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Originally Posted by jamf
i dont know what you Mccullough fans see in him.
sultan is a trung canidate clone. they both are looking for a job. they also hesitate in the backfield. i watched everyone of sultans runs this preseason and not once did he just hit a hole, everytime he got the ball, he danced in backfield.
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You know, despite being one of "those McCullough fans," I've seen pretty much what you've seen. I've been very frustrated by Sultan's apparent inability to adapt to a more north-south running style, which would actually serve him much better than the sort of "dancing niftiness" he seemingly aspires to. I was hoping that Coach Byner would get a hold of him and teach him to attack the hole more aggressively, but apparently, the staff felt it was time to move on.
Joe Theismann made a great point about McCullough during the last broadcast, though. He said that perhaps McCullough's hesitancy is a result of constantly playing against backups and waiver-fodder; that playing against those lesser defenders has sort of stunted his growth as an NFL runningback, and I would tend to agree with that assessment. He's never been forced to learn the hard way that you simply don't have time to dance around and pick and choose your holes when starter-caliber defenders are on the field. Actually, I guess getting cut would be called learning the hard way, but I think he would have benefitted much more if he had been given more opportunities in preseason games to play against starting defenses.
I still think there's an NFL coach out there that's going to get a hold of this kid and teach him how to run like an NFL back, and when that day comes, McCullough is going to be a very dangerous runner. But it looks to me like he really does need to mature and humble himself a bit. I think right now he's still suffering from the college star syndrome that makes him believe he's too good to change his ways, and makes him feel like he's above committing himself to the fundamental aspects of playing in the NFL-- which includes developing as a special-teamer. Hopefully, getting cut will knock his ego down a couple notches, putting him in a more coachable frame of mind, and the Skins will pick him up on the practice squad. It sounds like he wants to be here, even if it means the practice squad, so maybe that maturing process has begun already.