Bennett and Wade

Originally Posted by Soxcat
Bennett not a starter? He was the closest thing we had to a #1.

The Colts, or anyother team for that matter, didn't win a Super Bowl using "the closest thing we had to a #1". The #1 role has to be given to someone how can live up to it. If Bennett was a great #2, then we should of had a player filling the #1 role. My point was, we didn't lose a starter. We lost two #2 WRs. Not a huge loss.
The loss of Mason hurt our team. Bennett and Wade.................nah.

 

#2 WRs are not starters?
You guys need to understand that it isn't the 700 yards that is going to be hard to replace. What would suck is someone ONLY getting 700 yards even though VY is throwing the ball better and Bennett could have given us 1000 yards. If Roby, Williams, Orr and whoever were so dang good why couldn't they break the lineup? Heck, Wade was better than those guys which is why he played. Here is the thing. Trash Bennett and Wade all you want but everyone else except for Jones were sitting the pine behind them which means not as good and look at what we have to step in. Same guys that sat the pine, a guy who was all but asked to leave Chicago because he stunk so bad and three rookies. Bennett may get more yards as the #3 with the Rams than our #1 guy this year. Keep in mind we are putting almost all our eggs into Brandon Jones basket (he is really all we have right now) and even Jones hasn't proven a whole lot yet. I certainly wouldn't say Jones is an upgrade over a guy like Bennett yet and he is the best of the group.

 

I agree on all points.

 

AMEN!

 

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/wr.php

Last year Bennett and Jones had almost identical DPAR ratings, but Jones had a better PAR rating and better VOA rating, as well as 1 more TD than Bennett despite being thrown to 42 fewer times. With Jones being a 2nd year receiver, only a year removed from an ACL, and not being the 1st in the progression for a rookie QB - he had a lot going against him, but still essentially equaled Bennett in same-situation attempts. We should expect B Jones to exceed Bennett's production.

 

Here is a little tiny bit of info that needs to be reviewed when examining these stats.

In other words it is not coincidence that Wayne and harrison are both #1 and #2 in this stat sheet consider they have one of the best QBs throwing them the ball.

Maybe it isn't a coincidence that the Titans WR didn't fair real well for a different reason....

Now if we want to really use these stats as something reliable for predicting future performance we should have re-signed Wade.

Wade had a better DPar rating than D.Mason, W.Welker, S.Moss, Branch and K. Johnson. Oh, guess what Bennett was only one step below Keshawn Johnson, the guy who was going to bring #1 WR validity back to the Titans.

Also I'm not sure B. Jones is a great leap of an upgrade over Bennett at all and maybe we could have had both of those guys getting passes from a better passer this year in VY. Now who is going to take the pressure off of Jones?????

Interesting how you have to have 10 catches minimum to even be on their stat sheet. Gage and Roby don't even have a score R. Williams did make it with his 20 catches, too bad he has a negative DPar as was Givens.

Oh, Gage, Roby and Williams are the guys who can easily replace Bennett's production. Right. Also, the issue isn't if Jones is as good or better than Bennett, the issue is can our #2 guy (whoever the heck that is) can be as good or better than Bennett and our #3 guy can be as good or better than Wade was (if you didn't notice I gave Jones the benefit of the doubt making him the number 1).

 

So you are assuming Jones will have the same production this year as he did last year? Why compare Bennett (our #1 last year) to our #2 this year? That makes no sense.

The point of those stats essentially says that if Jones and Bennett had switched places last year, Jones would have had Bennett's stats and Bennett would have had Jones'. Except Jones would have probably pulled in almost twice the TDs that Bennett did. So Jones replaces Bennett this year, R Williams or Gage (or whoever) needs to replace Wade, and we need moderate production from 1 more guy.

Jones is now healthy (year 1 after an ACL is generally considered a wash...) and still improving... Roydell has reportedly had a very good offseason - he broke a finger in the middle of last season (assuming you are unaware of that the way you wrote him off), so we should have every reason to expect his production to increase pretty dramatically. Who knows about Gage... Davis will help a good deal in the slot - which we didn't have a real threat there last year.

The point is that all the talk this offseason was that we took a big hit in WR talent. The stats simply don't support that - at worst we stayed about even. But with 3 guys headed into the critical year 3, 2 of which played through injuries last year, we have reason to expect that we could be much improved.

 

What is so hard to understand? If we had kept either Bennett or Wade we would still have Jones AND whoever we kept. How can anyone in their right mind think we "stayed even" when the two guys who will be stepping into the #2 and #3 WR spots are "Mr. Who " and "Mr What".

Would you rather have Jones AND Bennett as our WRs or Jones and Gage. How about Jones and Wade or Jones and Roby. Even if Wade stayed as our slot WR and put up similar numbers as last year at least we would have a solid proven player contributing there. The fact is it isn't about Jones it is about the guys who have to REPLACE Bennett and Wade.

Jones could go out and pull down a 1000 yards this year (which I'm not sure Bennett wouldn't have done if he was here with an improved QB situation). However, if the rest of the WR core don't amount to squat we are going to have a terrible passing attack. Even some of the success Jones had last year was with Bennett opposite from him. This year he might not have anyone who commands the defenses attention at all unless you think Gage is going to make defensive coordinators sweat.

 

Bennett gets $30M and most of you still won't give him credit for being a very good receiver. Bennett's lack of production has far more to do with Vince. This is why we let him go, no sense in paying someone that much if you can't get the ball to them. A veteran does far more than just catch the ball. He recognizes coverages, and gives input on the sidelines. Drew was drawing raves for this one game...I believe it was Buffalo. Those are intangibles and nuances that aren't measured by catches and yards. How many times did Drew draw double or even triple coverage...allowing someone else to get open? For a "slow white boy" Drew managed to get open a great deal, thus putting pressure on Defenses to give him extra coverage. It's a chess game, and Drew was far more than a pawn.

 

that's actually not why we let him go. we offered stallworth and curtis(i think) more money than the rams gave bennett.

"The maximum value of the contract, if the Patriots were to keep Stallworth for all six years, is $33.1 million."

we offered stallworth more money than the pats did too.