I think he might be getting zinged a bit because he is such a smooth athlete that he sort of appears to be in cruise control and that leads to false assumptions that he isn't hustling or whatever.
I can remember that when the Pats drafted Mike Haynes back in the day I was really curious to see if he was the superb athlete that he was rumored to be. We didn't have anywhere
nearly the data we now have on prospects back then, but he was a two-time all-America and had a great college career. Still, Arizona was a long ways away.
Anyhow, when we got into camp the first thing I heard about him after his very first practice was from Chuck Fairbanks. He said something like "I liked the ease of motion he showed out there" and I knew that was his version of getting totally giddy and I couldn't wait to see him. Haynes is still the best Corner this team has ever had and one of the League's all-time best. He dominated from
day one and never played like a rookie.
I also recall that Haynes wasn't supposed to be tough or a great tackler, but he quickly proved those tags wrong.
I hadn't really thought of that parallel before now, but just watching Gonzalez in coverage does remind me strongly of the way Haynes looked. Ease of motion and blazing
closing speed. Almost identical height and body type.
I've been trying to lowball my expectations figuring Gonzalez might need some time to mature (Haynes was 23 as a rookie). I'm not saying he'll end up the DROY with 8 picks, but I'm not going to completely rule it out either.
