Is talent in the NFL

[fallforward3y+]

We hear about a player or team's talent a lot, a player failing because of not being talented enough, or a team not having the talent to be a championship team. A player's potential or lack thereof may also be talked about.

While I do think it plays a role, it seems very overblown.

You'll see teams like the Pats trade players, lose them to injury and etc. and yet the players they replace them with seem to fill in their roles fine. The Saints seem to do something similar with their skill players. We saw the Cardinals continue to perform well for awhile despite all their injuries, and the 49ers fielded a top 5 defense despite all of their defensive injuries as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Eagles, I get the feeling they will recover well from losing Jackson and McCoy over the last 2 years as well, with their pistol offense.

It seems if a team is smart in their approach, they can overcome a 'talent deficiency' fairly well. Some teams seem to be good at finding their 'niche', and finding ways for a player to be effective. There are often good strategies for 'scaling down' how devastating a player's superior athleticism is as well.

It seems to me that teams may be able to overcome the loss of star players a lot easier than many may think. Perhaps if teams start to figure this out, we may see the end of the mega contracts that have seemingly become the norm.

[samparnell]

Individually, a player has a certain amount of athletic talent relative to team mates and opponents.

Talent alone is not enough. An NFL player must have the mental capacity to absorb his own team's terminology and playbook, and apply the gameplan in practice. He must be a constant student of the game on his own time.

His physical preparation must demonstrate consummate discipline, and carries over into off the field activity. Being studious and self-disciplined can compensate for athletic deficiencies relative to others.

Football is the ultimate team sport. An individual's success on a football team depends on how well he understands and executes his role in concert with team mates. Depth is of vital importance for an NFL team's journey through a season and into the playoffs.

Denver is developing good depth at most positions. It's difficult for fans to know what coaches do about certain players on the roster who haven't seen the field in a starting role. There are some players who barely make the roster each year, and some wonder why they were kept and others were cut.

I think the reasons for those decisions can be found in the areas of locker room decorum, self-discipline, work habits and intelligence. The Broncos are picking up guys from "smart" schools like Cal-Berkeley, Duke, Rice, Stanford, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Missouri, Ohio State, Kansas, North Carolina. I think both general and football intelligence are taken into consideration when selecting players.

[fallforward3y+]

Essentially, there are many 'non talent' elements to the game, that can reduce the impact a 'talent gap' has in a team or player's performance.

Being astute in studying is key, film study on yourself and opponents a long with the playbook. Teams and players change what they do a lot, so studying film can help you 'keep up', and having a good strategy of your own, trying to keep other players from 'figuring you out'. This can help you find situations that favor you, and a 'knowledge' edge can help you find it more often than your opponents, finding where you have the edge on them and etc. It can become very much a mental game, with opponents who do a good job of playing to this-it is likely difficult to have success against a player who does this well if you do not it seems.

You can see this a lot with skill players, especially with teams like the Pats. They are very skilled at the 'short routes' and finding ways for them to open up, yards while being tackled for guys like Edelman can be helpful. Try and avoid being wrapped up cleanly, or use 'angles', recognizing where a defender is to try and have them tackle you forward, and add more yards while being tackled to the run(more than just your body length)

Fundamentals are key as well-I think tackling is a great example of this. Good tackling can make a back's power have less of an impact, wrap up a leg, pull it to the ground the back will probably go down regardless of their power imo. Essentially, you probably can't be too powerful for a defender to take down that way, because if they are low they probably don't absorb it, and they can knock you off balance with a leg tackle.

In 'Rudy' you have a tough player who has a lot of heart, it is portrayed as a 'hard work versus talent' type of struggle. However, 'smart work' can at times usurp both imo, I think the game today is making that prevalent more and more.

'Team chemistry' is big as well, players need to mesh well together for a team to be successful imo.

And of course, conditioning. Teams like the Eagles exploit this well, essentially they can wear teams down. If they keep that superior conditioning, they may be able to still give defenses difficulties despite losing star players like McCoy this year, and Jackson last year. They seemed to do well without Jackson.

[MH Stampede]

We hear about a player or team's talent a lot, a player failing because of not being talented enough, or a team not having the talent to be a championship team. A player's potential or lack thereof may also be talked about.

While I do think it plays a role, it seems very overblown.

You'll see teams like the Pats trade players, lose them to injury and etc. and yet the players they replace them with seem to fill in their roles fine. The Saints seem to do something similar with their skill players. We saw the Cardinals continue to perform well for awhile despite all their injuries, and the 49ers fielded a top 5 defense despite all of their defensive injuries as well.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Eagles, I get the feeling they will recover well from losing Jackson and McCoy over the last 2 years as well, with their pistol offense.

It seems if a team is smart in their approach, they can overcome a 'talent deficiency' fairly well. Some teams seem to be good at finding their 'niche', and finding ways for a player to be effective. There are often good strategies for 'scaling down' how devastating a player's superior athleticism is as well.

It seems to me that teams may be able to overcome the loss of star players a lot easier than many may think. Perhaps if teams start to figure this out, we may see the end of the mega contracts that have seemingly become the norm.

Talent is important.

Hard work, discipline, and execution are just as important.