Richard Rodgers Vindicated

[Mondio]

for the record,

INobody doubted his hands, as they are great, but his athletic ability for a 3rd rounder. He's not painfully slow as I thought (Finley ran a 4.81) as much as he painfully lacks in quickness and acceleration, so if any route involves him stopping and catching the ball, like the screens we've seen, that's as far as he is going to go.

But when he catches the ball in stride, he looks like a completely different player. Taking away the long pass, he still had 7 catches for like 85 yards, which is drastically better than what we've seen from him.

exactly, that TE screen or dump 2-3 yards behind the LOS with him moving laterally at the catch are horrible pass routes for him. he's not a YAC guy. Let him get his yards in the route, block the defender and catch the ball, like TE's do.

 

[sschind]

My son put him on his fantasy team at the beginning of the season and I laughed at him. Guess he's laughing now.

So your son is 1-11. I wouldn't be laughing.

 

[TJV]

I've posted elsewhere that RRodgers doesn't really excel in the passing or run-blocking aspects of TE duties. I've been going back and forth regarding which area he should concentrate on this off season. There's been a lot of talk about Lacy's need to lose weight and that's what I would suggest for RRodgers too. If he can't or won't drive block at whatever weight he played at this season (about 270 according to McGinn below) I don't think adding strength or a few pounds is going to make much difference.

Someone posted video highlights of his college career and he looked more athletic and faster but he had dropped a lot of weight - reported to be about 30 pounds - because the new HC didn't use a traditional TE. IMO he should drop about 20+ pounds and work on his speed. He could still block poorly but may be a better option in the passing game.

Here's McGinn's comments on him in his grading column:

Sure-handed, massive target. One year after dropping two of 34 as a rookie in 44.5% playing time, he dropped just four of 96 in 71.2%. He caught fastballs, bad balls and a heroic Hail Mary from 61 yards out to beat the Lions at Ford Field. The problem is what he does after the catch. That's limited, although his post-catch average did improve from a scant 1.88 last year to 3.62. More distressing were Rodgers' poor speed (4.87) and lousy blocking. He was responsible for 16 1/2 "bad" runs, 3 1/2 more than he had as a rookie and the most for a McCarthy-coached tight end. He might weigh about 270, but his punch as a blocker is comparable to someone in the 245-pound range. Grade: C.

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/pack...eport-card-offense-b99656526z1-366333791.html

 

[Half Empty]

Since this thread is two months old, I called it up, and the first thing I see is your post, TJV. I then looked at the thread title again and asked myself "how can THAT possible vindicate RRod? Took a while, but it's not nice to fool old men.

 

[TJV]

Since this thread is two months old, I called it up, and the first thing I see is your post, TJV. I then looked at the thread title again and asked myself "how can THAT possible vindicate RRod? Took a while, but it's not nice to fool old men.

Hey, I are a old man! Sorry about that, but it was the newest thread with RRodgers in the title I could find.