TJ McDonald appreciation thread

[DR RAM]

I appreciate him. Love his play.

 

[RamFan503]

I hope you're right about Mc

He is. :fighting: :rockon:

 

[Alan]

RamFan503 having trouble with sticky keys:
AAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDD???

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD7Mdllm7lA


Gateway to the west (and eventually Oregon) St. Louis, MO.

 

[HometownBoy]

I was all over the pick, even though there were many who were completely down on it. I can't say I had eyes on him all the time or watched him religiously at USC, but something about him and the way he carried himself made me feel like there was nothing to worry about. I'm glad he proved me right and continues to weekly.

It's really fucking relieving to go into a game not holding my breath about the safeties every five seconds wondering which one of them is going to give up the huge chunk of yardage.

 

[RamFan503]

Gateway to the west (and eventually Oregon) St. Louis, MO.

And much like Lewis and Clark - he knows how to cover on assignments that take him deep.

BTW - We needed a safety. Is there another free safety besides Reid that you would have rather had? Keeping in mind of course that McD played FS for most of his college career.

 

[Alan]

RamFan503 wondering what a real FS looks like:
BTW - We needed a safety. Is there another free safety besides Reid that you would have rather had? Keeping in mind of course that McD played FS for most of his college career.

I was kind of lucky wanting this guy because I'm not very good at judging FS talent () but here he is:
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/players/playerpage/1737133/eric-reid
Rookie Eric Reid headed to Pro Bowl
by Larry Hartstein | CBSSports.com
49ers rookie free safety Eric Reid is headed to the Pro Bowl as a replacement for Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor. Reid, the No. 18 overall pick, had 77 tackles, 11 breakups, four interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

He was picked #18 which was two picks after our original pick that we traded to the Bills. Of course we would have missed out on Tavon.

 

[RamFan503]

BTW - We needed a safety. Is there another free safety besides Reid that you would have rather had? Keeping in mind of course that McD played FS for most of his college career.

Alan - clearly unable to read or comprehend said:

I was kind of lucky wanting this guy because I'm not very good at judging FS talent () but here he is:
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/players/playerpage/1737133/eric-reid
Rookie Eric Reid headed to Pro Bowl
by Larry Hartstein | CBSSports.com
49ers rookie free safety Eric Reid is headed to the Pro Bowl as a replacement for Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor. Reid, the No. 18 overall pick, had 77 tackles, 11 breakups, four interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

So are you saying you were bucking for Reid with our first pick? If so - I could go with that. Still think overall, McD will make our defense better but Reid would have been a great pick in hindsight. I wonder if we would still have gotten Tree.

 

[Alan]

RamFan503 barely returning my attempted ace with this lob:
So are you saying you were bucking for Reid with our first pick? If so - I could go with that. Still think overall, McD will make our defense better but Reid would have been a great pick in hindsight. I wonder if we would still have gotten Tree.

Better than what? If you're talking about the Dahl/Mikell dynamic duo, I think you and I out on the field would accomplish that. Well, maybe you and Mikell.

It wouldn't have been hindsight for me because as all the "Huddle" posters know, he's who I wanted. As for Ogletree, picking Reid wouldn't have changed that scenario which I loved at the time and said so. I'm all for trading DOWN and still getting a stud. Not only would we have had a 2nd round pick to get another stud, we could still have drafted McD when we did too. But at the HUGE cost of missing out on Tavon. :seizure:

Drafting McD WOULD have been a hindsight pick for me because I would never have used our third on him. Especially after having already drafted Reid in the first round. Snisher did a great job with that pick because we needed to replace Dahl AND Mikell. I'm in no way denigrating the McD pick because he's looking like a real stud at SS and maybe and I mean maybe, he'll learn the skills needed to be a great FS too. That would solve our problems in the backfield wouldn't it? We'd actually have one of those SS/FS studs Snisher is looking for. Of course we'd still need another one to field that mythical "there is no difference between SS and FS in my system" safety tandem.

O-line, OLB and QB in the 2014 draft!!!!!!!!!!!

If...

 

[jjab360]

Eric Reid is overrated imo, Alan, wasn't too impressed with him predraft and he's really taken a step back this year from what was an overrated rookie season anyway. McDonald is the better safety right now imo, and Barron will be too once he gets acclimated. That guy was one of the best safeties I've ever seen at Alabama, just an absolute game wrecker.

 

[Alan]

jjab360 with his take:
Eric Reid is overrated imo, Alan, wasn't too impressed with him predraft and he's really taken a step back this year from what was an overrated rookie season anyway. McDonald is the better safety right now imo

I haven't been following his career but ANY rookie who makes the Pro Bowl, even as an injury replacement, can't be too shabby. Those stats are heard to argue against aren't they? Unlike you, I had him rated as my top FS, although I frequently vacillated between wanting him and Vaccaro. I knew Vaccaro would go before our time came to pick and I also thought he was a little too strong safetyish (that should be a word BTW). It's very early in both their careers and way to early to make any final judgments about either of them IMO. Who knows, you may end up being right.

 

[A.J. Hicks]

It was relatively early in the Denver game but it was 2nd or 3rd for 1 or 2 yards and Manning hit J. Thomas in the flat for what was going to be a first down. Problem was, second the ball arrived is the same second Mcdonald hit Thomas and drove him backwards. That was a great play!

 

[Corbin]

The most maligned pick of the 2013 class has to this date probably been the best pick with Ogletree a close second. He has really taken off this year. I also love our defensive scheme with the three safeties. Barron and McDonald are big time thumpers and McLeod despite being small can level some hits too.

Nice thread man! Haha I was just thinking this today... This week has dragged ass! Can't wait until tomorrow!! If we destroy the Chargers I see people taking notice once we put a couple of wins together in a row

 

[RamFan503]

Better than what?

Better than Reid. McD was also really coming into his own last year when he broke his leg. This year Reid has two INTs that were pretty much handed to him and half the tackles of McD. Yawn.

No wonder Fish passed on Reid et al for the best Safety - free or otherwise - available in that draft.

 

[Alan]

RamFan503 reaching for a reason why not to like Reid:
Better than Reid. McD was also really coming into his own last year when he broke his leg. This year Reid has two INTs that were pretty much handed to him and half the tackles of McD. Yawn.

No wonder Fish passed on Reid et al for the best Safety - free or otherwise - available in that draft.

A couple of things here:

So you wouldn't expect a SS to have more tackles than a FS?

So you think Snisher would have drafted McD in the first? Fish didn't pass on Reid, after the trade up he had no choice if he also wanted Ogletree which as we know, he did. Plus, as we also know, he had a backup plan to draft McD later. Good back up plan! Of course for that to have actually been his plan, he had to be pretty sure McD wouldn't be of interest to any other team until he could pick again in the third right?

I'm pretty sure this well has run dry and lets end it by putting out a bunch of positive vibes to help ensure that McD will be everything you and I hope he will be.

After any reply by you of course.

 

[RamWoodie]

Been saying the guy reminds me of Ronnie Lott for a while now....he gets better every week!

 

[RamFan503]

So you wouldn't expect a SS to have more tackles than a FS?

The Safety with the most tackles in the NFL this year is a FS. Two of the top four tackling safeties are FSs with McD being fifth. So.....

So you think Snisher would have drafted McD in the first?

No - because my guess is he had aims on McD in the third. I've already gone over why I think Fish knew far better than anyone else where he could get his man so I won't bore you with that again.

Fish didn't pass on Reid, after the trade up he had no choice if he also wanted Ogletree which as we know, he did. Plus, as we also know, he had a backup plan to draft McD later. Good back up plan! Of course for that to have actually been his plan, he had to be pretty sure McD wouldn't be of interest to any other team until he could pick again in the third right?

It's all just conjecture but I'm guessing that Reid wasn't even in Fisher's plans unless he dropped into the second and maybe not even then. I'm sure Fish knew who would be after McD and when and was watching them closely. He was no doubt ticking potential suitors off the board and jumped when he felt he had to.

So end this debate if you want but I am already putting out major positive vibes toward McDonald as I have been all along. I can't help it if you read guys like Rob Rang and assume they're right about a Safety they may have not even watched anything but a few senior year game tapes on. I understand. It happens all the time. I won't hold it against you. Well sort of. Just don't be dissing my boy anymore.

 

[Robocop]

McDonald vs Denver


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIOM44B-6YE&list=UUNfIFM-ALPDyWD4x_B_AuNA

awesome hits pro bowl worthy. dude is Polamalu 2.0 (coverage skill)

 

[RamWoodie]

This is a link to Williams talking about TJ's play from the Rams website:

View: http://www.stlouisrams.com/videos/videos/Gregg_Williams_Presser_1121_Pt_1/b2ff9bde-ddff-456f-b7f3-5c1bba4f6463