I'm not casting doubt on Sherrod, just being pragmatic. His rookie season, he looked like a rookie. That's okay, players get better. But then he got hurt. This adds to the mountain he has to climb. Assuming he comes back into camp ready to train, I'd expect next year as the earliest he'd be able to push for a starting job.
I think at the time Sherrod was hurt he was passing Newhouse...nice strides were being made.
However, I've been skeptical since the day he was hurt that he'd be able to recover to "dancing bear" status. When a guy snaps his leg at a 45 degree angle between the knee and ankle, you probably don't want to bank on a full recovery. If it happens, it should be regarded as a pleasant surprise.
Fans tend to view players like their car...something breaks down, you just send it to the shop and get the parts replaced according to some predefined schedule. It's easy to remember the guys who make full recoveries from serious injury (Purple Jesus); it's a lot harder to remember the many more who quietly wash out of the league.
It is my understanding this particular injury, while gruesome is relatively easy to recover from
If you can stomach it, rewatch the Seattle game and you'll see the announcers replay the tape of Newhouse getting beat repeatedly to the inside during the 8-sack half. It was oooglyI don’t remember Newhouse getting beat repeatedly inside.
The evidence suggests otherwise. We're a 1.5 years into this, and the optimistic prognoses have dissolved into silence.
Moving Bulaga to LT drop's Bulaga's production, and simultaneously SIGNIFICANTLY downgrades our RT position. Barclay had a LOT of help, he was servivceable, but not an upgrade to Newhouse. Newhouse and Sherrod are absolutely useless in the run game, and don't grade well at RT at all. Our optimal line would be Sherrod over at LT and Bulaga at RT. We can always move Bulaga later if we need to. Heard this last year, nothing happened. I expect the same.
Sherrod has a better skill set than Newhouse, so the assumption I'm making is "Sherrod should eventually be (has the potential to be) an upgrade over Newhouse." Newhouse is farther along in his development, so I don't expect Sherrod, or any other LT we could possibly draft to usurp him right away.That presumes that Sherrod is an upgrade over Newhouse. A more generic statement is that "we need our LT to play better." That could just be Newhouse improving. To date, Sherrod hasn't shown much of anything. I have less faith in him at this point that most had in Neal this far into his career. At least Neal had that dominate game against the Redskins his rookie year.
Similarly, it is possible that Barclay improves similarly to Newhouse in his second year. Newhouse went from 0 snaps played and inactive for 15(?) games to being the number three tackle and starting most of his second year. IF we can get that kind of one year improvement from Barclay, watch out. I kind of doubt it and would predict he'll make a more serious push his third year, but I'd love to be surprised.
Sherrod has a better skill set than Newhouse, so the assumption I'm making is "Sherrod should eventually be (has the potential to be) an upgrade over Newhouse."
Barclay has been vastly overrated by the fanbase at large.
It is possible that Newhouse & Bulaga are better than Bulaga & Barclay but I doubt it unless Newhouse gets much better and if that happens, this is moot anyway.
Newhouse did get beat inside vs. Seattle and Bulaga actually had a worse game than Newhouse, also getting beat inside.
But IMO getting beat inside or having to depend upon help from the LG is not Newhouse’s main problem: What happens when there’s a defender on Newhouse’s outside shoulder and another lined up over Lang?
Said another way: They have to find a LT who can be on an island, able to block even if there’s an even chance the defender will rush inside, outside, or bull rush.
And again, if Bulaga has to play LT, there’s no guarantee Barclay will start at RT. Newhouse may be better suited for RT. Sherrod may not be able to recover a “dancing bear” status but if he’s healthy, he may be better than Barclay and Newhouse at RT