Originally posted by jreff22:
And? We drafted Jenkins and James on the lack of speed argument. Moving the ball better on offense is still a priority and when both top picks aren't even active something is wrong IMO. And the "we are just that deep" argument is retarded. We had Ginn and Jacobs out for weeks and neither guy saw the field. We aren't that deep, they just aren't that good right now.
Jreff you just stated the we are just deep argument in the most ideal terms.
Both Ginn (our #5 WR) and Jacobs(#3 RB) were hurt and neither Jenkins or James saw the field.
We will never see our #5 WR unless there are multiple injuries a head of them. Only Crabtree, Manningham, and Williams see the field on 3 Wide sets. Moss is a situational player who is on a snap count. Ginn will probably see the field less then Moss when all is said and done. If we ever go 4 wide or even 5 wide its a complete given that VD is going to be one of those players because taking VD off the field so we can put our #4 or #5 WR on the field is just laughably insane. Jenkins is redshirting and probably going to slide into the 3 or 4 spot next year with Crabtree and Manningham starting, leaving Jenkins to challenge Williams for the #3 spot.
Jacobs will only see the field on 3-5 or less and goal line situations, both as a decoy and to blatantly run it down an opponents throat. Gore carries the ball 15x a game so far this season. Hunter 6x a game, then there is probably the 3-5+ times we will call flysweeps and gadget plays for Ginn, Williams, and Manningham. Thats 25 rushes a game right there, assuming we need a 3-5 3rd short/goal lines thats a minimal load for him and thats about 30 rushes a game. What are we going to have 5 RBs active for the 3-5 snaps James would see the field? Thats not logical consider James' only ST value is returns, he is too small to be on kickoff coverage and too small to be a gunner on punt coverage. He is redshirting this year to basically slide in as the #3 back and will likely be the #2 when Gore retires and Hunter becomes the #1.
There simply aren't enough carries in a game to justify having 4 RBs active(5 if you count Dixon's pure ST contributions)
and then as I said earlier, why would we go out of our way to active Jenkins as the #6 or #7 WR considering we only see those players that low on the depth chart when we run gadget plays like fly sweeps. Even in our situational packages, we never have more then 3 WRs on the field and to say Jenkins is a better option then Manningham or Williams (the two WRs with the most similar skill sets to Jenkins) is just bad thinking. Williams might have been a 6th round pick but he is an ideal slot receiver and is very talent and now has 3 years of experience in the NFL compared to Jenkins 6 months.
I'm looking forward to both of them hopefully seeing the field against divisional opponents when we throw a curve ball at them but just wait until next year. As long as we are winning what is the trouble with keeping them on the bench and letting them watch the game first before we throw them into the fire?
Yes were still missing the all around speed and explosiveness that HarBaalke said they fixed but we are already seeing the benefits of having playmakers like Moss and Manningham on the field at the same time as Crabtree and VD. Alex is distributing the ball to his play makers and hes got chemistry with all of them, there is no reason to keep the rotation going and throw rookies in there when we honestly dont need them.