(11-26-2021, 09:40 AM)flsprtsgod Wrote:

(11-26-2021, 06:35 AM)Caldrac Wrote: It's pretty bad. This team has not had a true number one receiver since the days of Jimmy Smith. They need to be looking at every possible angle in the off season to improve that position. Bring back Allen Robinson if Chicago doesn't maintain him. If Green Bay is crazy enough to let Davante Adams walk you offer him a top flight contract and don't even blink or lose sleep over it. Mike Williams from the Chargers could be ideal if they can't keep him. 

They have to do something. My concern is that they'll finish bad enough to not warrant spending a top three pick on a WR in the draft. Which is fair. However, they won't be in a position to grab a WR that they could ultimately really use on this team next year. Hoping they can somehow trade down. Cited it in another thread already. 

They need to try and get a combination of a big body target with great hands like Treylon Burks out of Arkansas, David Bell out of Purdue, Justyn Ross out of Clemson or Jameson Williams out of Alabama along with a small, shifty, slot type of receiver between Jahan Dotson out of Penn State, Ainias Smith out of Texas A&M or Kyle Philips out of UCLA. 

Dan Arnold has potential here as a TE too. They need to get him another reliable target there though. Trey McBride out of Colorado St., Jake Ferguson out of Wisconsi or Grant Calcaterra out of SMU would be ideal.

Do you have any confidence that this outfit is using any talent we actually have here appropriately?

They cannot create an identity on offense. They have yet to consistently show anything substantial other than the fact that they're consistently inconsistent with their weekly attack on offense. They're severely depleted at the receiver position. I still don't see anything out there that's considered a driver starter for Lawrence. 

When you watch a lot of these other football teams. Especially the successful teams on offense. You will see a trend and it's glaringly obvious. I don't care if it's predictable at times or if a defense can stop it here and there. The bottom line is that you're still seeing a identity being established by clearly playing up to your best players strengths on offense. 

LaMar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Kyle Murray can run, they can make impactful plays on the run and they're not afraid to run downfield. You don't see their coordinators shying away from this fact out on the football field. They're involved in a wide variety of ways that includes either straight up running it, having the option to run it, using the fact that they can run it as apart of the passing game to make a defense think and spring a player open deep downfield or over the middle, and they do it effectively. 

I keep saying this. I'll keep saying it. You're going to have to trust this kid to play to his strengths. The RPO, the Spread? That's apart of his game. They need to incorporate it more moving forward. One of the best games this team managed to piece together offensively was on TNF against the Bengals and it heavily featured the RPO and Spread. Lawrence had his best game completion percentage wise, he was able to run one into the end zone and he was clearly getting fired up. They were one or two bad play calls away or decisions from potentially winning that game. 

You have to let this kid play to his strengths and utilize the personnel around him to further enhance those strengths. Which is baffling to me that they haven't done this already when you consider that Shenault is NOT a 4.3 deep threat. He's a short catch, YAC receiver that likes contact. You need to Lawrence moving around on bootleg's and using misdirection to get Shenault in a favorable match-up early and often to where he can take a 3 yard out and turn it up field for a major gain.

That would eventually allow Jones to get deep here and there for a later deep shot down the road in the game. You could also get Arnold more involved in that same type of action because he's just quick enough to beat LB's but doesn't have that crazy speed to stretch a field. I see a poor man's George Kittle when I look at Dan Arnold and if they would just let Lawrence PLAY and use his damn LEGS they could at least keep a defense guessing to free up some of these underneath plays. 

The lack of screens and swings to James Robinson has been a major, major buzzkill for me as a fan this year. They did it in the Arizona game and then it all but disappeared since then. I cited this in other threads. When your personnel is lacking. That's when and where your coaching staff is supposed to earn their paychecks and get creative and maximize what they have. They keep doing the same nonsense over and over. 

At some point Meyer needs to take over the game and take over the play calling. The amount of indifference and grumblings that keeps getting reported out by the MSM about the coaching staff butting heads is never a good sign. They're not on the same page and the players are suffering for it more than anybody. As well as the fan base.

---