Thread: Gholston Motivated to Succeed................

Maybe I should go easier on this guy and on this acquisition in general but I wish these guys would come up with a new line besides, "I'm so motivated". It's makes me wonder why it just appears out of nowhere when it has been so obviously absent throughout their prior years in the NFL.

I think Gholston was very motivated in college (22.5 sacks) because he was playing for the shot at a multi-million dollar NFL 1st rounders contract but once he cashed that big bonus check it seems that motivation disappeared. Funny how that happen so often with these guys and why the owners insisted on scaling back rookie compensation. That was mostly due to guys like you Vernon.

Vernon blames this on both playing out of position and the lack of consistency in his coaching but despite that strongly "self-motivated" individuals such as yourself usually succeed anyway Vernon. Apparently the Bears are buying this story (along with a few members) and I am first and foremost a very loyal Bears Fan so I'll find something good in this afterall.

At least now the Bears are dumpster diving for a higher class reject than in the past. We are now pursuing former 1st rounders instead of mid rounders who were probably never all that good or promising to begin with or they wouldn't likely to have been mid rounders. I'll agree with some guys around here that I do truly respect and say if Rod Marinelli can really polish a turd then we just got one of the best bargains in this teams history.

When he came out of OSU he had every reason to believe that he could set the league on fire. He had incredible strength and quickness so there was no way he shouldn't have been putting up double digit sacks from the get go. The trouble was that he was drafted by the Jets who saw him as an OLB type rushbacker and not the 4-3 DE he'd been so successful at in college and he absolutely sucked at it.

So here he is now with a team who intends to let him do what he does best which is rush the passer out of a three point stance as a DE and I will hope that he does that very well because we need another guy who can do that very well. And I do agree with you guys when you say that we risked little but the lost opportunity to have found a better solution if he doesn't make it. I put a lot of emphasis on lost opportunities because they've always cost me money and I try to avoid them. So please forgive me if until Gholston proves differently that I will still see him as that piece of shit broken ass car that wouldn't start for me the morning I lost that job, LOL.

Originally Posted by Jimmors

Hmm..a 4-3 DE forced to play LB, fails...then switches to 3-4 DE, fails at that? I dont know much about Gholston or the Jets, but i do know playing a 4-3 DE in a 3-4 system isnt a recipe for success. Here's hoping he does better in a system he shouldve been drafted for.

Originally Posted by claymore58

Think about the onfield dynamics,I believe this will open up the pass rush,and force teams to pick their poison.
This is one reclaimation project worth doing. Young,strong and fast;Marinelli can do a lot with him IMO.

I concede the guarded optimism that comes with a guy like Gholston but how often do we invest in these reclamation projects as opposed to how often it works? If the guy is truly motivated to continue his NFL career in better surroundings then Marinelli may be able to do something with him, that's true, but if he's still as unfocused and lazy as he was in NY it's a wasted effort and a lost opportunity to go in a different direction.

I suppose that it didn't hurt to sign him but if he can't make some noise in camp I wouldn't waste a roster spot on him hoping that someday he might finally realize that he has to put effort in at this level to succeed. I think that's been far more of a problem with him than just playing out of position.

I wish Vernon Gholston the best of luck. I don't know if his lack of success is because he is lacking in self-motivation or if he's not trying hard enough. I remember back in August of 2000 I auditioned to become a member of the University of Tennessee Pride of the Southland Marching Band on the trombone. I was an All-State caliber trombonist in high school, the first chair trombonist in the band, and arguably the best marcher in the entire band. Yet, when I got to UT and had to marching at faster tempos, I couldn't keep up the pace because of my feet - they are flat, I have extra bones in them, and I'm pigeon-toed. As a result, I was never given a place on the field to march in UT's nationally-recognized Pregame show, and the only reason I was allowed to be in the band is because I was a Music Education major. To give you an idea of how they dealt with keeping me, they placed me as the 32nd, and last, alternate position just to say that I was in the band.

Something was holding Gholston back, and I don't know what it was, but I doubt seriously that it was a lack of effort and self-motivation. When you get to this point in your career, effort and self-motivation can only take you so far. Just look at my experiences with the UT Marching Band and correlate it with Gholston's.

I look at it this way: as long as they're being cheap with young backups on the d-line that are in all likelihood gonna be rotational/situational players, and can give them more than their money's worth (which under their new contracts, would be the same as they did with their previous teams), it's gonna be a good move. Do i think it's gonna work? Yeah, but I don't expect them to replace Peppers or Idonije anytime soon, but I also don't see disappointment like with Mark Anderson or Ogunleye..

Originally Posted by Henry Burris

I look at it this way: as long as they're being cheap with young backups on the d-line that are in all likelihood gonna be rotational/situational players, and can give them more than their money's worth (which under their new contracts, would be the same as they did with their previous teams), it's gonna be a good move. Do i think it's gonna work? Yeah, but I don't expect them to replace Peppers or Idonije anytime soon, but I also don't see disappointment like with Mark Anderson or Ogunleye..

It will be hard to replace Peppers and Idonije. Both of them were so key to our defensive line's success last year. They might not have had great sack totals, but they made life hell for opposing quarterbacks. If Gholston can even be like Corey Wootten, I will be pleased, but if he turns out to be something far greater, then I'm going to be ecstatic.