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Duke vs Thomas

Mamba? **** that ****.

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What recruiting class will your son be in? If he skill sets similar to Thomas we should start recruiting right now. I would love to have somebody like that playing in the slot for the Canes'.
DHucks said:
First off, Mamba vs Duke is apples to oranges.

I've been watching Mamba over the last two days looking for a model for my son. Mamba fits my son's skill set. He is more slot receiver than running back. Mamba is NOT a running back.

He will take a draw every now and again, and took a lot of jet sweeps. Very seldom was he lined up as a running back. He'd line up as a receiver most of the time, and motion into the back field.

Now with that out of the way, let's compare on a running back level.

It's Duke, and it ain't close. While Mamba is probably the fastest player on the field in college football, he is not elusive, vision is subpar, strength less than subpar, pass protection almost non existent. He does have decent hands, runs decent routes, and a juggernaut in the return game.

Duke is a bigger and stronger player. Mamba was called cute by my wife because of his skinny, little legs moving so fast. Duke is not as fast, and that's really about it. Duke does have great speed, but it's more burst than top speed. Elusiveness, vision, and blocking are elite, strength is above par. Duke doesn't run many routes but does do a great job running ones asked, and his hands very good as well. And he is absolutely not a slouch as a returner.

Duke could carry the ball 20+ times in a pro style offense, whereas Mamba would struggle tremendously in my opinion. Mamba has been 160 or so pounds since high school I believe, and seems like he has no desire to get bigger.

Now purely as receivers, I'd give Mamba the edge. Not to say Duke couldn't be as good, but more Mamba is better suited at that position, and I foresee him playing that position in the NFL.

As an overall athlete we could debate that for ages. Mamba did score every nine times he touched the ball last year, but credit that to the offense they run. Impressive nonetheless. Duke did break Clinton Portis's freshman rushing record to his credit.

At the moment, based off of body of work, I'd say Mamba. Just numbers in general. When they are both finished, Duke will reign supreme, no ifs ands or buts about it. As far as if we had a combine today for both, not looking at stats, Duke would murder Mamba.

-Fin
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They're different players IMO, Thomas has more speed than Duke, where as Duke is much better as a true RB. Thomas is more of a scat back/slot WR IMO. Both have scary acceleration and cutting ability. I wouldn't trade Duke for any RB in the country though, kid is all heart and a true Cane.
 
Duke will be a NFL star, Thomas will follow suit with Varner, and the guy with the 49ers and be average to above average

The stiff arm, moves, and shiftiness thomas does not posess, Duke explodes out of small spaces,
 
DeAnthony Thomas has never and will likely never be a better running back than Duke Johnson. If your family's lives were on the line and you needed to pick one to gameplan with, you're really picking a guy with a specialist skill set?
 
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Thomas is going to be Percy Harvin lite when he gets to the NFL. Yes Duke does not have as large of a body of work as Thomas, but he is easily a better pure RB, and imo a better complete athlete. Thomas is fast, but his strength and moves are not on Duke's level.
 
Lol, my kid is only 7. But he is in that mold. Great speed, great hands, just undersized.
 
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Isn't Thomas just really, really fast whilst playing in an offence that spreads the field out (usually with better athletes 1-11 than the defence is putting out there)?
 
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