Falcons: Time to start some controversy

[Beef]

(08-20-2012 03:07 PM)Peyton Wrote:  One of those catches wasn't even intended for him at all. It was deflected high into the air and Harry made a great catch on it about 10 yards down the field.

LOL, yeah, that was just a HORRIBLE play on his part. I mean to come up with a tipped ball is not in his job description so he shouldn't get credit for doing it.

[phocis850]

Hehe, this is getting good.

I think many of you are seeing parts of what I see at times. With him being invisible. It's like he's never an option on many plays. For some reason he has a hard time with getting separation at times. He is also usually matched up against the 3rd best CB or a line backer. I know he is fast, but fast doesn't guarantee anything.

I do believe that MM was incapable of ever planning around his players strengths. I know HD is fast, but is that his only strength? Does he catch the ones we need? I've seen many a time where HD dropped or caught balls out of bounds. Does he have the ability to be focused when we need him to?

Also, with JJ being an absolute beast, we may not need a "speed" guy in the slot.

[Beef]

I actually agree we may not need the typical speed guy in the slot.

I'm actually fine with a Kerry Meier size sure handed guy in the slot and I think that will happen a lot more than before. Meier is 6'3 225, he's almost as big as a TE but much faster and can run much more difficult routes. He's a great blocker too and a much better matchup against LB's and definitely CB's in the 2nd layer.

The thing about HD, however, that I like is that he has to be accounted for by more than 1 player. He can blow by a LB which forces a nickel or safety to come up to help cover that slant across the middle. This puts either Roddy or Julio 1v1 vs. somebody. A slow slot guy can be covered by a single LB, but if he breaks that coverage, he's wide open with a lot of running room.

So in a nutshell, it's a tradeoff to have both and I love that we do actually have both.

[AUTiger7222]

I don't understand why people blame HD for not getting more catches. There's only so many passes to go around. I can't get 2008's targets since they're not on ESPN's boxscores and he was hurt in 2009. So we'll have to look at 2010 and 2011.

2010 - 22 catches on 51 targets for catch percentage of 43.1. That's bad. That's totally unacceptable.

2011 - 39 catches on 62 targets for a catch percentage of 62.9. That's a great improvement for HD. Plus it was the 2nd year coming back from knee surgery and they always say it takes 2 years to fully recovery.

Let's just compare HD to Roddy and Julio for a second. I think the numbers might surprise you a bit.

RODDY
2010 - 115 catches on 179 targets for a catch percentage of 64.2.
2011 - 100 catches on 180 targets for a catch percentage of 55.6.

JULIO
2011 - 54 catches on 94 targets for a catch percentage of 57.4

So in 2011 HD caught a higher percentage of passes thrown his way than Roddy and Julio did.

[pauliwood]

What? how did I get to the official Message Board? I could have sworn I came to AFT.

[AUTiger7222]

(08-20-2012 03:17 PM)phocis850 Wrote:  Hehe, this is getting good.

I think many of you are seeing parts of what I see at times. With him being invisible. It's like he's never an option on many plays. For some reason he has a hard time with getting separation at times. He is also usually matched up against the 3rd best CB or a line backer. I know he is fast, but fast doesn't guarantee anything.

I do believe that MM was incapable of ever planning around his players strengths. I know HD is fast, but is that his only strength? Does he catch the ones we need? I've seen many a time where HD dropped or caught balls out of bounds. Does he have the ability to be focused when we need him to?

Also, with JJ being an absolute beast, we may not need a "speed" guy in the slot.

In doing my research for my other post there was the Minnesota game last year where Julio didn't have a single target but HD had 2 catches for 45 yards and a touchdown.

[BC32Falcons513]

...Jordan Shipley...

[Jesus]

resign shockley and convert!