Chad Greenway: Been Bad At Football For Three Years

[Purple bruise]

ummm...ya...but as you can perhaps see, Greenway isn't looking at smith and has no idea he is about to get hit. I guess if you want to criticize him for that it might be fair. Essentially though, there is nothing at all about greenways play to be gleaned by that play.

Exactly right. For any football player that has been blindsided, you know that it makes little difference that a blocker is considerably smaller.
Is that how someone judges a player because he got blindsided and knocked on his butt I could show you anyone from Dick Butkus to Lawrence Taylor getting creamed on similar type plays and that doesn't diminish their abilities one bit.

[King James]

Looking at the play, I know this video is bad quality but this was the only one I could find. Some would argue that he got blindsided. From what I could see, he took a bad angle the entire way and his reaction was slow. For a minute it seems like he has a potential hit, but he's too slow. He starts to move in but shifts to right a little more and met Steve Smith.

Excluding that big block, I think his footing, angles, and speed in this play really presented itself in other games he had last season.

[Purple bruise]

Looking at the play, I know this video is bad quality but this was the only one I could find. Some would argue that he got blindsided. From what I could see, he took a bad angle the entire way and his reaction was slow. For a minute it seems like he has a potential hit, but he's too slow. He starts to move in but shifts to right a little more and met Steve Smith.

Excluding that big block, I think his footing, angles, and speed in this play really presented itself in other games he had last season.

No doubt that his skills have diminished but the statement that you made, "Smith is like 5'9 and 180 something pounds. Greenway is 6'2 and 242 pounds. There's no way he should be getting blasted as hard as he did. Not saying that Steve Smith isn't strong but Greenway is a linebacker, I thought he'd be a little stronger than that, and Smith is much older than he is." , in my opinion is far fetched.

[Mothman]

Looking at the play, I know this video is bad quality but this was the only one I could find. Some would argue that he got blindsided.

He clearly gets blindsided so I'd say we can throw that part of the play out.

From what I could see, he took a bad angle the entire way and his reaction was slow. For a minute it seems like he has a potential hit, but he's too slow. He starts to move in but shifts to right a little more and met Steve Smith.

Excluding that big block, I think his footing, angles, and speed in this play really presented itself in other games he had last season.

You definitely have a point about his reaction time, speed and the angle he took on that play, none of which were good.

[NextQuestion]

I kind of wonder if Chad wasn't a good character, local (practically), stat padding guy...would we run him out of town? There's really no good defense for him anymore. He's just not very good and that's ok.

[mondry]

Yeah, Greenway CLEARLY got blindsided and apparently some of you don't understand physics, there is more to force than just the guys size, he has a full head of steam as he collides with Greenway who isn't expecting it (hence blindsided) so I don't think there's anyone in the league that would have taken that without getting at least knocked out of the play.

Yeah Greenway doesn't make the play, it looks bad, and all that, but him chasing RB's in the open field with a full head of steam isn't really what we want him to do. Watch the video again and you can see the guy who's actually responsible for the middle of the field and picking up the RB completely overshoots his responsibility and gives the back a free pass and path to the left side of the field without so much as even touching him. If #50 doesn't shoot the gap so hard he'd be in a good position to at least slow the back down and make this a much easier play for Greenway, and ultimately should make the play himself for a 1 yard gain, instead he runs himself straight out of the play.

Most of the blame should go to the MLB on that play, some to Greenway, and a bit to Cook for whiffing the tackle at the end with no one even bothering him at the end of the play. This was a 5 yard gain before the back even got to Greenway.

[Purple bruise]

Yeah, Greenway CLEARLY got blindsided and apparently some of you don't understand physics, there is more to force than just the guys size, he has a full head of steam as he collides with Greenway who isn't expecting it (hence blindsided) so I don't think there's anyone in the league that would have taken that without getting at least knocked out of the play.

Yeah Greenway doesn't make the play, it looks bad, and all that, but him chasing RB's in the open field with a full head of steam isn't really what we want him to do. Watch the video again and you can see the guy who's actually responsible for the middle of the field and picking up the RB completely overshoots his responsibility and gives the back a free pass and path to the left side of the field without so much as even touching him. If #50 doesn't shoot the gap so hard he'd be in a good position to at least slow the back down and make this a much easier play for Greenway, and ultimately should make the play himself for a 1 yard gain, instead he runs himself straight out of the play.

Most of the blame should go to the MLB on that play, some to Greenway, and a bit to Cook for whiffing the tackle at the end with no one even bothering him at the end of the play. This was a 5 yard gain before the back even got to Greenway.

Exactamundo.

[PurpleKoolaid]

I haven't been a Greenway 'fan' since I came to this board. I don't hate him, I just don't like it when we overpay guys, and then they start sliding downhill, fast. What were Greenways stats for tackles for losses? 1 or 2 yard gains? Forced fumbles or int's? Things the good LBs excel at? I bet he is at the bottom of his position in the NFC for these stats that do matter. Making 5000 tackles a year because you cant cover and let everything develop before you, isn't a good stat. I think we should make him earn his keep by converting him to MIKE. And rotate the other LBs in depending on the downs. Cause if Jasper is MIKE, im going to cry. Seriously.

[Purple bruise]

I haven't been a Greenway 'fan' since I came to this board. I don't hate him, I just don't like it when we overpay guys, and then they start sliding downhill, fast. What were Greenways stats for tackles for losses? 1 or 2 yard gains? Forced fumbles or int's? Things the good LBs excel at? I bet he is at the bottom of his position in the NFC for these stats that do matter. Making 5000 tackles a year because you cant cover and let everything develop before you, isn't a good stat. I think we should make him earn his keep by converting him to MIKE. And rotate the other LBs in depending on the downs. Cause if Jasper is MIKE, im going to cry. Seriously.

"I just don't like it when we overpay guys, and then they start sliding downhill, fast" You say that but you were very displeased and made a whole lot of posts, when they let an aging, over priced Winfield go Which is it then?
Greenway is past his prime no doubt and I draw a great comparison to him and Winfield....they both should/did go.

[PurpleKoolaid]

"I just don't like it when we overpay guys, and then they start sliding downhill, fast" You say that but you were very displeased and made a whole lot of posts, when they let an aging, over priced Winfield go Which is it then?
Greenway is past his prime no doubt and I draw a great comparison to him and Winfield....they both should/did go.

They should be talking to him now about restructuring his contract. Actually they should have before. He knows hes the best LB we have though. Same for Winfield. His contract was way to high. I don't understand why they didn't go over it, instead of just dumping him during workouts.

[VikingLord]

Smith is like 5'9 and 180 something pounds. Greenway is 6'2 and 242 pounds. There's no way he should be getting blasted as hard as he did.

Agree with you if all things were equal on the play, but all things were NOT equal on that play.

Greenway never sees Smith coming. Complete blindside. The only way Greenway, or even a bigger player, stays on his feet in that situation is if he either sees Smith coming and slows down to get his center of mass underneath his body and brace for the impact, or I suppose he could have stayed on his feet had he been moving slower and his center of mass never got out in front of his body. They way Smith hits him (high and hard on the trailing shoulder) would have the same effect as a smaller car hitting a larger car in the trunk section at high speed. It would effectively spin the trailing section of the mass, which in Greenway's case knocked his behind out.

All this play shows me is how smaller players like Smith and Winfield are effective and survive in the pros. They either learn or innately understand how to gain leverage over heavier players. That, plus being extremely strong and durable, enables them to play a game for a long time that if it just came down to weight and height they could never have played for long.

Whether Greenway is a good LB cannot be boiled down to this play.

[Rus]

He was better playing outside, for sure. He was never quite strong enough to play middle or sam. He was completely a speed guy who's had surgeries in his knee and doesn't have that half step he used to have to get into better position to make a clean tackle. He certainly never was much good at muscling guys down or breaking through blocks. He's still a high-character player, though.

People keep forgetting that Greenway put up some of the worst strength numbers at his combine. Granted, he's certainly bulked up some since then, but if he's gained a whole lot of strength it's pretty hard to tell. Jerick McKinnon put up about twice as many bench press reps this year as Greenway did. There were wide receivers when Greenway was drafted that put up more. Greenway was entirely about speed and instincts, and now he's mostly just instincts.

[saint33]

They should be talking to him now about restructuring his contract. Actually they should have before. He knows hes the best LB we have though. Same for Winfield. His contract was way to high. I don't understand why they didn't go over it, instead of just dumping him during workouts.

They already did restructure his contract.

[Purple bruise]

They should be talking to him now about restructuring his contract. Actually they should have before. He knows hes the best LB we have though. Same for Winfield. His contract was way to high. I don't understand why they didn't go over it, instead of just dumping him during workouts.

Your boy Winfield refused to restructure his contract:
Vikings release Antoine Winfield
Updated: March 12, 2013, 9:14 PM ET
The Vikings wanted Winfield, who was due to make $7.25 million in 2013, to restructure his contract, sources told ESPNTwinCities. But the three-time Pro Bowler refused to take a pay cut, according to the report.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/90439 ... me-simpson Greenway restructures deal with Vikings:
March, 15, 2014
MINNEAPOLIS -- Coming off a frustrating season where he played much of the year with a broken left wrist and heading into a season where he was due to count $8.2 million against the Vikings' salary cap, 31-year-old linebacker Chad Greenway seemed like a possible candidate to restructure his deal with the team. Now, he has
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/ ... th-vikings

[Laserman]

We need LBs who are fast and can cover better than the ones we have. Greenway has been better than average but we should have been re stocking at LB a couple of years ago