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Gaffney signs with the Pirates - Printable Version

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Gaffney signs with the Pirates - StannyBoy - 06-29-2012

happy for him but was hoping to see him give football one more shot.

https://twitter.com/TyGaff/status/218840867576877057

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - fullmetal - 06-29-2012

I wonder if both he and Appel will start off in the same farm team.

Why can't twitter be wrong today?!

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - socalstanfan1 - 06-29-2012

The competition for carries between A. Wilkerson, Seale, Young, and maybe Sanders, just became more intense.

Will miss Gaffney's contributions, but it is good to have depth.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - Hank 91 - 06-29-2012

Wow, this is a shocker. I'm guessing Ricky Seale will be the biggest beneficiary. I think Kelsey Young was going to get his touches, Gaffney or no Gaffney.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - stanfan - 06-29-2012

Congrats to Tyler and thanks for the incredible memories!  The kid is an incredible back and baseball player.  All the best in the BIGS!

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - terry - 06-29-2012

My assumption is that Wilkerson moves up to # 2 on the depth chart. That could change in fall camp, of course, but this opens up an opportunity for him to get a lot more playing time.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - fullmetal - 06-29-2012

Was Gaffney really ahead of Wilkerson--or would he have been by the time fall camp ended?  I drank the kool-aid on Wilkerson's potential.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - socalstanfan1 - 06-30-2012

(06-29-2012, 11:05 PM)fullmetal link Wrote:Was Gaffney really ahead of Wilkerson--or would he have been by the time fall camp ended?  I drank the kool-aid on Wilkerson's potential.

I have no idea about where Wilkerson would have been if Gaffney was still here, but I drank the kool-aid on Wilkerson in his freshman year, but was a bit disappointed his second.  Hopefully, he seizes the opportunity here and grabs the second spot.  I love his potential.

If Wilkerson had run w/ Gaffney's toughness - Redrum - 06-30-2012

He'd be taking carries from Taylor.... and Seale, Sanders wouldn't be a worry to take carries from him.  But I don't think Wilk has Gaffney's gift for running inside and in traffic.  Seems to find his groove if he can make it to the edge, and with our OLine rebuilding this year,  getting a clear shot on the edge might be a harder thing to find.  The guy closest to Gaffney's  running style is  Taylor himself.  We will miss Tyler.  There is nobody on the roster with his gifts, which complemented Taylor's.  My only gripe was how certain plays were just telegraphed when Gaffney came in.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - socalstanfan1 - 06-30-2012

I agree with you, Redrum, that Wilkerson has not shown Gaffney's ability to run inside.  His yards-per-carry was heavily inflated by a couple of big runs.  But I felt watching him last year that it was less about how hard he was running, and more about his either not seeing the hole, or not being patient enough to wait for holes to develop.  I don't know how much you can teach that kind of field vision.  I recall a fellow RB talking about Frank Gore with the Niners and how he seemed to be able to see developments in the d. backfield, even as he was juking some LBs or DLs.  So maybe some have it, and others don't .  It will be very interesting to see how Wilkerson develops this year since, IMO, he still has some of the best measurables of any of the backs.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - fullmetal - 06-30-2012

I don't remember Gaffney excelling at running between the tackles, to be honest, but maybe it's one of those things where a steady 4+ yd/carry average with no highlights is the best consistency.  I do remember a bunch of going-nowhere Wildcard plays though.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - washingtonismoney - 06-30-2012

Yeah, Gaffney specialized more at bouncing outside--in that he's kind of similar to Wilkerson.

The big problem with Wilkerson isn't his running (though his vision is limited), it's that--and here I'm speculating--he can't or doesn't block. At least, that's my inference, as it seems every time he's in the game, there's a running play on.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - fullmetal - 06-30-2012

WIM, yeah, now I remember that...hm.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - Hank 91 - 06-30-2012

I was so into the Wilkerson Kool-Aid that I was calling for him to start ahead of Taylor going into last season. For me, Wilkerson's lack of carries and production was the biggest mystery of the 2011 season. One thing's pretty clear. Taylor's carries will NOT be going up, so Gaffney's carries have to go somewhere. With Wilkerson as the true back-up, we'll know the truth about him soon enough.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - washingtonismoney - 06-30-2012

I don't think it's so mysterious in context. Wilkerson's sophomore production was better than his freshman production on a per-carry basis (5.0 ypc vs. 4.6 ypc), but he got fewer carries. Why? Gaffney is the culprit: he was injured throughout a large portion of Wilkerson's freshman year.

Anyway, Wilkerson's got his opportunity now if he works at his game. But with competition so fierce at his position, I'm not concerned about the results.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - Hank 91 - 06-30-2012

(06-30-2012, 10:53 AM)washingtonismoney link Wrote:But with competition so fierce at his position, I'm not concerned about the results.
Totally agree. For overall production, Gaffney's departure doesn't really mean a thing -- unless it forces BJS onto the field, an unlikely event.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - washingtonismoney - 06-30-2012

Where's the unbalanced discussion here, again, garvin? I see a pretty realistic discussion of Wilkerson's abilities.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - Hank 91 - 06-30-2012

I tend to agree with Garvin here. I think the wildcat formation (or Sequoia, as the more enlightened called it) was equally maligned. Gaffney averaged seven to ten yards from that formation. Any play that is that successful should obviously be kept in the playbook, but fans and analysts alike were critical because it took the ball out of Andrew Luck's hands. (Admittedly, I wasn't too excited to see it called in the fourth quarter of the Fiesta Bowl, but that's another story.)

I think Gaffney suffered in the same way. He produced, but wasn't flashy. Wilkerson was flashy, but didn't produce. My point was simply that as good as Gaffney was, there are enough horses in the stable to keep things going without him.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - washingtonismoney - 06-30-2012

I really don't see any discussion of Gaffney being called a four-yard plugger. I don't see anyone saying he was inferior to Wilkerson. I just don't know where you're getting this from.

Re: Gaffney signs with the Pirates - yvonne - 07-03-2012

I can't figure out why the author is so certain a freshman who hasn't set foot on campus is going to get the second most carries. That makes no sense at all.