Originally posted by SofaKing:
Originally posted by NinerBuff:
I'd say McDonald had a pretty good rookie year. He's an excellent downfield blocker...
Obviously needs work on his hands, but nothing to suggest he's not 'pro-material'.
I wouldn't call him an excellent blocker...but he does have great potential in that area with his size/athleticism. Delanie Walker was pretty raw when we first got him and needed a few years to mature his game. Vance needs time too, but he was a 2nd rd pick as opposed to Delanie being selected in the 6th, so people tend to have greater expectations and less patience.
I would argue the biggest dropoff going from Delanie to Vance was the blocking, even more than the receiving. Delanie was an absolute stud in that regard, even being the lead blocker on a number of plays. He was a true FB/TE hybrid. Hopefully Vance can get to that point, but hope to see more of him as a slot WR too.
Yeah, he needs to improve his consistency in blocking. He tends to want to slow down and square up on the guy he wants to block in space when he should just keep attacking the block and let the running back figure out which way to cut behind the block. There were some occasions last year where Gore had to wait too long for Vance to commit to his block. Not saying he's a bad blocker - especially for a rookie, he was pretty solid - but I wouldn't call him an excellent blocker yet either.
I think that most of last year the game was just too fast for Vance. He had to think too much about where he should be and what he should do on a play. I swear on some of his drops, it just plain looked like he was surprised that the ball came his way. I think there's a good chance he will get better at catching passes this year. But with Vernon and that stable of WR, he may not get many opportunities. He better make the most of the ones he gets.
[ Edited by 49erphan on Jun 29, 2014 at 6:38 AM ]