But at the same time it's felt like for years now how we've been told that we don't need to invest in WR and we don't need a "true #1" because we have so many guys with "#1 potential" and LaFleur is so adept at scheming guys open that we should be able to lineup whoever we want at WR and get production out of them.
Heh. I don't think I've said that. Some people may have, but I don't buy it. Special players make everything easier.
In any case I would still venture that the combination of Watson+Doubs+Musgrave at TE is probably comparable (or favorable!) to many teams' WR1/WR2/TE1 options. With those three and whoever is available as WR3/WR4 I don't think it's unreasonable to say that we *should* be able to get more production out of our passing game.
I don't think it is/does. Watson perhaps harsh, but Watson, right now anyway, feels like an odd 1/2 tweener. He has the ceiling to be a 1, but, imho, his lost time due to injury is holding him back. He's probably the guy we could build around though. Here's hoping he grows into the role.
Doubs to me is a 2/3 tweener. He runs great routes, knows how to find the hole in the zone and sit, but he's not really special at anything. I'm glad to have him and we are better to have him, but I see him as a complementary player.
And Muskgrave...I'm sad. He's a poor blocker and he's not that good of a receiver to offset his blocking deficiencies. I was prepared to bet we let him walk when his contract expires. With Krafts injury, maybe he can grow, but Muskgrave was the higher draft pick. I wonder if he's stuck around as long as he has because he was a 2nd. If we snagged him in the 6th, he might have already been cut.
For sure, I'm with you there. Watson is such a dangerous player. Every time he is targeted it feels like a big play waiting to happen....but at the same time it seems like he is pretty much exclusively being utilized for big play opportunities and little else. Like much of the passing game right now it feels like it's either behind the LOS or 40 yards downfield.
My 2c is that we don't have enough scary offensive players coupled with our line struggling to run block. He have been unable to run effectively against light boxes, so defenses stay in light boxes and dare us to throw. We don't have the players to beat coverage, leading us to this weird state. We use short passes, WR screens, etc, as a running game replacement. Intermediate routes can take longer to develop that deep shots, ironically. A fade or go can be a three step and throw play. A 15 yard in breaker needs a good pre snap read, deeper drop, post-snap read, and then a tricky throw to get over linebackers and short of safeties.
I've mentioned this in years past. Defenses can take away anything your offense wants to do, but they do so at the expense of giving something else up. Right now, defenses can ignore the run (light boxes) without penalty. They can flood the intermediate routes and keep stuff in front of them. What they are leaving for us to take are the short stuff and the deep shots. The former requires longer, perfect drives. The later is inherently difficult, leaving us to sputter. When everything lines up and we have an opening for midrange routes, we've had too many drops.
Until we can penalize teams by doing Something Else well enough to demand it be accounted for, we will struggle.
