Gotta admit most writers on BR.com are pretty accurate when they are praising a player. They might praise a player that made a play but if they praise a player all preseason long, that means that guy stood out. They are a bit biased yes and tend to overreact but everyone does. But when I read multiple times that ZDS is playing a lot better and in GREAT shape, we kinda saw it during the first preseason game.
Now he needs to adjust and perform like that on a consistent basis in a game environment against new players and not the same 3-4 player each day. The thing about young player is consistency. I remember they were praising B. Williams in his first few years. He flashed at times like a dominant players but had technique problems or mental error on some other plays.
I remember Powers was one of the best player during OTAs.... but since the TC started, he's not playing so well and they were honest with it saying he's a deception during TC. But the thing I wanna say is if a guy is doing great stuff day in day out in practice, he might take some time to do it in a game vs differents opponents but that doesn't mean he those reporters are liars or overreacting. Thats why you have 4 preseason games, OTAs, TC, minicamp and everything. You can't judge a player so quickly. It takes times and even if you say Elam only made 1 tackle yesterday, I saw coach Harbaugh and one of BR reporter saying he's been making plays ALL camp long and that was the same last year. You have a lot more reps in a training camp practice than in a preseason game when you play vanilla defence with different teammates and only play 15-25 snaps.
