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Let’s talk wide receivers

Cribby

Cribby

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I felt there was no better time than now to discuss the pink elephant in the room. Yes….I’m talking the wr’s. I had a big part in creating this narrative in early spring. At that time me and a certain poster had a disagreement about the wr group , the poster mentioned he had heard the wr’s were balling. I told him it’s more like the opposite , they’re struggling, we had quite the battle lol. So since I had a small hand in creating this narrative figured it’s only right I pull everyone back off the life boat…..FOR NOW!!

First let’s fact check….are some wr’s dropping balls ? Yes….too many and it’s unacceptable. Are guys having issues picking up the offense ? Yes. Is there concerns about this group going into the season? YES!! Is X far and away the most consistent performer since spring? Yes.

Now let’s get to the part that doesn’t add up, these same guys that are dropping passes now wasn’t doing it last year. At practice or in games. JG was returning punts as a true Fr and was the most consistent guy the entire year. You don’t put guys with suspect hands back for the most hectic , dangerous play in football. Theres literally eleven guys flying down hill and you only have a split second to make up your mind.

So the question I have his why did this suddenly become a major issue? Here’s some of my theories.

1. Guys are thinking more than playing. They went from a elementary style offense which is known for easy route concepts and even easier playbook to learn. The whole point of that O was to not think, just play and fast. This year it went to a college level playbook and it’s busting their asses. Instead of just running a route , putting your foot in the dirt breaking that thing off you’re unsure, maybe even looking at hashes so know where to round it off or just not confident in the assignment / play call.

2. They’re actually facing a really good defense every day, I’ve been told by too many people to count this is as legit of a defense we’ve had in a minute. Big , fast and very physical. Especially a secondary who’s finally allowed to rough up wr’s off the line , which is hurting clean get offs. That leads to no separation. That’s not a good equation for success when most of the wr’s are kinda light in the ***. The one guy giving the D issues is X who’s 5’10 200.

3. Young guys pressing. We forget majority of these guys are getting their first real serious burn and are being asked to be more than role players. JG, RB and BS was the core that was being expected to take this group into the future. It’s different when you aren’t the fourth , fifth or sixth option.

4. Maybe they just aren’t as good as their ranking or as good as we thought they were. The rankings and us as fans overvalued this group.

So now the question is can coaches do anything to take the pressure off or put them in better situations? @LuCane and myself both mentioned that maybe Gattis could implement a little bit of what Lashlee was doing towards the end of last season. Ease up the playbook ,possibly throw in some of the route concepts and wider splits, which gives them more space to work with. I’m willing to bet they’re pressing at this point and as I said it’s likely mental. Simplifying things has been known to work, I’ve seen it too many times to count.

I’m not ready to throw the season away just yet even though I know wr is a concern. Confidence is a weird thing after guys make some plays when bullets start flying. They won’t face a better defense during the season , so it’s all down hill week one.

All we need is this group to be consistent, thats it. Not Andre J, Santana or even Rambo. Consistent Everyone play their role.

Imo we won’t see any 18 % drop rates this year like a couple guys who are no longer here.
 
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Cribby said:
I felt there was no better time than now to discuss the pink elephant in the room. Yes….I’m talking the wr’s. I had a big part in creating this narrative in early spring. At that time me and a certain poster had a disagreement about the wr group , the poster mentioned he had heard the wr’s were balling. I told him it’s quite the opposite , they’re struggling, we had quite the battle lol. So since I had a small hand in creating this narrative figured it’s only right I pull everyone back off the life boat…..FOR NOW!!

First let’s fact check….are some wr’s dropping balls ? Yes….too many and it’s unacceptable. Are guys having issues picking up the offense ? Yes. Is there concerns about this group going into the season? YES!! Is X far and away the most consistent performer since spring? Yes.

Now let’s get to the part that doesn’t add up, these same guys that are dropping passes now wasn’t doing it last year. At practice or in games. JG was returning punts as a true Fr and was the most consistent guy the entire year. You don’t put guys with suspect hands back for the most hectic , dangerous play in football. Theres literally eleven guys flying down hill and you only have a split second to make up your mind.

So the question I have his why did this suddenly become a major issue? Here’s some of my theories.

1. Guys are thinking more than playing. They went from a elementary style offense which is known for easy route concepts and even easier playbook to learn. The whole point of that O was to not think, just play and fast. This year it went to a college level playbook and it’s busting their asses. Instead of just running a route , putting your foot in the dirt breaking that thing off you’re unsure, maybe even looking at hashes where to round route the off or not confident in the assignment / play call.

2. They’re actually facing a really good defense every day, I’ve been told by too many people to count this is as legit of a defense we’ve had in a minute. Big , fast and very physical. Especially a secondary who’s finally allowed to rough up wr’s off the line , which is hurting clean get offs. That leads to no separation. That’s not a good equation for success when most of the wr’s are kinda light in the ***. The one guy giving the D issues is X who’s 5’10 200.

3. Young guys pressing. We forget majority of these guys are getting their first real serious burn and are being asked to be more than role players. JG, RB and BS was the core that was being expected to take this group into the future. It’s different when you aren’t the fourth , fifth or sixth option.

4. Maybe they just aren’t as good as their ranking or as good as we thought they were. The rankings and us as fans overvalued this group.

So now the question is can coaches do anything to take the pressure off or put them in better situations? @LuCane and myself both mentioned that maybe Gattis could implement a little bit of what Lashlee was doing towards the end of last season. Ease up the playbook ,possibly throw in some of the route concepts and wider splits, which gives them more space to work with. I’m willing to bet they’re pressing at this point and as I said it’s likely mental. Simplifying things has been known to work, I’ve seen it too many times to count.

I’m not ready to throw the season away just yet even though I know wr is a concern. Confidence is a weird thing after guys make some plays when bullets start flying. They won’t face a better defense during the season , so it’s all down hill week one.

All we need is this group to be consistent, thats it. Not Andre J, Santana or even Rambo. Consistent Everyone play their role.

Imo we won’t see any 18 % drop rates this year like a couple guys who are no longer here.
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Just to clarify what is your position on the matter? Concerned or not? No one should be throwing season away in August lmao. 8-4 seems realistic 11-1 if WRs step up.
 
supacane said:
There is no excuse someone can make for WR dropping the ball its their primary job. But I really believe most of it is mental alot of these players were in a lackadaisical environment, doing what they want and not being held accountable. Now that has change I think they are feeling the pressure of competition and the hard coaching.
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Posted this on sunday and Mr Miami que did face palm emoji.
 
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I saw Jacolby play 3 years of high school ball and don’t remember him dropping more than a handful of balls. I knew he wouldn’t wow people with blinding speed but I consistently saw that kid get open and catch anything thrown near him. His hands are freakishly large for an averaged sized kid. When they had him return punts last year, I knew it was because they could trust him to field the ball cleanly every time. I’ve been really surprised hearing how he’s struggling with drops in practice. If I’m betting on who’s going to end up being the top guy on the outside, I’m sticking with Jacolby George. He didn’t play in an overly simplistic spread offense in high school so he should be comfortable handling a larger route tree. It might take a week or two but I have confidence he can be that guy.
 
WR need to perform — simple as that. It’s up to Gattis to get the most out of this group. He needs to earn his paycheck.

Likens was able to elevate the room from gates of ****, so let’s see if Gattis can replicate that progress.

If we waste TVD this year, there is going to be a lot of frustration — justified or not.
 
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Cot****, man. I promised a few folks I'd drop the WR topic until we saw actual games.

just-when-i-thought-i-was-out.gif
 
Yes it will not be a pope or Wiggins type thing, but I truly believe it's a combination of defense the improved coverages plus the young guys stepping into more serious roles. I think it will be fine after a game or two of live reps. That's why I think we'll see upperclassmen early on with X, Redding, Keyshawn
 
cway313 said:
Just to clarify what is your position on the matter? Concerned or not? No one should be throwing season away in August lmao. 8-4 seems realistic 11-1 if WRs step up.
Click to expand...
I think the combination of More complex offense and having to think and process & legit long physical secondary is the reason.

I forgot which player said it, but they named three teams, one being the patriots that the offense was in the mold of. The patriots run a lot of option routes, where they process and identify the right route to run on a given play. Many guys struggled with this. To your point, if they are in their own head, that lack of focus leads to drops.
 
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My reservation is people thinking practice doesn't translate to games. None of us are at practice to know who exactly is struggling and to what extent. A lot of the concern stem from Mario's apparent desperation to find warm bodies to put on scholarship. The majority of our WR room were 4* recruits and in typical CIS fashion we hyped them all up.
 
Cribby said:
I felt there was no better time than now to discuss the pink elephant in the room. Yes….I’m talking the wr’s. I had a big part in creating this narrative in early spring. At that time me and a certain poster had a disagreement about the wr group , the poster mentioned he had heard the wr’s were balling. I told him it’s quite the opposite , they’re struggling, we had quite the battle lol. So since I had a small hand in creating this narrative figured it’s only right I pull everyone back off the life boat…..FOR NOW!!

First let’s fact check….are some wr’s dropping balls ? Yes….too many and it’s unacceptable. Are guys having issues picking up the offense ? Yes. Is there concerns about this group going into the season? YES!! Is X far and away the most consistent performer since spring? Yes.

Now let’s get to the part that doesn’t add up, these same guys that are dropping passes now wasn’t doing it last year. At practice or in games. JG was returning punts as a true Fr and was the most consistent guy the entire year. You don’t put guys with suspect hands back for the most hectic , dangerous play in football. Theres literally eleven guys flying down hill and you only have a split second to make up your mind.

So the question I have his why did this suddenly become a major issue? Here’s some of my theories.

1. Guys are thinking more than playing. They went from a elementary style offense which is known for easy route concepts and even easier playbook to learn. The whole point of that O was to not think, just play and fast. This year it went to a college level playbook and it’s busting their asses. Instead of just running a route , putting your foot in the dirt breaking that thing off you’re unsure, maybe even looking at hashes where to round route the off or not confident in the assignment / play call.

2. They’re actually facing a really good defense every day, I’ve been told by too many people to count this is as legit of a defense we’ve had in a minute. Big , fast and very physical. Especially a secondary who’s finally allowed to rough up wr’s off the line , which is hurting clean get offs. That leads to no separation. That’s not a good equation for success when most of the wr’s are kinda light in the ***. The one guy giving the D issues is X who’s 5’10 200.

3. Young guys pressing. We forget majority of these guys are getting their first real serious burn and are being asked to be more than role players. JG, RB and BS was the core that was being expected to take this group into the future. It’s different when you aren’t the fourth , fifth or sixth option.

4. Maybe they just aren’t as good as their ranking or as good as we thought they were. The rankings and us as fans overvalued this group.

So now the question is can coaches do anything to take the pressure off or put them in better situations? @LuCane and myself both mentioned that maybe Gattis could implement a little bit of what Lashlee was doing towards the end of last season. Ease up the playbook ,possibly throw in some of the route concepts and wider splits, which gives them more space to work with. I’m willing to bet they’re pressing at this point and as I said it’s likely mental. Simplifying things has been known to work, I’ve seen it too many times to count.

I’m not ready to throw the season away just yet even though I know wr is a concern. Confidence is a weird thing after guys make some plays when bullets start flying. They won’t face a better defense during the season , so it’s all down hill week one.

All we need is this group to be consistent, thats it. Not Andre J, Santana or even Rambo. Consistent Everyone play their role.

Imo we won’t see any 18 % drop rates this year like a couple guys who are no longer here.
Click to expand...

@Cribby thank you. Agree.
i am beyond pumped bout our D. Are you stating our D is better than ClempSon’s? .. that would be fuqquin great
 
Unless Redding , Horton , Colbie or Ladson steps up we won’t have a guy who can go up and make difficult catches 1 v 1 like Rambo. He wasn’t big or physical but he had a knack for winning those battles. That’s why I say this can be a solid / consistent group. Just play their roles without trying to be something they aren’t. Imo that’s enough to go with the current te’s, rb’s and qb.
 
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We have 2 games to figure out who we can play vs A&M. Just give me 3 guys along with TE’s and RB’s. This is what Gattis gets paid to do. Alter, scheme and playcalling to get the best out of the group. I just don’t see how this group is this bad with the talent in that room. I’ll start worrying in September when we can’t catch, create separation or make explosive plays.
 
I think we’ll be fine. The TE group is excellent. All of the backs are capable pass catchers. Lastly, we don’t have scrubs. We have a lot of good D1 WR’s. We don’t have a number one yet, but I’m sure even by comity, we’ll have a go to person or persons in specific packages. We have what we need to be successful in the “passing game”. We just have to have a viable threat over the top. That’s obviously huge. Smith is that guy.
 
m-vac said:
I think the combination of More complex offense and having to think and process & legit long physical secondary is the reason.

I forgot which player said it, but they named three teams, one being the patriots that the offense was in the mold of. The patriots run a lot of option routes, where they process and identify the right route to run on a given play. Many guys struggled with this. To your point, if they are in their own head, that lack of focus leads to drops.
Click to expand...
People also compared Restrepo to Edelman and Welker as if we have one of the greatest QBs to live.
 
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