VD still has stone hands

i agree with kstolai. More time catching footballs, less time in wt room. Also, when the OL doesn't block , the RB fumbles, or the receivers drop balls(lots of them), then you look one place: at the HC. This is a coaching failure, first and foremost. Bigmike can read stats, and he surely can't forget his receivers'
drops. He should long ago have made special set aside time between alex and the receivers , over and over again, throw catch, throw catch. Yeah, the players aren't executing, but the HC isn't fixing it with extra practice over an ongoing period of time. This is HC failure, pure and simple. He's in charge. Make those guys stay after practice until they run their routes perfectly and catch every ball. Receivers aren't concentrating on the ball. It is bigMike's job to make them do so.

Years ago, I visited 49er training camp in Rocklin. Walsh had his receivers spend time at the end of practice catching balls thrown hard, high, low, wide, at close range. I remember Dwight Clark diving for balls over and over again. Hard work like this pays off.

I think it will work itself out with time & dedication. Those drops were frustrating no doubt....those R there to learn from.

Originally posted by Nes49:
I think it will work itself out with time & dedication. Those drops were frustrating no doubt....those R there to learn from.

Agreed. I'd say the same thing about Alex Smith. The more time he plays and gets to know the offense the better he'll do.

leading league in TD's. I can deal with it.

800+ yards (could get 1000 yards) and 11 TD's..I can deal with a few drops

[ Edited by BirdmanJr on Dec 17, 2009 at 09:28:37 ]

Originally posted by BirdmanJr:
800+ yards (could get 1000 yards) and 11 TD's..I can deal with a few drops

Not ones that cost us games. Until he starts catching passes that hit him in the hands in big situations then I say he needs to improve and I can't deal with it. We would be much more in the play off hurt if it wasn't for VD dropping the 4th quarter pass in the endzone.

Originally posted by taney71:

Originally posted by BirdmanJr:
800+ yards (could get 1000 yards) and 11 TD's..I can deal with a few drops

Not ones that cost us games. Until he starts catching passes that hit him in the hands in big situations then I say he needs to improve and I can't deal with it. We would be much more in the play off hurt if it wasn't for VD dropping the 4th quarter pass in the endzone.

Delanie also dropped one and Gore fumbled, VD didn't cost us the game. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't even be close to the playoff hunt to begin with.

I agree he needs to stop dropping easy passes, but he is not the reason we aren't in the playoff hunt anymore.

After four years I think we all need to accept the fact that Davis is never going to be the elite pass catching tight end we hoped he would be. He has caught thousands of balls in training camps and practice. He HAS worked very hard to improve that part of his game, but it STILL remains a problem. It may be time to just recognize he does not have the kind of hand-eye coodination necessary to make those catches.

I believe it has to do with the lack of ability to focus. He has a similar problem with false starts. All he has to do is look at the ball and move when it moves, yet he doesn't. He leads the team in both drops and false starts, and both are issues involving focus.

He is who he is. Time to accept it I believe. I don't like it but I don't see progress coming.

Originally posted by BirdmanJr:

Originally posted by taney71:

Originally posted by BirdmanJr:
800+ yards (could get 1000 yards) and 11 TD's..I can deal with a few drops

Not ones that cost us games. Until he starts catching passes that hit him in the hands in big situations then I say he needs to improve and I can't deal with it. We would be much more in the play off hurt if it wasn't for VD dropping the 4th quarter pass in the endzone.

Delanie also dropped one and Gore fumbled, VD didn't cost us the game. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't even be close to the playoff hunt to begin with.

I agree he needs to stop dropping easy passes, but he is not the reason we aren't in the playoff hunt anymore.

Depends on how you measure cost us the game. Sure Gore and others can be blamed but that doesn't take away from the fact that VD should have caught that ball which would have meant 6 more points and the win.

Originally posted by dj43:
After four years I think we all need to accept the fact that Davis is never going to be the elite pass catching tight end we hoped he would be. He has caught thousands of balls in training camps and practice. He HAS worked very hard to improve that part of his game, but it STILL remains a problem. It may be time to just recognize he does not have the kind of hand-eye coodination necessary to make those catches.

I believe it has to do with the lack of ability to focus. He has a similar problem with false starts. All he has to do is look at the ball and move when it moves, yet he doesn't. He leads the team in both drops and false starts, and both are issues involving focus.

He is who he is. Time to accept it I believe. I don't like it but I don't see progress coming.

Vernon Davis is leading the league in TD catches, but he isn't a elite TE. No 49er TE has EVER caught so many TD's in a single season. But hell no, that's not elite because some little whiner in the WZ says so. All experts and analysts are praising Vernon but that dude from WZ knows better?

This is so absurd.

What is wrong with you people?

the last two weeks he has really had the dropsies, but its not like he pulling a braylon edwards....

Originally posted by Twister68:

Originally posted by dj43:
After four years I think we all need to accept the fact that Davis is never going to be the elite pass catching tight end we hoped he would be. He has caught thousands of balls in training camps and practice. He HAS worked very hard to improve that part of his game, but it STILL remains a problem. It may be time to just recognize he does not have the kind of hand-eye coodination necessary to make those catches.

I believe it has to do with the lack of ability to focus. He has a similar problem with false starts. All he has to do is look at the ball and move when it moves, yet he doesn't. He leads the team in both drops and false starts, and both are issues involving focus.

He is who he is. Time to accept it I believe. I don't like it but I don't see progress coming.

Vernon Davis is leading the league in TD catches, but he isn't a elite TE. No 49er TE has EVER caught so many TD's in a single season. But hell no, that's not elite because some little whiner in the WZ says so. All experts and analysts are praising Vernon but that dude from WZ knows better?

This is so absurd.

What is wrong with you people?

It's hilarious. He could possibly even break the record for most TD's caught by a TE in a single season, but yet he's still not elite. Give me a break people, he's not going to catch everything. As long as he keeps scoring and blocking at an elite level, I can deal with the drops. His hands are definitely not the greatest, but good enough to lead the league in TD catches.

Originally posted by itlynstalyn:

Originally posted by Twister68:

Originally posted by dj43:
After four years I think we all need to accept the fact that Davis is never going to be the elite pass catching tight end we hoped he would be. He has caught thousands of balls in training camps and practice. He HAS worked very hard to improve that part of his game, but it STILL remains a problem. It may be time to just recognize he does not have the kind of hand-eye coodination necessary to make those catches.

I believe it has to do with the lack of ability to focus. He has a similar problem with false starts. All he has to do is look at the ball and move when it moves, yet he doesn't. He leads the team in both drops and false starts, and both are issues involving focus.

He is who he is. Time to accept it I believe. I don't like it but I don't see progress coming.

Vernon Davis is leading the league in TD catches, but he isn't a elite TE. No 49er TE has EVER caught so many TD's in a single season. But hell no, that's not elite because some little whiner in the WZ says so. All experts and analysts are praising Vernon but that dude from WZ knows better?

This is so absurd.

What is wrong with you people?

It's hilarious. He could possibly even break the record for most TD's caught by a TE in a single season, but yet he's still not elite. Give me a break people, he's not going to catch everything. As long as he keeps scoring and blocking at an elite level, I can deal with the drops. His hands are definitely not the greatest, but good enough to lead the league in TD catches.

It is pretty damn funny to be critical of Davis in his breakout season. Are the drops frustrating at times? Sure. However, the stats and the TDs dont lie. There may be 3 teams in the entire league that wouldnt trade their TE's for Davis. (Dallas, San Diego, and Indy)

Originally posted by Ninerjohn:

Originally posted by itlynstalyn:

Originally posted by Twister68:

Originally posted by dj43:
After four years I think we all need to accept the fact that Davis is never going to be the elite pass catching tight end we hoped he would be. He has caught thousands of balls in training camps and practice. He HAS worked very hard to improve that part of his game, but it STILL remains a problem. It may be time to just recognize he does not have the kind of hand-eye coodination necessary to make those catches.

I believe it has to do with the lack of ability to focus. He has a similar problem with false starts. All he has to do is look at the ball and move when it moves, yet he doesn't. He leads the team in both drops and false starts, and both are issues involving focus.

He is who he is. Time to accept it I believe. I don't like it but I don't see progress coming.

Vernon Davis is leading the league in TD catches, but he isn't a elite TE. No 49er TE has EVER caught so many TD's in a single season. But hell no, that's not elite because some little whiner in the WZ says so. All experts and analysts are praising Vernon but that dude from WZ knows better?

This is so absurd.

What is wrong with you people?

It's hilarious. He could possibly even break the record for most TD's caught by a TE in a single season, but yet he's still not elite. Give me a break people, he's not going to catch everything. As long as he keeps scoring and blocking at an elite level, I can deal with the drops. His hands are definitely not the greatest, but good enough to lead the league in TD catches.

It is pretty damn funny to be critical of Davis in his breakout season. Are the drops frustrating at times? Sure. However, the stats and the TDs dont lie. There may be 3 teams in the entire league that wouldnt trade their TE's for Davis. (Dallas, San Diego, and Indy)

Add Pittsburgh, NO and Baltimore to the list.

TDs are nice, that is for sure. However, other teams with quality TEs have other receivers who catch TD passes. The 49ers only have Davis.

Let's see what happens next season and teams have had a chance to game plan to take him out of the offense. Right now he is enjoying a nice season on two passing routes.

Davis is good and I am glad he is playing better than in the past, but he is not elite just because he has caught a bunch of TD passes. As I said earlier, his drops and penalties take him out of the elite range and put him in the very good range. It is an overall assessment, not just a single statistic assessment.