As the outside world packs rocket fuel into the Jarryd Hayne hype train, those within the San Francisco 49ers' organization insist on yanking the break.
"I'm still a long way off from where I want to be," Hayne said after another impressive performance Sunday night. "I want to be able to go into games confident that everything I do, I'm comfortable with. I'm still learning. It's only my second game. It's still very fresh. For me, I'm just taking in as much as I can and trying to get better every game."
The former Rugby League star might be from Australia, but he's got the 21st century American athlete jargon down pat.
On three punt returns in Sunday night's 23-6 win over the Dallas Cowboys, Hayne went for 27, 34 and 23 yards. The third return likely marked the only time in the history of August and the NFL that a living person actually uttered the words, "hold on one second, I want to watch this punt return."
So Hayne won't toot the horn on his own hype train. That's fine. Surely coach Jim Tomsula is pumped about the potential for the player the Niners unearthed.
"He's a professional athlete," Tomsula said. "We knew that coming in. He's also a professional athlete that's played in space. ... He's on a road. He's doing things and it is good, it really is, but he's got a ways to go."
Come on, Jim! Give us something!
"The guy is doing really well," he added. "He's making a great case for himself. That's the story in itself. He's in the conversation of making a 53-man roster on an NFL football team, when he's never played football. Now there's the story. That speaks for who he is."
Fine. The 49ers want to tap the breaks before the train careens off the track, that's understandable. Hayne has a ways to go in mastering how to play in the tight spaces of the NFL, pass blocking and a million other little things to find a place on offense.
What the Aussie has displayed is that he undoubtedly has a place in the NFL. If the Niners don't keep him around for kick and punt returns, surely someone will snatch him up.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast caps the weeklong Fantasy Extravaganza by talking undervalued and overvalued QBs and everyone's draft philosophies.
