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Dwight Adams passes away


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Dwight always was one of my favorites. I could listen to Dwight talk about football all day long.

 

RIP Dwight. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family (including your daughter who used to post here on occasion).

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RIP Dwight. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family (including your daughter who used to post here on occasion).

 

Very sad. I don't remember this, though...what was her handle?

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Dwight Adams seemed a very knowledgeable football person.

I am surprised the news (AP, local papers) have not picked up this news.


Good evening everyone. Just FYI, I received word that afternoon that former Bills personnel man Dwight Adams passed away today. Services scheduled for Wednesday.

 

Interesting that there is a news reporter (digital producer) in Indianapolis named Dwight Adams as well. Been finding his name every time I search for him with no hits with many of the papers I searched. Where was Dwight Adams living post-Bills?

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Dwight Adams seemed a very knowledgeable football person.

I am surprised the news (AP, local papers) have not picked up this news.

 

Interesting that there is a news reporter (digital producer) in Indianapolis named Dwight Adams as well. Been finding his name every time I search for him with no hits with many of the papers I searched. Where was Dwight Adams living post-Bills?

They really should do a feature on Dwight. He was a special guy.

 

Ty Dunne or Tim Graham should write a lengthy piece on him. His life must have spun off a million stories.

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A few years ago... ok 10 years ago... SDS thought it would be good idea to have an email Q&A between this forum & Dwight Adams.

 

The following is a transcript between some members and Mr Adams. The forum members are regulars, but I'm using initials since they didn't give permission to use their real names.

 

Enjoy

 

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PR
Please talk about what scouts discuss concerning the .40 times. How overrated is the .40? How do the results differ from the conditions the players run on? Do you believe it's an accurate gauge of a player's speed? Do you consider game speed and what you see in game speed on tape and in person more important than .40 times, etc?
Dwight Adams
The 40 time is one of the most over-rated things there is. The player is inside most of the time, wearing shorts, no one is chasing him, he's not chasing anyone, there’s no score in the game and it's humanly impossible to run a 4.40 in the 40. Check with the good track coaches/and sprinters across America, like Brooks Johnson the Olympic sprint coach. To us, quickness, not speed is the most important at any position. I'm interested in the 10 or 20 yd dash more than the 40. Football is a game of explosion and quickness. Players run in quick movement areas that can separate/flip hips and make up(closing speed)see the hole and hit it now eyes/reactions.
You take 5 people time a player, you'll get 5 different times. If a player runs on harder surface, minus the outdoor elements, he’ll run better. But, if you must have a 40 time, electronic is the most accurate of all.
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M in DC
I often do not know what to make of the stories I hear leading up to the draft each year. There certainly are a lot of mock drafts and speculation by the press.
To what extent do you teams disguise their intentions leading up to the draft? Do you think most teams put significant time/energy into spreading misinformation?
Dwight Adams
There is a lot of secrecy leading up to the draft. But, then there are also many screw ups. It definitely makes it fun for your fans.
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JB
I understand that combine and workouts are a very important tool in evaluating a player, but how do scouts and teams justify players that seem to soar up the charts due to great combines and workouts? Isn't there playing time more important in overall draft grade? Or perhaps it's only what we fans are hearing? Scouts know all along that these players are that talented, but we only hear it about it once the combines hit?
Dwight Adams
Man I love this and debates. Most of the "scouts" have never played or coached, and they just get height, weight, time and can't judge talent.
The players at the combine get coaches to train them weeks before they workout there. All the drills they do are "ROTE" memory drills they have done since the 1st day they played football. Speed alone is irrelevant. Go get track men if that's the key (it's not). Go get weight lifters if the bench press is the key (it's not). But combination of speed work, weight room and nutrition is very important. This is an 11 month a year job, now.
The combine, the Senior Bowl, the 40 times are the most over hyped things in football. At the combine, I only wanted to see the physical. You spend millions during the year going into schools screening players, talking on the phone to his high school coach, junior college, police department, other sources, you have over 400 tapes in your office, then you must go to an all-star game (where everything is over simplified) then to the combine, then back in his college to work him out again, then fly him into your complex to screen him again. And then you sit back and read all these all these experts’ opinion, and ask, “DAMN....do you know what you are looking for? Do you have any ability?? any guts?? ever make a decision?? see the game tapes?? see him practice?? see his body style??
Many coaches don't understand the scouting process and aren't going to talk to these guys (so many of them get 2nd hand info). 702 colleges play football. You’re telling me you can't get 7 scouts to help your team? Then find another job. Some of the NFL coaches are the worst judges of talent. But, lots of them look busy/and have exotic cliches to justify their jobs. To me, it’s more important to have common sense, the ability to see and guts to speak.
There's some good talent evaluators in the NFL, there's some bad ones too. I've been exposed to a couple of "geniuses". They were the worst. Probably should be coaching a 7th grade team. I’m not being negative, just factual. People don't change, they just get older.
I was fortunate to work with Marv Levy, a great gentleman, listener, and who is well organized. He was a great leveler (keeping people on a even keel) Wade Phillips was a smart, great coach (put people in position to make plays), a tireless worker and planner. Gregg Williams is intelligent. But he came in at a bad time (#1 salary cap #2 other drawbacks) There’s no need to talk about now... Gregg and Wade, both will be head coaches in the NFL again.
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BM
Sir, would you PLEASE explain to me how a team that plays in the cold, in front of hard core, blue collar fans could have a bad offensive line for more than a decade? It is simply beyond me how we can trade up for shaky qbs, draft injured rbs, and tiny little receivers when our foundation is so embarrassingly weak.
Dwight Adams
When you start a NFL team, start with a QB(we had one in Kelly), then build and keep your offensive line in contact. Then the first assistant coach you hire is an offensive line coach. These are the necessary parts to be successful. Climate makes no difference to me. We had good linemen in the "Days" – big, mobile, and intelligent. Our center was Kent Hull, the “Belle Cow” of the Bills. Then add John Davis, Glenn Parker, Jim Richter, and "The House" Ballard and we could protect and run and do it all very well.
You start with the center, then the left tackle, then the left guard, then the right tackle, and finally the right guard. Then throw a TE that can catch first. You can teach him to hold and get in the way of people in his blocking assignments at any time. But, if the TE can't catch and is a good blocker, it's a lost cause....Remember Keith McKellar only had one year of college football at Jacksonville St.
One of the greatest battles on the field I ever watched was when Bills played Jacksonville in Buffalo in the playoffs, and we saw Bruce Smith going against Jacksonville’s Tony Boselli. Man on Man, it was the Van Gogh canvas on the field.
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NM
I wanted to ask you about something not Draft related, but more generally about scouting. Specifically as we draw closer to the season climax – what is your view of NFL Europe players as serious prospects to have a decent NFL career, and how much investment would an NFL Scouting Dept have in scouring NFL Europe for talent? Also – in grading NFL Europe prospects, how badly does it damage National Players if they have not played college football?
Dwight Adams
The NFL owns NFL Europe and each club must allocate so many players annually. It's a very worthy league that gives lots of players and coaches a chance. The scouting is worked heavy by NFL teams. They all get a copy of each European game and study the tapes and scout it in person in some cases all NFL teams send reps to Tampa for the camps starting in March.
Players like Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme, Nick Ferguson all got a start there. Every prospect will be looked at. At the start, we were always hesitant about sending players over there because the injury clause was so much different for a while, and the players were physically and mentally exhausted by the time they got to training camp here. But now they are through by mid-June and can get their breath. The European nationals have a tougher time because they have not been exposed to the training/competition that the others have.
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GC
Mr. Adams… Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. In your opinion would it be a bad move to ignore the “best player available” theory and put the first four or five draft picks solely into the offensive and defensive lines? My thought is that the more talent we put into these two areas, the better the competition would be and it would increase the likelihood of our finding some real talent for these positions.
Dwight Adams
"WE WILL TAKE THE BEST PLAYER ON THE BOARD" What a damn cop out. No guts....The CBA, the salary cap to me dictates that you draft for need. You can't get enough offensive linemen/defensive linemen or corners. You can get a RB, a WR, a safety later on.
Some of the cliches in NFL are so funny.
“You win with defense.” If your special teams and the offense is no good, forget it. You better make sure all three parts of the engine work.
“We work our matchups.” BULL. You ever see a one legged CB go in the game and not have the opponent pick on him.
“We need to stretch the field with our TE.” HA. Then why don't they even throw him the ball.
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