I’m all for a young man who’s open to the idea of using out of the box ways to help make him the best possible player. Sure, he’s going to lift all the weights, spend hours and hours in the film room, be a first one in last one out kind of guy like everyone else on the team, but to be willing to use skills that magicians use to take his game to a whole new level is an intangible that you simply can’t teach. It’s smart that Kalen understands that theatricality and deception are powerful agents to the uninitiated but that he also realizes that since there will be a defense trying to bring him down to the ground that he is in fact initiated.

The deception is that Kalen Ballage who’s 6’3″, and a cool 230lbs will blow defenders minds at how quick he is. Now I’m not sure if it was wise for Kalen to openly speak about the deception he’s going to use, but it might be a form of reverse-reverse psychology, a seldom used psychology, where he flat out tells all the future defenses exactly what he’s going to do to them. Then, the defense will be thinking to themselves that there’s no way a rookie RB would ever flat out tell us that he’s quicker than his size and measurable’s indicate. Or, it’s an extremely confident, cagey move by the toter of the rock that he has no problem telling the defense what his plan is. Like all those stories of QBs, O-Lines and RBs telling the defense that the same play is coming to get ready because it’s coming again.

Either way, I’m down for how Ballage is carrying himself. All the reports you hear, and yes I realize it’s only been mini camps and that I’ve told you in my last blog to not take any stock in what any person says about a players performance during any camp because it means just about nothing, but all the reports you hear about Kalen is that he’s learning the playbook well, which is sort of important if you think about it, and has a good attitude so far. Can’t ask much more than that at this point. Also, it seems like he has better hands than most thought. If he can be any kind of a pass catcher, Miami may have very well found a late round gem. I hope he sees the field early, but I’m not holding my breath on that. I’ve written in past blogs that I predict Ballage will have a sparse amount of action in the early weeks and then like an RKO out of nowhere, have a game where he has like 11 carries for 88 yards type game and then gets an increased role. Whatever happens, I’m just psyched that Kalen is going to use the power of deception to get past his opponents. A one trick pony he will not be.

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