Possible Need at WR

[NBT]

1) Jacoby Jones contract is expriring. Do we want to resign him?
2) Kevin Walter no longer no longer scares anyone on defense.

Andre Johnson deserves more help from the other WR's than he got last year, so we need to think of FA and/or the draft. Who would be a good candidate in FA because offense will not get much help in this year's draft, methinks. Nothing before the 4th or 5th round at least.

[nunusguy]

In Aprils Draft, just might be that Julio Jones is the BPA, but we know when it comes to need we've got to have defensive help, lots and lots of it. And for sure Kubiak/Smith will want to go D because they are on a very short-term leash (I think ?). But if one takes the long-term view, most say go with the BPA approach with atleast your first-round picks. What to do ?

[Nconroe]

just for my part, I hope they keep Jacoby Jones, he got better every year and improved through the end of this season, seems to be maturing.

from stats perspective, seems our passing offense is pretty good so why mess with that, I'd keep the consistency of success going. No. 4 this year, I think no. 2 last year. hard to complain about that.

I'd for sure go after defense and maybe OL depth, unless some super stud receiver was there late in the draft, say after fourth round.

1 Philip Rivers, QB SD 66.0 4710
2 Peyton Manning, QB IND 66.3 4700
3 Drew Brees, QB NO 68.1 4620
4 Matt Schaub, QB HOU 63.6 4370
5 Eli Manning, QB NYG 62.9 4002
6 Carson Palmer, QB CIN 61.8 3970
7 Aaron Rodgers, QB GB 65.7 3922
8 Tom Brady, QB NE 65.9 3900
9 Matt Ryan, QB ATL 62.5 3705

I guess part of fun right now is guessing what team might draft, so perhaps they will get WR, I don't know.

[HPF Bob]

I believe Jones is a good receiver and ought to be kept. I've been wanting to shed Walter for years. He's still a good blocker but he gets paid way too much just for that. If we're looking to shed salary, I'd get rid of Owen Daniels before I'd drop Jacoby Jones.

[TheMatrix31]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

I believe Jones is a good receiver and ought to be kept. I've been wanting to shed Walter for years. He's still a good blocker but he gets paid way too much just for that. If we're looking to shed salary, I'd get rid of Owen Daniels before I'd drop Jacoby Jones.

Disagree. I think we didnt use Walter nearly enough. His hands are still superb. And getting rid of Daniels would be a disaster. He's Schaub's security blanket.

[HPF Bob]

Originally Posted by TheMatrix31

Disagree. I think we didnt use Walter nearly enough. His hands are still superb. And getting rid of Daniels would be a disaster. He's Schaub's security blanket.

Dreesen gave him about 80% the same production for about 10% of the cost and Daniels will no doubt demand another raise in the off-season.

[Arky]

I thought there was a lot of misuse of Walter and JJ this year.....

Throwing to JJ on short routes over the middle (that he had trouble with) like he's a possession receiver? I'd give that stuff to Walter.... Walter's got the better hands and doesn't mind getting popped... Walter didn't get targeted near enough this year and from what I saw, it wasn't because he wasn't getting open. More than once last year I saw the camera show Walter open for a 20-yarder but Schaub usually took a shot at someone a bit deeper...

JJ, IMO, is better suited as a deep middle/deep threat. When was the last time they went bombs away to JJ? Last time I remember was a pre-season game with Grossman throwing to him (successfully). Would have liked to see them run him deep and actually throw it his way several times a game. I've always been a fan of keeping the DB's on the other side backing up and spreading it out. I'd have JJ running wind sprints downfield everytime he was on the field even if it limited him to 15-20 snaps/game. A guy doing that can take two people out of the play... I'd put it in the mind of the opposing DB's that whenever he was on the field, he was going deep - and hopefully open up lots of underneath stuff for AJ/Walter/Foster/Daniels/Dreessen/Anderson.....

[Big Texas]

Me personally, I believe that last year the opposing teams were dedicated early on to stopping our quick slants and five to ten yard ins. Instead of taking the shots downfield a little more often we continued to try and force the issue.

I definitely believe that JJ can attack the seams a little more.

The biggest issue was predictable playcalling. The other teams seemed to know everytime that we were throwing the quick slant and everytime we were going deep.

Our "top 5" offense as we all know is a little misleading. We could definitely benefit from having a receiver in the Wes Welker mold. Someone who's a beast a the short quick catch and run. I really don't believe in David Anderson.

[barrett]

Everybody could benefit from a Wes Welker. There is only one though. Good luck with finding another.

And there is nothing deceptive about our top 5 offense. Our scoring and redzone production were way up this year. If we got anything in the return game or defensively to give us field position, then we'd easily be top 5 in scoring as well.

Walter is extremely productive and very important to our run game. Football outsiders and every other advanced stat metric shows that he is very good in areas like target %, on target drops, etc... And those sites state up front that they don't take into account blocking which affects a player's true value.

So Walter is a guy who is very effective every time we use him and should be targeted more from every available stat, and yet never asks for the ball more and blocks hard on every play. Not sure what the question is even about. I'd love for anyone to name me 10 better #2 WRs. Or even 5 better.

Here are 3 of the better #2 WRs in the NFL, Walter and the two who went to the superbowl, Hines Ward and Donald Driver. Guess who's who.

59/755, 12.8, 5 TD, 35 FD
51/565, 11.1, 4 TD, 29 FD
51/621, 12.2, 5 TD, 33 FD

[NBT]

OK, so some of you think JJ & Walter weren't used correctly. Had them running the wrong routes for their particular skills. And some of you think the playcalling (Kubiak) was too predictable. I agree with part of what each of you said, but the bottom line is to get to the playoffs this year, no IFs, ANDs, or BUTs. Kubiak is not going anywhere, so better playcalling and route running to the individuals talents has to be the anwer.

Too many times last year, on 3rd down and long, Schaub could not find an open recevier. He ate the ball, ending a promising drive. Dreesen was not dependable in that situation, whereas OD has shown that he can be.

I think that after the first 3 picks in the Draft go for improving the defense, we should maybe take a receiver in the 4th round

[barrett]

JJ was awful on returns. Slaton was worse than awful. I could see us drafting a WR/Return man in the 6th or later, but I don't think anything higher is going to happen. Remember we still have Dickinson and Holliday from last year's draft who could not get playing time ahead of these guys. No reason to draft a WR, and no reason to sign one unless there it is to upgrade the return game.

And I agree that OD is another league from Dreesen. Dreesen has terrible hands and no speed. Dreesen had 36/518/4 last year. Daniels had better than that in 8 games in 2009. That is not 80% production. If Daniels is healthy he needs to be resigned. Our offense is different with him.

Or we could just start playing James Casey. I swear that guy must have dented Kubiak's car in the parking lot or something. He can't get on the field despite looking great every time he plays.

[NBT]

For someone who played in a bigtime conference at LSU, Holliday looked like a kid coming in right out of high school. I mean he seemed to be awestruck or something. And then he hurt his thumb and was put on the DL for the rest of the year. We never got much of a chance to see what Dickerson could do. It was almost the end of the season before he ever made the playing squad, and then I don't think he ever got in a game.

[Nconroe]

JJ and perhaps Slaton did much better on special teams returns the previous years.

So why did they drop off. maybe the guys blocking? or coaching special teams? or was it same return on everytime and other teams figured that out.

[NBT]

Yeah, year before last we were one of the best passing teams in the league, with good special teams. Last year we concentrated on the run game with the result being we had the best run attack, but the ST's went to pot, and the passing game was just so-so. If we can get all 3 phases going well, with an improved defense, no telling what we could do.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by NBT

If we can get all 3 phases going well, with an improved defense, no telling what we could do.

If a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his ass a-hoppin'.

If we had a competent, non-idiot owner, a competent, non-idiot head coach, a competent general manager, a good special teams and a good defense and an improved passing game, why, we just might make the playoffs every decade or so.

FML

[NBT]

If you'll refer to your other pithy comment in the other post, you will see I said the same thing you just did.