[quote]kefu wrote:
He also had a 93-yard fumble return last night. Most of the powerlifters in my gym would take 30 seconds plus to run 93 yards, if they didn’t collapse first.
I think we should all agree that as an all-round athlete combining strength, speed, agility, etc - Archuleta is in excellent shape. And for a football player, he’s incredibly strong.[/quote]
Well said, and there is more about Archuletta that you guys don’t know. He isn’t exactly god’s gift to football, even has a highschool senior he barely ran a 4.8/4.9 time, and could hardly bench around 250. His dedication to his dreams and the amount of work and effort he has put in to it has to be respected by anyone, football player, powerlifter, body builder. Name one other player who in the modern day and age in football where there are highschool linebackers weighing 240 and running 4.5’s (ahmad brooks at Fork Union, now at UVA, now a butkis finalist, and once knocked the living shit out of me), who weighed roughly 210 at the time, walked on a D1 football team (like archuletta did at ASU), make the team, earn a starting bid, and by his senior year be a finalist for the butkis award (as the best linebacker in the country). AT LINEBACKER (and often times he would line up as a middle linebacker). He devoted himself to training and making himself that best he could. When was the last time you dedicated your life to someting? Yes he is devestating against the run, and suspect against the pass. Why? Because as a linebacker you aren’t taught the finer techniques at pass coverage. In fact, as a linebacker, you usually only cover the tight end, and as a linebacker with 4.4 speed, there wasn’t any tight ends in college (or even in the league still) that he couldn’t run with. Think about it, the last time Archuletta received coaching at DB before he was in the NFL was in HIGHSCHOOL. I play Division 1 football, and I play DB (strong safety, mind you), and I’m going to tell you right now the level of coaching between college and highschool is so vastly different and on a so much more superior level that it isn’t even comparable. It’s like receiving advice from a personal trainer at your local Y, and then have someone like Dave Tate or or Chad Waterbury give you coaching. Give adam two more years and you’ll see him come into his prime. But nevermind all the obstacles, lets talk about his training.
And yes, the 523 bench was a forced rep, his true 1-rep max, RAW, is exactly 510, when I find that video I’ll post it, it was on a mini ESPN segment (not the full one they did where they highlighted schroer and his techniques). If you guys see the workout video, there are alot of things on their that even powerlifters have to respect. He weighed 210 pounds on combine day, roughly 223 now. You can’t sit there and tell me about how your gym partners weigh that much and bench the same as him. I beleive it because that is what they train for. Ok so adam probably isn’t as strong as Mario P (ok we know he isnt even all that close). But I would love for Mario P to try and cover Randy Moss and or Terell Owens. Archuletta isnt exactly a blanket corner, but he holds his own in man coverage (it’s the zone where archuletta is suspect, esp cover 2, where your responsibilites as safety can change in a heartbeat). For that matter, I would love for Mario to try and run full speed past someone like Flozel Adams. Now all the powerlifters out there (who I respect greatly, without you Westside guys we wouldn’t be able to lift the way we do), are going to cry that you cant compare the two because Mario doesnt play football. Yeah well adam isnt a powerlifter that plays football, he is a football player that on a given day may do a powerlift. I challenge most anyone to go out there and crank out a day’s worth (and by day i mean 300 reps, broken up into sets over the course of his workouts that day) of natural glute hams the way he does, weighing about 225 with a 40 pound dumbell on the back of his neck and one of the electric machines shocking his legs (what are they called again?)
He has functional strength, and even if he can’t bench everyone out of the gym, you can’t deny his strength. 510 bench raw, squats in the high 600’s, and all that while weighing 225 (now) and running a 4.4. To be fair, no one has seen him bench since his video or the combine, when he weighed roughly 215. Oh yeah, anyone else remember his vertical leap is 38 inches? Or was there a coil in the mat giving him an extra inch. 
And finally. I dont know who said it above, but you are an idiot. He does not have linebacker size. I can’t think of a single linebacker in the NFL that weighs 225, with perhaps the exception of Al Singleton (228) in Dallas, that actually plays, the closest is John Villanova, and he is around 235ish. He is 5’11 225, if you want to talk about safeties that should be linebackers look at guys like Roy Williams of Dallas and Sean Taylor of Washington. Those are big boys, and they are also genetic freaks.
As for his numbers last year, you have to remember that he was out for 3 games last year, and played 3 games where he still wasnt 100%. Anyone who has played football knows how hard it is to play hurt, but you do it anyways. And they also know how hard it is to come back after a 3 week layoff, esp at a speed position where getting tested can end up in you getting toasted. He still had 79 tackles, a year after he had 116, one of the highest strong safety totals in the NFL. Not to include his 5 sacks (in his injured year), which i beleive were among the highest of safties. As for him being “often injured” you too my friend, are a moron, because up until last year archuletta had never missed a game due to injury since highschool (he had never even had a serious injury all throughout college and his first two years in the NFL). He is on pace to have around 100+ tackles, but then again, you and I can both do that right?
Forget everything, forget how he plays, how his 93 yard touchdown last night inspired the transparent St. Louis defense, forget all that for one second, i’m going to leave the T-nation readers a little something about my favorite professional athlete, as a person. When being interviewed post game last night, in the salary driven, money and fame hungry aura that is professional athletics, this was Adam’s response when asked what he thought of his “big play in the 3rd quarter to keep St. Louis on top”
“That’s something we wanted to establish as a defense,” Archuleta said. “We hadn’t been getting turnovers through the preseason and the first few games.”
i guess he didnt realize it was “his” big play.