do. They just need to see if he has healed enough to do what they know he can.
My guess is he might be considering putting him on the PUP list if he's not quite ready. That is, if he thinks one of the rookies might be impressing him.
