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 Tuesday, August 8
Dayne remains Giant question mark
 
 By John Clayton
ESPN.com

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Practice doesn't do justice to the talents of Ron Dayne.

In practice, he can't use a shoulder as a weapon to overpower a linebacker. In practice, he can't use 25 rushing attempts to wear down those trying to tackle him. In practice, he's like a boxer judged in the 12th round of a heavyweight fight in an environment in which sparing is disdained.

Ron Dayne
Big things are expected of 258-pound rookie Ron Dayne.

That's why no one around the Giants is alarmed to see Dayne trailing most of his teammates in post-practice windsprints or why he may not hit holes on running plays with the quickness of Dave Meggett. That's not his game. The real Dayne bides time until the real hitting begins.

"I don't think you'll see the real Ron Dayne until it's game time because that's when he makes the cuts and he reads at a good tempo," Giants coach Jim Fassel said. "Some other guys hit holes so fast that they overrun holes or they don't see the holes. Ron makes cuts and shows quickness, but he's not going to be stopped with one arm or one shoulder."

No one is happier to see Dayne than quarterback Kerry Collins, a 245-pounder who is bigger than most running backs. Handoffs to the 258-pound Dayne are Collins' ticket to 60 minutes of play-action passes, a lost item in the Giants offense. Running plays produced no action for the Giants last year.

Six different backs tried, but they produced a puny 3.3-yard per carry average. They had only five combined 100-yard running efforts. Fassel felt the Giants needed a giant to get the offense moving.

"If you stop our running game with seven defenders, you can play coverage behind it," Collins said. "But if you have a good team with a strong running game, defenses have to put eight people in the box and get the safeties involved. We were never able to get that last year."

Pity that safety whose job is to stop Dayne for four quarters. But even Dayne doesn't know his impact on football until the regular-season tempo begins. How will his speed and power translate against the good run-stopping teams in the NFC? Will the patched-up left side of the line open holes for Dayne?

"I'm just learning the plays and getting the technical game down," said Dayne, a back of few words but many carries. "I've got to learn what defenses are doing. My game is just run the ball, make you miss and if not, run over you."

I'm just learning the plays and getting the technical game down. I've got to learn what defenses are doing. My game is just run the ball, make you miss and if not, run over you.
Ron Dayne, Giants running back

Fassel's first task in drafting a big man into the Giants backfield was figuring out how large his big back should be. Fassel wasn't sure. Some experts at Wisconsin told him that Dayne's weight should never drop below 260 pounds. Others said he needed to be 250 or less to make him faster.

Taking the scientistic approach, Fassel sent Dayne to a New York City lab for a complete body makeup report. They submerged Dayne in water to determine his body fat. They tested his body chemistry for phosphorus. They studied his blood chemistry.

Doctors determined Dayne's best playing weight was 258 pounds, roughly what he played at in college.

"I probably would have had him at a lower weight," Fassel said. "I told him when I drafted him, that the easiest thing I could do is assign him a weight, but having never coached him through a season, I don't know what he should weigh."

Dayne's comfortable with the 258-pound weight. Now it's a simple task of waiting until September to use that body as a weapon against defenders.

"One of the best things he does is when he drops that shoulder, there is no hitting surface for someone to grab for a tackle," Fassel said. "His yards will be tough yards. He has the speed to get to the corner, but your first thought isn't to pitch it out to him. You give it to him inside, let him read and cut. He's not an easy guy to bring down."

Or an easy guy to read his skills in practices.

John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
 



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