Merriman Named Sporting News ROY per KFFL

[speedkilz88]

Actually they don't play the same position. Ware is a WOLB which is the same position that Foley plays on the Chargers. Merriman plays the SOLB like Fujita does.

Teams were concentrating stopping Foley and Ware on their perspective teams and the SOLB's on the other side had more unblocked opportunities.

 

[Nors]

Merriman was the more NFL ready pick, bigger and more experienced in 3-4. That at age 21 he took the NFL by storm is a bit of a suprise. He's winning all these awards deservedly.

Ware is a long term play - the play being he's a better edge pass rusher. A year in NFL weight room is needed by Ware so he can get off a Tackle once he's been engulfed.

 

[TEK2000]

Merriman was the more NFL ready pick, bigger and more experienced in 3-4. That at age 21 he took the NFL by storm is a bit of a suprise. He's winning all these awards deservedly.

Ware is a long term play - the play being he's a better edge pass rusher. A year in NFL weight room is needed by Ware so he can get off a Tackle once he's been engulfed.

I agree and disagree... sure, every rookie could stand to be in the weight room. But Ware's incredible strength has already been exhibited in my opinion. Consider the games of the latter part of the season. He started to shuck blockers as if it were nothing. His technique is VERY GOOD already... get your hands on the blocker and extend your arms to get separation to find the ball. He has no problem whatsoever extending his arms and getting separation from most any blocker he takes on against the run. See the Denver game, Carolina game, and St. Louis games for examples... I have video clips here: www.cowboysvids.com

I'm superbly impressed by Ware's progression thru this season. It was a new position for him.. he started out strong with sacks early on but he was a liability in the run defense because he would run himself out of the play. His sack drought occurred during a learning phase for him... learning to read the play to play run or pass. As he got more instictive and read the plays better, it showed in the latter part of the season with him being more effective especially in the run defense but also as well as pass rushing.

At this point.. Ware needs more pass rush moves.. but with his athleticism, its a short time before he's a pure sack machine.

 

[Eddie]

What is with coverage duties???? They both played the SAME position!!! Stop making up reasons why Ware didn't win the award and just give Merriman his due credit. Merriman has the LT mentality, that's what made me surprised at the fact Bill Parcells didn't draft him. I don't think Ware possesses enough of a mean streak at this stage in the game, plus he went through a rather long dry spell in the middle of season where he was a non-factor.

The coverage duties is NOT an excuse. The coaching staff even knows they threw too much at Ware. Ware had run duties, coverage duties, as well as penetration duties.

Merriman had ONE duty ... sack the QB!!!

If Ware had ONE job ...he'd be ROY.

 

[vicjagger]

Merriman was the better pick. Most non-biased fans new it before the draft, but Cowboys fans were quick to rationalize the pick of Ware, and continue to this day.

Face it, we **'d, again.

 

[Yeagermeister]

Merriman was the better pick. Most non-biased fans new it before the draft, but Cowboys fans were quick to rationalize the pick of Ware, and continue to this day.

Face it, we **'d, again.

If we had picked Merriman and Ware had won ROY you'd still say we *** up

 

[Bob Sacamano]

I agree and disagree... sure, every rookie could stand to be in the weight room. But Ware's incredible strength has already been exhibited in my opinion. Consider the games of the latter part of the season. He started to shuck blockers as if it were nothing. His technique is VERY GOOD already... get your hands on the blocker and extend your arms to get separation to find the ball. He has no problem whatsoever extending his arms and getting separation from most any blocker he takes on against the run. See the Denver game, Carolina game, and St. Louis games for examples... I have video clips here: www.cowboysvids.com

I'm superbly impressed by Ware's progression thru this season. It was a new position for him.. he started out strong with sacks early on but he was a liability in the run defense because he would run himself out of the play. His sack drought occurred during a learning phase for him... learning to read the play to play run or pass. As he got more instictive and read the plays better, it showed in the latter part of the season with him being more effective especially in the run defense but also as well as pass rushing.

At this point.. Ware needs more pass rush moves.. but with his athleticism, its a short time before he's a pure sack machine.

 

[Thunderstruck]

Quite frankly he has more of Lavar Arringtons mentality than LT's. He disappeared in as many games as Ware did, but just didn't string them all together. He was definitley more free to attack the qb.

Not sure where this "he disappeared in games" notion is coming from. He missed time early in the season. He didn't even play against the Boys in game 1. In game 2 he played special teams only, and in games 3 and 4 he was used only in obvious passing situations. It wasn't until game 5 that he became a full-time starter.

And, unlike Ware, Merriman missed 75% of training camp with the minicamp holdout and two seperate injuries that cost him about ten days each. He had to learn on the fly. Oh, and he was used in coverage most of the season, and in the last few games the coaches were pulling Merriman out on passing downs in favor of Phillips (presumably because they didn't want Shawne to "hit the wall.")

You guys are right when you say Merriman's role is different with the Bolts than Ware's is with the Boys, but please don't diss Shawne by saying "he disappeared in games." He put up 90% of this numbers in the last 11 games. If you take all his numbers and add about 20% to them you'd have a better idea of what his numbers would have been if he'd not missed any of preseason.

I'm not taking anything away from Ware, but Merriman had a bigger impact on his team than Ware did.

 

[wileedog]

I'm not taking anything away from Ware, but Merriman had a bigger impact on his team than Ware did.

No, I really don't think he did. Merriman didn't have Shanle or Fowler playing next to him or Scott Fujita playing across from him.

For all that Merriman had two more sacks and 5 less TFLs.

Our defense without Ware would have been much worse than SDs defense without Merriman.

That's not saying Ware necessarily played outright better. That is saying that Ware was much more critical to what our defense did (or didn't do) than Merriman was to SD, simply because the talent around Merriman was better.

Merriman got this award based on the Colts game. I firmly believe that. His hype meter went through the roof after that game. Now Ware also benefitted from one spectacular game against Carolina in the stats, but he got no where near the media attention.

But overall I would rank their respective impact just about the same.

 

[Paniolo22]

Not sure where this "he disappeared in games" notion is coming from. He missed time early in the season. He didn't even play against the Boys in game 1. In game 2 he played special teams only, and in games 3 and 4 he was used only in obvious passing situations. It wasn't until game 5 that he became a full-time starter.

And, unlike Ware, Merriman missed 75% of training camp with the minicamp holdout and two seperate injuries that cost him about ten days each. He had to learn on the fly. Oh, and he was used in coverage most of the season, and in the last few games the coaches were pulling Merriman out on passing downs in favor of Phillips (presumably because they didn't want Shawne to "hit the wall.")

You guys are right when you say Merriman's role is different with the Bolts than Ware's is with the Boys, but please don't diss Shawne by saying "he disappeared in games." He put up 90% of this numbers in the last 11 games. If you take all his numbers and add about 20% to them you'd have a better idea of what his numbers would have been if he'd not missed any of preseason.

I'm not taking anything away from Ware, but Merriman had a bigger impact on his team than Ware did.

Game 6- Merriman 2 tackles
He then went on a tear from games 7 through 10 racking up 6 of his 10 sacks.

Games 11,12,13 Merriman 10 tackles 0 sacks
Game 14- Indy Game Nice game for him 7 tackles 2 sacks.
Games 15, 16 got them 8 tackles and a sack on a QB scramble for 3 yards. He was good, but I also believe the Indy game got him ROY. If it weren't on National TV, Tatupu would have got it.
My point is, he wasn't the consistent week to week threat that people make him out to be, and Ware wasn't very far behind him. If we want to be picky, in the last 2 weeks when we needed to win games, Ware had 12 tackles and 4 sacks/3 FF vs Merriman's 8 tackles 1 sack and no FF

 

[Thunderstruck]

Game 6- Merriman 2 tackles
He then went on a tear from games 7 through 10 racking up 6 of his 10 sacks.

Games 11,12,13 Merriman 10 tackles 0 sacks
Game 14- Indy Game Nice game for him 7 tackles 2 sacks.
Games 15, 16 got them 8 tackles and a sack on a QB scramble for 3 yards. He was good, but I also believe the Indy game got him ROY. If it weren't on National TV, Tatupu would have got it.
My point is, he wasn't the consistent week to week threat that people make him out to be, and Ware wasn't very far behind him. If we want to be picky, in the last 2 weeks when we needed to win games, Ware had 12 tackles and 4 sacks/3 FF vs Merriman's 8 tackles 1 sack and no FF

Ware: 58 tackles, 11 assts, 8 sacks, 1 pass defensed, 3 forced-fumbles.

Merriman: 57 tackles, 14 assts, 10 sacks, 4 passes defensed, 2 forced fumbles.

Ware was the starting OLB in 16 games. Merriman didn't play in the first game against the Boys, and wasn't the starter until game 5.

In 4 fewer games as a starter Merriman put up numbers that were as-good-as-or-better-than Ware's.

And if not for Ware's game against the Panthers he would have been totally shut out in sacks for the last 9 weeks of the season. That's why Merriman got more attention for his performance against the Colts--because Merriman's numbers weren't something that just suddenly happened for the first time in weeks.

Merriman's fame was not the result of one good performance like you guys are making it seem. He had sacks in 7 different games, and multiple sacks in three games. In fact, the Colts game really wasn't his best game. That was against the Chiefs in Week 8, when he had 2 sacks, a forced fumble, multiple hits on Trent Green and the hit that ended Priest Holmes' season. He was on fire that afternoon.

They both did a terrific job as rookies, and they both have bright careers ahead of them. We'll see where they both are five years from now, but as a rookie Merriman was better in 12 starts than Ware was in 16.

 

[jimmy40]

Actually they don't play the same position. Ware is a WOLB which is the same position that Foley plays on the Chargers. Merriman plays the SOLB like Fujita does.

Teams were concentrating stopping Foley and Ware on their perspective teams and the SOLB's on the other side had more unblocked opportunities.

how were teams CONCENTRATING on stopping Ware? Left tackles were blocking him one on one all year.

 

[AdamJT13]

And if not for Ware's game against the Panthers he would have been totally shut out in sacks for the last 9 weeks of the season.

Except that Ware also had a sack in the last game of the season.

 

[Paniolo22]

Ware: 58 tackles, 11 assts, 8 sacks, 1 pass defensed, 3 forced-fumbles.

Merriman: 57 tackles, 14 assts, 10 sacks, 4 passes defensed, 2 forced fumbles.

Ware was the starting OLB in 16 games. Merriman didn't play in the first game against the Boys, and wasn't the starter until game 5.

In 4 fewer games as a starter Merriman put up numbers that were as-good-as-or-better-than Ware's.

And if not for Ware's game against the Panthers he would have been totally shut out in sacks for the last 9 weeks of the season. That's why Merriman got more attention for his performance against the Colts--because Merriman's numbers weren't something that just suddenly happened for the first time in weeks.

Merriman's fame was not the result of one good performance like you guys are making it seem. He had sacks in 7 different games, and multiple sacks in three games. In fact, the Colts game really wasn't his best game. That was against the Chiefs in Week 8, when he had 2 sacks, a forced fumble, multiple hits on Trent Green and the hit that ended Priest Holmes' season. He was on fire that afternoon.

They both did a terrific job as rookies, and they both have bright careers ahead of them. We'll see where they both are five years from now, but as a rookie Merriman was better in 12 starts than Ware was in 16.

I didn't say it was ONLY because of the Indy game. I said it was the reason he won the award over Tatupu and probably Thurman. Ware, IMO, was fourth for LB's and probably lower when you consider the cornerbacks and other positions. I really felt Tatupu deserved it.
As for Ware, it took him a few games to get adjusted to his new position as well as the speed of the NFL. I'll call it a wash since Merriman brought his missing games on himself.

 

[Thunderstruck]

Except that Ware also had a sack in the last game of the season.

My bad.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

but as a rookie Merriman was better in 12 starts WITH LESS RESPONSIBILITIES than Ware was in 16.

there you go

 

[BigDFan5]

how were teams CONCENTRATING on stopping Ware? Left tackles were blocking him one on one all year.

Umm no they werent blocking him one on one all year. Even Parcells mentioned he was being double teamed alot

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Umm no they werent blocking him one on one all year. Even Parcells mentioned he was being double teamed alot

you can't reason with trolls