Quote:
Originally Posted by That Guy
there's like, a million fallacies in logic here. maybe lloyd and el didn't get a whole ton of catches, cause, you know, they're not very good. It could speed up campbell's learning in some ways in that he'd have confidence his WRs could go up and get the ball for him, which means less worrying about job security or a guy dropping balls.
going 3WR doesn't translate to automatically being worse off. it's harder to cover and can keep more guys back on defenses and open up running lanes. west coast/quick release plays (like all slants) can be used if the D goes blitz heavy on you.
as for limited opportunity... if you're guys are making plays, you'll stay on the field longer and give yourself more chances to make plays. the colts don't seem to have any problems with this, and the skins even had 3 WRs with 1,000yards in the same season. arguing that you CAN have too many weapons is pretty weak at best. arguing about relative needs is a better case, but you really can't say our #2 WR spot is sown up, regardless of the money spent there.
it's like you think WRs are all worthless and interchangeable. I personally wouldn't trade up for CJ unless the deal was amazing (like our 1st and our 5th to move up :P ) obviously i don't see that happening. this may just be smokescreen though.
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Ultimately, whether you believe I explained it well or not, it's hard to dispute the point that only playing with one football reduces the value of any teams 3rd or 4th target. In any sports league, the name of the game is quality. With a waiver wire of a million possible replacement players, quality is the only thing that matters.
Taking Calvin Johnson in the top 5 only makes sense if your team has no receiving options better than Johnson. We have two. Regardless of whether or not you think highly of Johnson, you'd have to admit he'd be hard pressed to meet his lofty expectations. What guarentees do we have that he would ever be a better receiver than Santana Moss, who is just unbelieveable after the catch.
As a rookie, the only thing we could expect him to do would be to replace Randle El in the starting lineup.
I'm not arguing that having extra weapons is bad. Obviously it's not. I'm arguing that taking oppertunities away from the receivers with the best ability after the catch is never a good idea. The whole hurting the offense thing assumes that having the big name Calvin Johnson would cost Cooley and Moss some looks. They get the ball less, our passing game won't do as well. That's just simple logic.
On the contrary, we could easily improve the passing game by treating Johnson exactly like what he would be in this offense, a glorified 3rd target (at least as a rookie). Now some the balls that went to Randle El and Lloyd, who aren't very good receivers, go to Calvin Johnson (a significantly better receiver even as a rook), and thats a significant upgrade in talent. But it's not a great deal of total chances for Calvin Johnson. Moss and Cooley still would be carrying most of the load.
If Calvin Johnson gets the ball 2-3 times a game in a run heavy offense, how can that justify the 6th pick, much less trading up for him?
The truth is that the sheer lack of looks that our No. 2 WR
should be getting hides most talent deficiencies. This also means, obviously, that the sheer lack of looks would mask the talent of a player like Calvin Johnson. I wouldn't expect this number to be any higher than it was last year, regardless of who the 2nd target will be.
It's not that I think all receviers are fungible. Obviously the position value isn't great due to the lack of consistent touches, but my main contention is that
receivers are evalutated in all the wrong ways. Calvin Johnson is a big man who runs 4.3 and has soft hands. Great, nothing wrong with that at all. But again, if I'm scouting talent, those attributes grab my attention, but do nothing to sell me on the player. Can he block (In Johnson's case, probably)? Can he turn the 10 yard dig into a big play with consistency (who knows)? Does he understand route running from multiple perspectives? Those are the important questions, and for a top 10 pick, Johnson's college career leaves them somewhat unanswered (Thank you Reggie Ball).
4.3 and big with soft hands is nice and everything, but this ain't a beauty contest. Give me Moss and Cooley anyday. You can have CJ.