Originally posted by Heroism:
I've gleaned that Kyle puts a premium on the ability to separate, and now it's been confirmed by 49ers WR coach:
LaFleur said a premium is placed on how well a player separates and how he performs on plays in which the ball is not thrown his way. The 49ers' coaching staff is always watching, he said.
Simply put, Kyle wants guys that can separate with speed, quickness, and/or route running--preferably all 3.
Two ways to separate, horizontally if you are a jitter bug kind of WR that has tremendous quickness and agility, sorta like the smurfs with Dan Marino, or vertically like Dwight Clark and the "Catch." Either way, WR separation from the defender is always a good thing for an offense and a QB in particular.
Best kind of WR corps is where every WR can do both. Jump vertically and have the ability to separate through quickness and acceleration. Next year, if CJ does pan out and become a possible good QB and we don't feel the need to draft a Franchise QB, I think a franchise WR would be a good place to spend some draft capital. Again, that also depends on whether Dumervill, Pita, Solomon, and the rest of this years defensive draft picks, perform as advertised on paper. If they don't I wouldn't mind drafting another LEO kind of player with the first or second pick of the draft, and just continue to get Free Agent WR's.