Trent Gamble

[124]

I see he's a safety, former Dolphin and he's coming to meet with the Jets this week but my question is who is he? I've never heard of him before.

[RSJ]

I think R44 had a write up on him the other day but I couldn't find it. He said that Gamble was a great special teamer for the Fins before blowing out his knee. His natural position is S. And he said if he could return to form he would be a great addition. Hopefully he sees this and can add some more.

[R44]

I thought Gamble was out of football for good due to a series of severe injuries?...From a personal standpoint, I'm glad to see anyone make it back, as Trent has.

Here's basically what I know about Gamble:

**All-Conference CB at Wyoming, who, like all white CB's, was moved to safety in the NFL....

**Set an Indianapolis Combine record in 2000 for the best bench press ever by a CB--something like 23 reps (4.5 area combine speed)......was real small too at the time of lifting--like 5'9" 180 pounds.

**Signed as an undrafted free agent by the Dolpins and became their top special teams player, until a severe injury just knocked him out of football for a while...then had another injury in 2004.

Dolphins thought he was Larry Izzo like--Pro Bowl type. And, if I'm not mistaken, before all the injuries wiped his game out in Miami, Jets special teams coach Mike Westhoff had him as his special teams leader--when he was rookie ST standout.

Jets are very smart to at least work him out and look at those knees....If he gets back to where he was (and he's probably still young--27?), maybe he sticks...Sat out the 2001 and 2004 season, so that makes a comeback tough.

[TomShane]

Sounds liek a real tough guy. The Jets need tough guys. Even if he isn't rocking a 4.3/40, it will be nice to get him on the team.

[R44]

TS, as young player, he was really highly regarded by the Miami organization and it fans for his special teams work (kind of like Tony Bua is today).

The question always was, will he ever get a chance to start or will he "just" be the teams annual special teams leader?

Injuries have really changed that. I'm not sure if he'll ever play again. The NFL is a total "meat-grinder" league, with fresh/cheaper options around every corner.

Players like this (history of serious injuries) just to seem to fade into NFL obscurity.

But we'll see. If I were Gamble, I'd go to 2 Green Bay anyway--worst safeties in the NFL. Period.

Miami has no safeties on their roster; GBay has bad safeties with huge contracts--which is worse!

Mark Roman was, according to some scouts, the worst safety in the NFL in 2004 (he got a huge deal)....Darren Sharper saw his game decline sharpely.

Recently, they rid themselves of their 2 top backup safeties (Jue and Hawthorne).

If that wasn't enough, former Pack icon Ron Wolf told the media, "neither was worth anything anyway and their replacements can't be worse"...Nice candor. I like it :twisted:

[TomShane]

Wow. No wonder Wolf ran screaming from that organization. It's a wonder they let Mike Sherman run around dooming that organization for as long as he had. I always thought Sharper was tremendously over-rated. You look at that team and you wonder what happened to all the talent. And to let Wahle AND Rivera walk like that? Plus the Favre circus. It's a bad scene in Packer-land right now.

As for Gamble, I'm a sucker for these kind of stories. It would be nice to see him come back and compete, wherever it is.

[faba]

Right now the Packers have a shell of a team- they have two players on their defense that are decent.

Nick Barnett and G- man whatever his name is and he is overrated.

The offensive line has been their strength and now they lost their two starting guards.

Bad times in Packer land right now.

[R44]

Good info faba...You are correct, in my opinion, that the Packers seem to have 2 talents: Picking O-Lineman and WR's and that's it!

As TS, noted, for some crazy reason, they handed all the keys to the franchise to Sherman, who seemingly, only knows offensive talent.

Faba, Barnett is a good player...GBJ is nothing more than a 3-4 OLB playing DE very poorly versus against the run.

DE Aaron Kampman is a real good player, but Packers fans seem to think he should be getting 20 sacks a season and aren't real fair to him, considering he was 2nd on the team in sacks, depite playin the "Elapant DE", which is mostly for run stopping in G.Bay....He's a good player.

A NFLe refugee at DT Cullen Jenkins (Panther Kris Jenkins brother)...is another worth watching down the line..

But you are correct, the LB's reek and the DB's might be worse. Just a team seemingly going nowhere.

P.S: TS, Wolf agreed with Rivera and Wahle walking--said Rivera was a bit old and Wahle got a horrible contract...Basically, he said as long as the tackles are OK (which they are), the guards can be found.

[YJF]

Some good posts in this thread.

Mike Wahle is so overrated and he got seriously overpaid. Packers did the right thing letting him walk. He was The Pack's 5th or maybe 6th best offensive lineman.

Panthers are getting praise but they overpaid for Wahle and Ken Lucas. They would have been better off with Jermane Mayberry and Fred Smoot.

The Packers defense was as bad as it gets last year. They had the worst scheme and talent in football. Slowik was a joke as a defensive coordinator.

Gamble is a Westhoff guy. I'm sure Westhoff would love to have him back if he's back to full strength.