am I missing something? Dunbar fumbled once in pre-season and once during the season, right? I agree that he hasn't played a lot, but I don't consider him a "fumbler" unless he continues to put the ball on the ground....give the kid a chance already
I don't know how significant the issue really is, but this is apparently something Garrett addressed after Dunbar's fumble in KC (?) in the walk-off after his press conference. The walk-off is the one time the coach will share mostly off-the-record tidbits. JG said that that play was supposed to be his safe play, so it was a bigger deal for him that Dunbar didn't demonstrate the ball control he'd been drilled with. The comment was peppered with the usual Garrettisms...he's a young player, he's working hard, he just needs to learn the importance of keeping the football...but it was pretty clear that this was an issue of the player not doing what he was taught to do and needing more work on it in practice.
It's been several weeks since then, so it's reasonable to expect he's improved in this area. But I do think the offensive coaches, at least, recognized this was a case of a young guy needing to be drilled on the basics of four-pointing the ball in traffic and not just an isolated incident of a couple of fumbles that could happen to anybody.
I like Dunbar quite a bit, too, and think he's going to end up making his share of big plays for us this season. Hopefully, that'll start this week. But I wouldn't play a guy who can't show me in practice that he'll take care of the football, either. I'd rather have slow-as-death Joseph Randle out there protecting the ball than Daren-Sproles-Jr-with-Fumblities, if those were my only two choices.
