Rookie Report Card: Week Fifteen

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In my weekly column, we take a longer look at another two rookies.  I will compare their individual performances to date against my original expectations of them.  Let’s continue the 2013 series by looking back at the highly ranked Denver Broncos rookie running back Montee Ball and the undrafted, yet highly talented Indianapolis Colts wide out Da’Rick Rogers.

Montee Ball, RB DEN

ballHere is what I saw in college from Ball:  Ball played angrily against a good Stanford defense in the bowl game. The young running back ran with a low center of gravity, bounced off and around would-be tacklers, lowered his shoulders giving little to tackle all the while he kept churning his feet forward. If you need a battering ram for a lead back, Ball will do that fighting for every yard. The Badger running back displayed a few spin moves, made a nice jump cut and glided into the end zone on an 11-yard carry. With his outstanding vision, Ball sets up his blocks and finds the best running lane to hit. Even though Wisconsin doesn’t have much of a passing game, he possesses decent hands and can be effective as a pass blocker, but may need more seasoning. I expect Ball to be a top five rookie running back, but don’t expect a dynamic playmaker. He is more of a grinder similar to Shonn Greene. Ball has a lot of carries in his college career, so he might be better served to share time to prolong his career.

This is what I saw from Ball against the Chargers: Knowshon Moreno started the game as he usually does and the rookie did not see the field until the Broncos second offensive series.  It was clear from his first carry that the Chargers were selling out to stop the run.  His running stat line of three carries for negative one yard proves how quick the San Diego front seven closed the running lanes.  Ball needs open space to generate yardage and he did not get that on Thursday night. He is mostly a straight-ahead runner with only a small bit of wiggle to his game.  Because the Broncos fell behind, his playing time was very limited in the first half, but it was easy to see that the Denver offense lacked toughness without his and Wes Welker’s play.

In the second half, Ball’s physical style got used in the passing game as he caught all five of his targets for 49 yards.  The rookie looked explosive catching a swing pass and he ran a few deep wheel routes to try to exploit the defense. He did a great job stepping up and attacking blitzers protecting Peyton Manning. Ball has soft hands and used his big powerful body to swat the initial defenders out-of-the-way. Once the rookie secures the catch he does a good job of letting the downfield lanes open.  He uses strong leg drive and a mean stiff-arm to power through would-be tacklers.  He is always aware of where the sidelines are if he needs to stop the clock or gain extra yardage.

Ball is an RB3 at best right now in dynasty as we do not know how much longer Manning will play or if Moreno will be re-signed by the Broncos.  The rookie needs to be a part of a committee to keep him fresh, but there is no reason Ball cannot get more touches.

Da’Rick Rogers, WR IND

These are some of the observations of Rogers during his time in college: When the young wide receiver is on the field, Rogers could be one of the best play makers of his class.  The trouble is that no one knows which player they will get.  Can Rogers battle his drug induced demons?  The youngster went from a great college program at Tennessee and ended up having to spend his last season at Tennessee Tech due to his issues.

Rogers does a great job at catching the ball at its highest point and shows enough speed, good vision, and lateral agility to get open against man and zone coverage.  He does a good job reading blockers and can avoid being tackled with excellent balance and body control.  He is a physical receiver who uses his 6′ 2″ 215 lbs frame well to box out less imposing corners.  There are too many question marks to simply dismiss his issues, but enough talent to see if he can overcome them.

Here is what I gleamed during Rogers’ game against the Texans: Despite his huge six catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns game the previous week against the Bengals, this rookie is not an every week contributor.  The wide receiver finished with a meager two receptions for 23 yards on six targets along with a double reverse carry that got snuffed out for no gain.
All was not lost as Rogers started the game at one of the outside receiver spots and was mostly lined up by himself versus the trips formation on the other side of the formation.  Without Reggie Wayne, he is the only receiver powerful enough to fight physical coverage at the line of scrimmage.  In the running game, the rookie wide out blocked his man until the whistle sounded.  He gets good leverage and keeps control of whom he is blocking.

In the passing game, there were some times where it appeared that he lost concentration on the task at hand.  Rogers swatted his hands at his first pass target and then looked at his hands in amazement that “they” didn’t bring the ball in.  The receiver keeps a close eye on his quarterback as he came back to Andrew Luck when he was under pressure.  Rogers busted out a baseball slide to make a catch on his back and made it look easy.  His other reception was a short screen pass that he used quick agility and a powerful stiff-arm to create space.  He ended up taking that pass up the field for a long gain.

It is concerning when Rogers lets the ball get into his body instead of making a clean catch with his hands.  This slows him down to attempt to secure the ball when he could be running with it.  This feeds into his before mentioned concentration issues as it seems that Rogers tips off the defense to the routes he will run by his body posture.  I’m willing to give him a Mulligan on these issues considering how much he has bounced around this season.  I am hopeful that he will translate into a dynasty WR3 in the Colts offense.  Perhaps you can still buy him low now, otherwise wait until everyone goes rookie crazy in the spring and then try to acquire Rogers.

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