The Sensible Devin Thomas Discussion

…but I’m also not losing any sleep that Devin Thomas is gone. Sure he was returning kickoffs well, but maybe he just never impressed Shanahan.

I’ve read the Post article, and one of my initial reactions to it is that the phrase “big plays” is highly subjective and could refer to celebrating after a first down catch (and after watching Randle El for four years, it’s entirely possible to overstate a routine first down). Also, I believe that—to the best of my knowledge—Thomas played mostly against backups and scrubs in practice and preseason, so his plays should be taken with a grain of salt.

Add to that the fact that Shanahan seems to trust veterans more and really goes for overachievers and I’m not surprised he cut Thomas. I’m also going to take the fact that Thomas cleared waivers as a sign that the Skins might be OK without him.

Remember the nice guy tenure of Jim Zorn? I’ll take a bit of ego in my coach if it’ll translate into a winning product on the field. Plus, I think it takes some ego and some stubbornness to turn a 4-12 squad of prima donnas into a contender.

I’m siding with Shanny on this one. But that’s just me.

we’ve heard it so often most of us can say it in our sleep….ITHE NFL IS A BUSINESS……and (here’s a newsflash) in ANY business, if your boss tells you to knock off the chest-thumping and trash-talking in practice, it’s probably a prudent BUSINESS move to do so.
Apparently DT missed that memo.

The same logic can be used for Randy Moss, who is light years better than DT, when you have a WR who isn’t in lockstep with the organization it doesn’t matter what strengths they have on the field. Look at the Colts WR for example non of them are lightning fast, or physically imposing but they are on the same page with Peyton and they put a lot of time in the film room and off season. The only reason I second guess the move is that I hear Devin came into camp in great shape and worked out with Mcnabb in the off season, obviously trying to take his game or his modeling career to the next level. If Shannahan has a thing against Cerrato’s high draft picks why did he keep Kelly and compliment Kelly on his work ethic? It just seems to me that DT really had to work at it to get cut.

we will know in a few weeks if it was smart to cut him. the panthers are on a bye week. if devin can learn the offense in two weeks, start and be prodctive, then shanny was just being a dick. if DT cant do it then we know shanny was right to cut his ass

I think the reasons given for releasing DT are kind of BS.

Granted, Shanny doesn’t want to walk over to a white board and draw up the detailed reasons why he cut Thomas, but the things that I did hear sound petty and dumb to me.

As PommyLee quoted above, the fact that he was “beating his chest” after making a big play or besting a defensive back, means that he was making big plays in practice. What does the guy have to do to get some playing time in a game? He was playing hard and helping the team on every kick off. He was making plays in practice (which I assume went along with playing hard in practice).

We’ve already established that he looked like he was asleep as a BREAK between team meetings. Nothing wrong with that.

The modeling and music video? Wasn’t that in the off season? Before working out with McNabb at hell week and drawing praise from McNabb along with MK? Wasn’t the modeling before showing up to camp in “Great shape” according to the Washington Post article?

So far none of these reasons seem like they should at all be a distraction to DT playing good football. The article says that he has been flashy since his high school football days, and it “pumps him up to play better.” So what’s the big deal?

Also, I would be SHOCKED if after making a big play in practice and beating his chest, Coach Shannahan walked over to him and said “if you do that again you are off the team”, and then he did it again. I think more likely he just watched and would maybe give DT a dirty look, but never told him “cut it out or you are off the team”. Even the dumbest of dumb players would stop after that, so I doubt that it went down that way.

Now, if Shannahan says “He wasn’t professional. He showed up late to practice, didn’t run his routes correctly, didn’t try hard in practice, and was going to modeling shoots after practice 3 days a week” then I can get on board with cutting him.

But the actual reasons he gave are quite lame in my opinion. I expect him to do well elsewhere if a team will put him on the field with their offense.

a discussion not full of LJP nonsense and drama.

at some point don’t you have to trust Shanahan’s AND ALLEN’S ability to judge talent?

How much time did the reporter spend observing DT compared to the HC and GM? Undoubtedly very little.

I have to wonder if the other players vouched for him because he really was that good or if they factored into their evaluation who he was playing against.

Do WR’s in the NFL have to be demonstrative to be good? NO! That’s ridiculous. There have been plenty of guys who didn’t demonstrate excessively, guys like Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison, Chris Carter, and ART MONK! Give me another quite producer like Art Monk over a show boat DT any day of the week.

At some point it comes down to picking the guys with the right attitudes…like Joe Gibbs was prone to do.

this one is simple and i cant see why everyone is so confused. first thing is that all of your team mates are always going to say good things about you. so anything you hear players say really cant be taken as gods words of wisdom.

now back to DT, he was one of my favs, i will he was still here and wish we gave him more time. that being said he was slow to learn the playbook and as all the players were given the playbook in the offseason he came in not knowing but a handfull of the plays. he often would run the wrong routes in practice and the games. as well as running the wrong routes he telepraghed his routes on the top of the route. the corner could read his ruote and make a break before DT would even make his cut. DT thomas’s father said going back to high school DT always did better then second year ina system because he has a learning dissability that makes him rememeber things slower. DT played well (not good) his second year on zorns offense so i would hav eliked to see what happened. he was cheap as far as nfl salarys goes with a pay around $800,000 or so each of the next few years. we still have number 12 on IR……right!

because DT is gone.