Royal pushing for starting job

[sportscurmudgeon]

Robert Royal has potential but he has to upgrade his game a whole lot before he becomes the starter on any team that is serious about being a factor in the playoffs. And what has to improve in his game by a ton is his blocking.

Royal caught 4 TDs in the final games of the season and that's very good. In those games where he caught the 4 TD pases, he caught exactly ZERO other passes. In the whole season he caught a total of 8 passes and in no game did he catch more than 1 pass. Here's what that means:


Most of the time he is on the field, the Skins need him to block and to run patterns where he keeps some defender away from the guy who is the primary receiver.


Royal's blocking needs to improve to be labeled "barely adequate".

So, if he hopes to be a starter next year and continue his "great chemistry" with Patrick Ramsey, he needs to spend a LOT of time with Joe Bugel and the folks who teach offensive line technique so that he is an effective blocker when the Skins need him to do that. As of January 05, he is not effective in that part of the game at all.