Thoughts on Steve Slaton?

Yeah, he hasn’t been the same since his neck surgery. He seem to almost completely lose his field vision. However he was always dangerous in space, especially on screen passes. I don’t know if Kubiak gave him enough chances to break one outside cause every recent run I saw him take was between the tackles, & he just usually ended up running into a lineman’s back. Maybe it’s just cause he isn’t made for a one cut system, but if you open up a hole for him & tell him to run through it, he might have success.

Regardless of our criticisms of Slaton, we still think right now that he’s still better than Reggie Bush. He may not have Bush’s speed, but Slaton won’t dance around in the backfield all day trying to look for a hole to break a long run. He’s also a pretty decent blocker despite his lack of size. Just give him a big enough hole or use him on screen passes, & pray he can hold onto the ball.

I think you guys did pick up a gem indeed. Here is a post I just uploaded to your site:

http://www.thephinsider.com/2011/9/29/2457754/steve-slaton-a-dolphin

I still think given the opportunity, he could remold himself into a good 3rd down back. He’s had very limited carries since his surgery and I think if he got a chance to get out there and play for a while, he could regain something. Unfortunately the Dolphins were the wrong team for that and I don’t get the pickup at all.

I’m not convinced he doesn’t have some lingering nerve issues that contribute to his propensity to fumble. He became a much more tentative runner post-injury. His vision has been poor to say the least….he just couldn’t read his blocks the way he needed to in this system. More often then not he would go right past a cut back opportunity to run into the back of his blocker. Sometimes you would almost think he had his eyes closed.

Kubiak had lost complete faith in him. We called timeouts at least twice so far this season so that the other RB could catch his breath and Slaton wouldn’t be on the field for a crucial running down. Maybe he’s finally healthy and a fresh start will do him some good. I hope so, he was always a class act.

wish him the best in the rest of his NFL career and post-football life. Good luck with him.

Having said that, he has not been even close to the same as his rookie year self. He is still dangerous as a check-down receiver out of the backfield and i’d have to say he still has the ability to break one from anywhere on the field although I don’t think that will happen very often.

One of the things I saw in his limited time playing in last week’s Saints game was that he seemed to get the ball and then run right toward the biggest group of blockers and defenders he could see. I saw him get tackled or knocked down by such a group when there were running lanes (holes) on BOTH sides of that group.

I believe Steve is a less effective, but very similar, player as Reggie Bush. Still, I wish him and the Phins all the best together in the future.

or at least exactly as ineffective.

That half was awesome to me. Slaton WASN’T running into the piles that part of the game. Then Arian Foster came back on the field and the mirage vanished. Slaton returned to running to the piles (if he got any carries after Foster got back on the field).

I almost felt like Slaton was doing his best when he knew he was the teams first running back (like he was that day when Foster was in Kubes’ doghouse). So I don’t know if his performance is based on mental/emotional or if it is based on a physical impairment. Considering the surgery that he had I think he’s made a remarkable recovery. But if you erased that first quater/half of the Raiders game in 2010 . . .he’s not the same player =(.

I would love to see Slaton do fabulously for y’all. I think y’all have had beastly running games before? (I could be very wrong =D I’m not very knowledgeable about football AT ALL) But if y’all have any kind of genius at coaching RBs you might be able to bring Slaton back. I hope so. He’s a great guy. I really hope he fits into y’all’s scheme beautifully. I don’t think he fit into Dennison’s and Kubiak’s scheme any more.