Trib: Erskin Banks On His Speed

[Guest]

i thin erskin will be more of a special teams guy.. like chad owens was in hawaii or tim dwight.. i don't think he'll be the small possession receiver like wayne chrebet

well -- right now he's a starting wide receiver... what are we going to do, but him out there and not throw to him?

I think he's more like a Ricky Proehl...

[lerbut23]

I am sure he is fast but probably not as fast as times recorded by his position coach.

Last year all the talk about how fast the coaches timed Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio State) in the 40 and it didn't pan out at the combine.

In either event it's hard to believe someone with that kind of a speed has to walk on. How did he not get noticed in high school?

[Bull Dozer]

I am sure he is fast but probably not as fast as times recorded by his position coach.

Last year all the talk about how fast the coaches timed Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio State) in the 40 and it didn't pan out at the combine.

In either event it's hard to believe someone with that kind of a speed has to walk on. How did he not get noticed in high school?

If his time truly is whats reported he would be as fast as Deon Sanders and from what i saw of him last year he looked nowhere near as fast as Deon. 

[dabull80]

Who is Deon Sanders ?

[RSSMOOTH]

I am sure he is fast but probably not as fast as times recorded by his position coach.

Last year all the talk about how fast the coaches timed Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio State) in the 40 and it didn't pan out at the combine.

In either event it's hard to believe someone with that kind of a speed has to walk on. How did he not get noticed in high school?

He ran a 4.44 at the combine which is still pretty fast. He also ran the fastest 20 yd shuttle and a top 5 60 yd shuttle. He ran the fastet 3 cone drill too and a 38 inch vertical to boot. A very impressive athlete nonetheless. He ran a faster 3 cone and shuttle time than Yamon Figurs who had the fastest 40 at the combine.

http://www.nfl.com/combine/story/10021441

[ChiTownBull]

Hopefully he can be like santana moss!

He has the hands and the speed...hopefully we call the right plays to utilize his skills

[E.T.]

... How did he not get noticed in high school?

Just think ... he could end up being as productive as Ean Randolph ... another guy to go unnoticed  ;D

[Bull Dozer]

Who is Deon Sanders ?

Thanks captain spell check

[BullyPulpit]

The kid is a flat out burner. I was one of the first (and only) to start singing his praises last season. He really stood out to me in the UCF game when he made a huge catch over the middle on one of our touchdown drives. However, I thought his best position would be to line up as an RB and either move into the slot for 5 WR sets or have him go out for a pass out of the backfield. There is no chance in the world a LB in college could stay within three steps of this kid. I am hopeful he does well playing as a true WR. I really don't recall him dropping any passes last year either. 

One thing I am hopefull for since watching the video that was posted on here of the Arkansas-AU game last season is that we use him on WR handoff plays. That play seemed good for about 15+ yards everytime Arkansas ran it. They would mix it up, handing it to the WR on some plays and handing to the RB on others. We could also have Grothe keep it and run as well. One thing about AU's defense, while they are fast, they do have a tendency to over pursue the football. We need to take advantage of that.

[Bullpride08]

I am sure he is fast but probably not as fast as times recorded by his position coach.

Last year all the talk about how fast the coaches timed Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio State) in the 40 and it didn't pan out at the combine.

In either event it's hard to believe someone with that kind of a speed has to walk on. How did he not get noticed in high school?

He ran a 4.44 at the combine which is still pretty fast. He also ran the fastest 20 yd shuttle and a top 5 60 yd shuttle. He ran the fastet 3 cone drill too and a 38 inch vertical to boot. A very impressive athlete nonetheless. He ran a faster 3 cone and shuttle time than Yamon Figurs who had the fastest 40 at the combine.

http://www.nfl.com/combine/story/10021441

Good points Smooth.  Every year teams throw out crazy forty times that some of their speedsters run, and the reality is once they're truly combined timed it's rarely quite that fast.

If Erskin was a true, true 4.2 guy, from the same ilk as Sanders, or Raghib Ismael he would be an absolute phenom.  Obviously Erskin is fast, obviously not that type of talent but probably more straight line fast, but there is still a use for a guy like that too. 

The value of a guy like Erskin is lining him up in the slot and get him running down a seam in the middle.  That's how we used him a bit last year.  That value is amplified since the slot is usually covered by a nickel or safety, and sometimes even a LB, with Erskins straight line speed he should be able to blow past those guys running quick seam routes for Grothe.  That's big, if teams are forced to respect his and Hester's speed at the slot that means they'll need to drop their cover guys deeper to compensate and take away the inside zone.  It means less guys at the line of scrimmage and more running room.