Grantland: All-22 All-Stars

[FLbills]

In my opinion Nix and company knew exactly what they were doing when they drafted Dareus, as they knew that Chan's time was up and Whaley and a new regime (coaching staff included) would be taking over. Nobody could foresee the personal tragedies that were going to happen, hindsight is 20/20. It would appear that Dareus is now placed in the right situation to not only succeed, but excel. I will wait for another year to cast my personal judgement having been a year removed from the personal anguish he has suffered. I wonder how many of us would be able to perform at the top of our game while suffering what he has. Had the aforementioned defensive players been put through similar situations, I would be very willing to bet that their numbers would be pedestrian at best. So while many on here are able to condemn, I give props to a man who has been through so much adversity and still been able to compile the numbers that he has. Here's to wishing M.D. a more than stellar year and chasing all the naysayers back in to their proverbial hole.

Edited August 4, 2013 by FLbills

[BADOLBILZ]

The excuses for this guy are endless. What can't be denied is that, in the most talent-laden draft in the last decade, Dareus was picked third overall and he has been a big disappointment so far. Does that mean he will never be any good? No, of course not. But the early returns are not promising, especially when his performance is compared with other players taken later in the first round that year. My intent was not to trash Dareus, but to point out that, as a Bills fan, it is painful to read about the exploits of players on other teams drafted after Dareus. Heck, Wilkerson was taken only three picks before Aaron Williams.

 

Being critical of his performance on a message board is not going to make any difference in his play one way or another but there are always going to be those few who think they have to shame you for stating the facts. Yes Dareus was a huge disappointment last year. He was outright bad for much of the year. He has an opportunity to come back strong now. Nobody is writing him off. I have to shake my head at this perception that the guy is some kind of shrinking violet that needs to be handled ever so gently........he endured a ton of tragedy before he was ever drafted and it didn't stop him from dominating at Alabama. I think what we saw last year was a combination of dealing with a tragedy and a young player not realizing that he couldn't let up and still have success at this level. After a very solid rookie season he didn't continue to strive to improve and came to camp in visibly worse shape. So for much of the season he was battling not only a heavy heart but a couple heavy legs. He played better toward the end of the season. The very early returns seem to be that he is not much improved, which is disappointing but we will not know until the games start. Sometimes the guys with the natural talent don't do what it takes. Dareus could hang around the NFL for a decade just tying up blockers, but he is capable of so much more.