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Actually, my post was NOT about you...but, if the shoe fits, feel free to lace that &!+€# up and wear it. -
Steelers rookie Archer getting up to speed
By WILL GRAVES (AP Sports Writer)
AP - Sports
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Dri Archer runs the ball during an NFL football organized team activity on Wednesday, June 4, 2014 in Pittsburgh.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Dri Archer just kind of laughs. He can't help it. Spend most of your life as the smallest player on the football field and you get used to the incessant questions about beating the odds.
''I've always been the littlest guy out there,'' Archer said. ''I don't even think about it.''
Fear is not an option for the 5-foot-8, 173-pound Pittsburgh Steelers rookie. He doesn't worry about how his slender frame will hold up to the rigors of the NFL because it wouldn't do any good. Archer has been playing football since he was in first grade, when he would wrap flags around his waist imitate Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders.
The 22-year-old never met a tackle he couldn't walk - or better yet, sprint - away from. There's no reason to think it will be any different as a professional.
''I just want to come in and contribute, do what I've always done,'' Archer said Thursday.
For the Steelers, that will be a little bit of everything. Offensive coordinator Todd Haley figures to get creative with how to use Archer, whose eye-popping 40-yard dash time of 4.26 seconds at the NFL combine earlier this spring was the second fastest in combine history.
It's that number - and not the ones next to his height and weight - that leapt out to the Steelers.
''Whatever way we can find to get this kid the ball or to have him involved in our offense we are going to do that as a staff,'' running backs coach James Saxon said. ''(Offensive coordinator) Todd Haley is going to do a great job with that. We are all going to work together to get this guy in the right place.''
The right place could be any place. Though he spent most of his time at Kent State at running back - where his 7.2 career yards per carry looks like a misprint - Archer is more than just 68 inches of kinetic energy who hides behind his massive offensive linemen. He also caught 99 passes and returned four kickoffs for touchdowns during his college career.
Though the NFL is one step - more likely two - over what he saw on a weekly basis while playing in the Mid-American Conference, Archer is confident he can make the leap. This is the same player, after all, whose Twitter profile picture is a drawing of him wearing a No. 1 jersey with a cape on the back.
''You've just got to learn to do the right things,'' he said. ''I'm just trying to learn the playbook and be where I'm supposed to be at all times.''
Archer is just the latest attempt by the Steelers to find a Swiss Army knife in the backfield. Pittsburgh grabbed sprinter/running back Chris Rainey in the fifth round of the 2012 draft. Rainey was ineffective on the field and a problem off it, eventually getting cut in January 2013 after being charged with slapping his girlfriend.
There are no such character concerns with Archer, who has quickly ingratiated himself with his teammates no matter which meeting he happens to be in, whether it's with the running backs or the wide receivers.
Saxon praised Archer for his toughness and it's worth noting Archer missed only a handful of games across four seasons at Kent State despite handling the ball nearly 500 times. He averaged a touchdown once every 13 times he touched the ball in college.
While it's unfair to expect that kind of production in the NFL, Archer understands his unique skill set gives the Steelers a speedy yin to the powerful yang of top running backs Le'Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount. He understands there are skeptics who will wonder if he was worth a third-round pick. That's fine. The skeptics haven't been right yet.
''That's why I play with a chip on my shoulder,'' Archer said. ''Everyone tells me I am too small. I can't take hits. I can't do this and I can't do that. I am just out here to play football. And I know what I can do.''
NOTES: The Steelers signed first-round draft pick Ryan Shazier to a four-year contract on Thursday. Financial details were not disclosed. Pittsburgh took Shazier with the 15th overall pick after a standout career at Ohio State.
[URL]http://sports.yahoo.com/news/steelers-rookie-archer-getting-speed-212629190--nfl.html[/URL]Comment
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Did you see his incredible vision and instincts? When I hear "raw" I don't think of someone who has vision and instincts like that; I think of someone who is super fast but doesn't know how to use his physical skills. This kid does. If they find ways to get him into space - whether it be kick returns, passes over the middle, trick run plays - he is going to blaze this league.Comment
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Steelers' Dri Archer a tough target to get a hold of
By Hayes Gardner / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After he missed the first few days of Steelers OTAs due to illness and an NFL Players Association event, it was easy to wonder: Where's third-round draft pick Dri Archer? Even after his return, the question often remains.
The 5-foot-8 Archer is easy to lose in crowds of taller teammates, but only briefly. The running back/slot receiver perpetually reveals himself in the open field.
Archer always has been easy to miss.
In high school while playing in the gold mine of football recruits that is Florida, Archer was listed as a two-star prospect and ignored by the major Florida universities. Although he would have liked to stay in his home state, he wasn't bothered by the lack of interest.
"It's their loss," Archer said.
He is used to being overlooked. Archer, who weighs all of 173 pounds, always has been told he is too small.
"Oh, everybody does it. Families do it, players do it, opponents do it, reporters do it," he said. "It's nothing new. It's something I've dealt with my whole life. It goes in this ear and goes out the other one."
After starring at Venice High School in Laurel, Fla., Archer played at Kent State, posting pedestrian seasons in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, he became even harder to notice when he was forced to take the entire year off due to academic problems. But in 2012, he broke out, scoring 23 touchdowns and leading the Golden Flashes to an 11-win season.
As a senior he was named third-team All-MAC as a receiver and kick returner, while also averaging 7.8 yards per carry.
"The year he had to sit out due to academic issues, that humbled him and it gave him the opportunity to understand how much he loved football," Purdue running backs coach Jafar Williams said.
Williams coached running backs in 2011 and 2012 at Kent State.
And although Archer had a tremendous junior season in 2012, totaling 1,429 yards and averaging 9 yards per carry, the competition he faced in the Mid-American Conference wasn't the same as the elite teams most NFL hopefuls face in college.
The Steelers' first two picks of the 2014 draft, Ryan Shazier and Stephon Tuitt, played at powerhouses Ohio State and Notre Dame, while every other Steelers pick played in a major conference, save for Massachusetts tight end Rob Blanchflower, taken in the seventh round.
But Archer is not fazed by his college experience and feels prepared for the next challenge. After all, the once overlooked recruit managed to become one of four national finalists for the 2012 Paul Hornung Award, given to the nation's most versatile college player.
"Any way you look at it, football is football. It doesn't matter what conference you're in," Archer said.
For evidence, look no further than the man who will pass and hand off to Archer, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who also played in the MAC at Miami (Ohio).
Although he hasn't had much time to work with Archer, Roethlisberger is pleased so far.
"He's made some young-guy mistakes, but he's done a good job of stepping up and really doing what he can to grow," Roethlisberger said.
Archer was clocked at 4.26 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, the second-fastest time by a running back since the event's inception, and will rely on his speed to get on the field. He is projected to get some action as a speed back as well as on special teams, where he excelled in college -- when teams would kick to him, that is.
His final two years at Kent State, Archer scored four touchdowns on only 18 return attempts. The few times he was kicked to, Archer sped through defenses as opponents lunged at him, often missing so badly it appeared the defenders couldn't see him.
But Williams doesn't consider speed alone to be Archer's best weapon. He thinks it's his balance.
"It's crazy when you have a guy that is that fast but is able to stay on his feet," he said.
Archer's height amplifies that, and Williams doesn't see the short stature as a disadvantage.
"He's a special player," Williams said. "People are going to be shocked to see how productive he is going to be. I predict he'll probably have two or three kick returns for a touchdown and maybe even be Rookie of the Year."
He still has a ways to go, with only a few practices under his belt. But Thursday, he looked right at home -- when you could locate him. The short speedster has a knack for getting lost.
[URL]http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/s...#ixzz348Aiti1E[/URL]Comment
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Mark Kaboly @MarkKaboly_Trib:
Saw a red-zone pass to Dri Archer in the flat. Landry Jones pass got him twisted around, but Archer took off like a shot and scored anyway.
#Steelers fans are going to have to get used to a lot of inside handoffs to Dri Archer from the shotgun in the red zone.
[URL]https://twitter.com/MarkKaboly_Trib[/URL]Comment
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Steelers sign Dri Archer
Posted by Josh Alper on June 12, 2014
Running back Dri Archer was the fastest player at this year’s combine, but he was on the slower side when it came to signing his contract with the Steelers.
Field Yates of ESPN.com reports that Archer has gotten around to that bit of business and agreed to a four-year deal with the team. The Steelers selected Archer in the third round with the 97th overall pick.
Reports out of Pittsburgh have the Steelers looking at Archer as a returner in hopes of allowing him to use his speed to burn opposing coverage units. Archer ran for 22 touchdowns and nearly 2,000 yards over his final two years at Kent State, but his size will likely limit him to a specialty role on offense in the NFL.
With Archer’s deal done, second-round defensive end Stephon Tuitt is the only unsigned member of the Steelers draft class.
[URL]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/12/steelers-sign-dri-archer/[/URL]Comment
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Pop dat thang. I can't wait to see this dude play in the black & gold.Comment
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He is going to be special...just have that feeling.Trolls are people too.Comment
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Former Kent State star Dri Archer eager to unleash his speedy skills with Steelers
Akron Beacon Journal | Jun 29
Archer, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ third-round draft pick out of Kent State, is still getting used to all of the work and media attention that comes with being an NFL running back.
But he’s loving every second of it.
Minutes later Friday afternoon, the drill station to which Steelers rookies had been assigned had turned into a wild, full-fledged game of keepaway, and Archer, a 5-foot-7 running back, bobbed and weaved his way through a small army of screaming, flailing children.
They didn’t stand a chance.
The speedy Archer — also a track star in high school — turned heads at the NFL combine this year. His 40-yard dash time (4.26 seconds) was the second-fastest time ever recorded since the NFL began electronic timing. His time trails only Chris Johnson’s mark of 4.24 from the 2008 combine. CBS Sports deviates from the “official” time, marking Archer at 4.16.
Archer, a consensus All-American after his junior season in 2012, was the catalyst in turning around a Kent State football program that hadn’t been to a bowl game for 40 years before they played Arkansas State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
“It meant a lot,” Archer said. “We ended up losing the MAC Championship but it’s more about what we did accomplish. We had never been to a bowl game in 40 years. To be a part of something like that really means a lot. More importantly, to be able to share that with the group of guys from the class that I came in with was really special.”
Archer led the nation in 2012 by averaging 9.0 yards per carry. He totaled 1,429 rushing yards. His 561 receiving yards were the second most of any running back. He returned three kickoffs for touchdowns, averaging 36.9 yards per return, the highest mark in Mid-American Conference history.
It’s safe to say that Archer is a versatile player.
Unique?
“Unique is an understatement, man,” said Ryan Shazier, former Ohio State linebacker and fellow Steelers rookie. “He’s just tremendously fast. What he does, you can’t get out of just anybody. It’s amazing what he does. Whenever you get the ball in his hands, it’s like lightning in a bottle. We’ve just got to try and get that lightning as much as possible.”
Archer hopes to provide a much-needed spark to a Steelers team that was 27th in rushing and in the middle of the pack in receiving and kickoff returns in the NFL last season.
[URL]http://www.prosportsdaily.com/Headli....MBayo65X.dpuf[/URL]Comment
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still not getting my hopes up for a player his size...they are nobodies or strictly kick returners more often than they are contributors on offenseComment
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You are right, which is why I was down on the draft pick at the time. But since then, after seeing the tape on him, I am convinced he will be the exception to the rule on backs his size. Most backs his size can't bench 225 20 times. Most burners don't have his vision and balance and over all instincts. This dude will never be an every down NFL back running between the tackles, but he will make a mark. He is gonna Pop Dat Thang.Comment
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