Scouting Report: Christine Michael
By Keith Myers
Oct 20, 2012; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A
His name is pronounced “Christian.” Lets just get that out there right away.
If you just watch highlights on Christine Michael, you’ll have yourself thinking that that Seahawks just drafted the 2nd coming of Adrian Peterson. He has everything: speed, power, shiftiness, vision, decisiveness. He’s amazing. There is also reason I don’t scout highlight reels.
All those above things are true, but he’s has more Shaun Alexander in him than most Seahawks fans will want to see. He’s not afraid on contact like Alexander was, I’m not saying that, but he will try and “bounce it outside” rather than hitting the hole at times and it costs him. Michael doesn’t have Alexander’s vision, so he gets himself in trouble at times when he tries to improvise.
He’s also not much of a blocker and doesn’t have great hands. Don’t expect Michael to be the team’s “3rd down” back.
But enough with the negatives. None of the things I’ve mentioned define Christine Michael as a running back. They also aren’t big enough problems to prevent him from being a game changing player.
Michael is a temendous player with great quickness and balance and tremendous “burst” when he needs it, and the speed to run away from people when he gets into the open field. Overall, he’s an extremely good player, and one that will demand carries with his talent.
The reason he was available at the end of the 2nd round has nothing to do with anything on the field. Aside from some minor durability concerns, which are nothing serious, there’s only one thing that stands out.
If you look at his stats from 2012, you’ll see that he rarely played. Michael and his head coach, Kevin Sumlin, didn’t see eye to eye. Michael’s playing time was cut back because of “attitude problems.” I’m going to assume that the Seahawks did their homework on this. If they aren’t concerned, than I’m not going to be.
Overall, what the Seahawks are getting here is a great back who becomes the heir to Marshawn Lynch. Michael may not get many carries in his rookie year, but I expect he’ll make the most of them.
According to Pete Carroll, Michael will also “be in the mix” as a possible punt and kick returner.
Here’s some game film from
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