Hightower back in Washington

[cober]

Only issue i have with Hightower was the fact he tried to hide the shoulder injury. Yes it effected his play and performance. The fact he did not disclose it hurt the team. He should havecame out and given the new guys the ball recovered and then maybe we would seen the guy we saw in preseason.

[Win4us]

Sounds good to me....the more competition the better.

[Makaha99]

Only issue i have with Hightower was the fact he tried to hide the shoulder injury. Yes it effected his play and performance. The fact he did not disclose it hurt the team. He should havecame out and given the new guys the ball recovered and then maybe we would seen the guy we saw in preseason.

wait which game did Hightower hurt his shoulder in?

[rk3025]

Anyone that is a real football player will play though injury to the best that they can do.

Hightower is a player.

[Hitman21ST]

Anyone that is a real football player will play though injury to the best that they can do.

Hightower is a player.

I completely disagree. There's a difference between pain and injury. Pain can be played through. You don't want them "playing through" an injury.

Landry tried "playing through" an injury, look where that got him.

[cober]

Anyone that is a real football player will play though injury to the best that they can do.

Hightower is a player.

Issue wasnt playing through an injury it was he did not reveal the injury. Anyway he is a good player.

[ncr2h]

What the hell is a "preseason player"?

No offense, but who are you to say that Hightower didn't belong on this team "BEFORE the injury", when Mike Shanahan has now signed him not once, but twice?

I'm sorry, but to say that Hightower is only impressive as a blocker is just ignorant. (Disclaimer) I am not calling you ignorant, simply your comment.

In 09 Hightower had 63 receptions. That's 7 shy of what Santana Moss caught for the season. IMHO that's impressive, and obviously caught the Shanahan's collective eye also.

Hightower obviously has not caught as many passes for us as he has in the past. But our coach who knows a thing or two about backs, won a game or two, a few championships and a couple of Super Bowls thinks that Hightower has talent and can help our team. I'll go with his judgement.

So what's the point of this site? Obviously none of us have a resume that can compete with Shanahan's. That doesn't mean we can't question his moves, or that we can't be right and he be wrong.

Hightower plays differently during the regular season that the preseason. This is based on observations of him being an extremely dangerous runner during the 2011 preseason, and then turning in a running performance that most good high school RBs could do (i.e. follow your blockers, don't make anyone miss) during the regular season. Couple that with information we received on this very message board from Cardinals fans who warned us that Hightower typically receives rave reviews during training camp and preseason only to fall short during the regular season, and I call it a trend.

I don't think a shoulder injury would cause you to stop looking for cutback lanes, so I'm going to rule that out. If his problem was taking hits, then I could see the should being an issue. But his problem is that he doesn't cut the ball back (during the regular season) even when there are huge lanes available to him.

Finally, I'd like to note that over his 4 seasons, Hightower's preseason yards per carry is almost 5.0, while his regular season yards per carry is 3.9. He averages more touchdowns per carry during the preseason and fewer fumbles per carry as well. Just about the only statistical thing he does better during the regular season is catch passes, which was only a significant part of his game during one of the four seasons he's been in the league.

[KCClybun]

If we're being honest, Helu didn't work cutback lanes either when he was the starter. They worked the cutback a lot more when Hightower was the starter and Helu was the relief guy; run the stretch, run the stretch, run the stretch with Hightower, cut it back against the grain with Helu.The only running back who worked the cutback naturally was Royster. Neither guy really worked the cutback; what I saw was Hightower trying to cut it back against the grain but getting bottled up. This "he doesn't work the cutback lane" stuff is bull. I watched the whole Giants game, and I thought he was decisive and cut at the first sign of daylight. There weren't a whole lot of holes for him there, but we grounded out yards on the ground. He had some big runs in the first half and then the Giants run-D tightened up. But "he didn't work the cutback lanes"...I don't see it.

I see the o-line stretching one way, and there being a lane and Hightower trying to cut it back but not being able to just get there like that.

The entire body of Hightower's work here in Washington is basically four games, and I guarantee people don't remember every "missed cutback lane". What people do is regurgitate other's opinions and regurgitate stats without looking at individual games, what our o-line did, or the playcalling in that game. I don't think Hightower played safe. I think we played teams with good run defense, and then he got banged up.

Getting hurt didn't make Hightower "stop looking for cutback lanes". But it does make you a little less eager to get smashed in the body part. You're thinking more than you're reacting. And given that it was his shoulder that was hurt, and given that he had a bad reputation with fumbles, and given that Arizona brow beat the dude so bad in regards to his starting job, he probably did get a little more timid. But when he got in versus Carolina after a week off, once again, he did a lot of the **** people say he doesn't do; one cut, stick your foot in the ground, get up field, trying to cut back.

If Hightower was half as bad as some people say he is, he'd be gone, or we would've tried a lot harder to get his replacement. People felt we were all set with Torain in the backfield, but he's really the dude who was the guy who people want to make Hightower out to be; follow your blocks, try to get the edge, don't cut it back. We drafted two running backs and traded for Torain and automatically buried Torain on the depth chart because he actually was the kind of back people think Hightower is.

And yet we bought Hightower back. Granted, it's only a one year deal, and maybe it's all for naught, but they weren't as gung ho to replace him as they were Torain.

As for what Cardinals fans think, Hightower was never supposed to be the number one back there. He played well in preseason probably because he was playing against the backs up---he was behind Edgerrin James his first year, and then they drafted Beanie Wells the next year to be the number one back. In Tim's 3 years in Arizona, the Cardinals ranked 2nd, 3rd and 11th in pass attempts and 32nd in rush attempts three years in a row.

That Hightower somehow managed to rush for ANY yards in an offense that focused on not running the ball THAT MUCH says a lot about the kid. The dude averaged 9.6 attempts A GAME in 2010 and rushed for 736 yards. 9.6!

What drags his career yards per attempt down is his rookie season where, again, he wasn't the starting running back.

[HapHaszard]

WP Hightower article posted in BRBN this morning

[justice98]

Only issue i have with Hightower was the fact he tried to hide the shoulder injury. Yes it effected his play and performance. The fact he did not disclose it hurt the team. He should havecame out and given the new guys the ball recovered and then maybe we would seen the guy we saw in preseason.

I get the sentiment that hiding injuries hurt the team, but I get why he did it too. He saw much more of his competition than we ever saw and perhaps he knew if he came off, Helu and Royster were primed and ready to take his job. Which basically happened anyway.