Hayne was a good tough player, never a super star.
His biggest problem is he appears pretty thick.
I’m no great lover of Jarryd Hayne as a person and am happy to concede that he is no genius but he was most certainly a superstar player. He has won 2 Dally Ms and the RLIF International Player of the Year. He has consistently been NSW’s best player In State of Origin. He has played 20 SOOs since debuting at 19. He has played 26 other representative games.
Last year someone said, “Jarryd Hayne is the most complete player I’ve seen … he’s got size, strength, vision … he’s got everything. He understands the game.” But what would Andrew Johns know about football?
As don’t ask has made clear, this is about as wrong as any statement can possibly be.
It keeps the 49ers in the news during the off season.
Haynes is not in the same class as Wally Lewis or even Johnathon Thurston. Haynes has played for Australia 12 times. In the same period Thurston has represented Australia 32 times in tests.
How many winning State of Origin Sides has Haynes played in?
Then again, it is pretty pointless trying to state the obvious to NSW supporters.
For the American sports fans following along here, who might not know much about rugby league, this is a bit like saying that Joe Morgan wasn’t a superstar because he’s not as good as Lou Gehrig or Willy Mays. And Philip Rivers might not be in the same class as Johnny Unitas or Joe Montana or Tom Brady, so clearly he’s not a superstar either.
Wally Lewis is widely considered to be one of the best few players ever to lace up a rugby league boot, and Johnathon Thurston is well on the way to similar status. The fact that Hayne is not quite up to the level of those two all-time greats is really not much of an argument against his superstar status.
This is a bit like arguing that Tony Gonzalez isn’t a superstar tight end because, after all, how many Superbowls has he won? Ken Griffey Jr. never managed to carry his teams to a World Series win, either. Pretty lame, huh?
Ok what now that Reggie Bush is on board?
Nothing. Bush is a starter. Haynes isn’t.
Nitpick: there’s only one Jarryd Hayne.
And yes he was a star in the NRL.
Hayne had a pretty nice debut in the 49ers’ preseason loss to the Texans. 120 all purpose yards, including a long run and a few impressive kick and punt returns.
He was as advertised: strong, agile and quick, remarkably shifty, runs upright, etc. Contact doesn’t seem to bother him. I believe he got some work on coverage units, too. There’s some things he needs to work on, but if he keeps performing like this he might actually make the 53, maybe even the 45 as the return guy.
I’m rooting for him, but after watching that run, I just think he runs funny.
At this point, he’s got two legs and two arms, and isn’t an idiot. He should fill in for Aldon Smith.
Nothing against him there, but that run I give mostly to the O-line and fullback. He did his job, he hit the open hole, which some guys never learn to do, and made the DB miss in the open field though which is a positive.
Yeah, that hole was wide enough for a former Alabama RB to run through. Fullback Bruce Miller is one of the best in the league. The returns are more indicative of his worth.
I have given up on trying to guess how someone will be by what happens in preseason. There are so many variables with whatever level of scrub they happen to be playing against on any particular play you can’t make good comparisons. It seems like the coaching staff almost make up their mind more on what they see in practice than what happens against another team’s 3rd stringer if they are lucky players. I do think he has a fair chance of making the roster as a kick returner.
It’s interesting, here in Australia the media are raving about him, and about his 53 yard run. But I agree that to my untutored eyes, at least the first bit of that run was all about a great hole being opened up for him to run through.
One of the interesting things I read a few weeks back was that he’s had to change his running style and how he holds his body to better adapt to the NFL style. Which I could certainly notice on that play. Back home in League he had a very upright and open running style. Part of the change I think, particularly while running through the line of scrimmage, is how you hold the ball in the NFL, tucked right in tight against the stomach, with the hand over the point.
I appreciate these remarks. One of the things that annoys me is when rugby or AFL fans mock American football for all the pads and helmets without respecting that there simply are more head to head full speed collisions in American football, whilst the international cousins seem to run “with” the ball.
That is no disrespect for the toughness of non-American football—not only do the players wear no pads, and do suffer horrific injuries, they are more diversified in their athleticism than most American players. You just don’t have 350 pound defensive lineman who can a 40 yard dash in under 5 seconds plow into an 180 pound quarterbacks blindside in those sports. Without pads, there would be multiple deaths every year in the NFL, it would be about one step below Rollerball.
American society has been considered by many to be bloody and violence loving, yet we have had pads and helmets on our football players for generations now. There’s a reason for that.
It’s really fucking dangerous.
Having lived in Australia and played a little Rugby League, I was curious to see how this “experiment” went.
Don’t believe the cautious downplaying by the San Francisco coaches. They know they’ve got a good one and are thrilled. Putting aside his long run, the coaches saw things that Hayne understands instinctually that most NFL rookies take years to learn. Yes, he’s 27, normally at the tail end of a running backs career, (though many go well into their 30’s) but he doesn’t have the wear and tear that most NFL rookies have at 23 after 8 years of high school and college football.
He has great footwork and change of direction and knows to move the ball from arm to arm to protect it from fumbles, a thing many NFL running backs seemingly never learn.
Most teams have 90 players now, and must cut 15 by Sept.1. Again, don’t believe the coaches when they say they are still making decisions - these have been made and Hayne is not one of them. Things can change if a starter or backup gets hurt, but barring that, they 15 cuts have, for all intents and purposes, already been made. The team is working on the hard decisions, which is going from 75 to 53 by Sept. 5. Probably 15 of those have been penciled in, and will happen barring injuries. Hayne isn’t on that list, either. The last six or seven cuts are going to involve players with several years of service in the league, including some who will be learning that their long careers are over.
If Hayne makes it to Sept. 6, he’s about 60% sure of making opening day for the 49’ers, and even if he doesn’t, he likely will be put on the practice squad or grabbed by another team first.
I think he’s all but made it. My opinion only, of course.
I’m not sure what you’re saying here. Barring unforeseen injuries, everyone who makes it to Sept 6 makes it to opening day.
No, there’s a flood of signings of just cut players from other teams and someone has to be cut for every signing. Clubs have about 24 hours (20, to be exact) to claim players on waivers before rosters are frozen. They still have the ability to add 10 players to their practice squad after that.
Believe it. If he keeps up the same amount of production, he’ll make it, sure. He still had some things to work on. Being decisive if there isn’t an obvious opening, working in tight spaces, protecting the ball, what to do when he doesn’t have the ball.
As a running back, he’s behind at least four other guys, all of whom are locks to make the 53. That means he’s competing for a special teams spot. He’ll have to make himself look indespensable in comparison to the other options at the return spots. I’m not sure he’s there yet.