09-15-2020, 01:57 PM
(09-15-2020, 01:35 PM)ochocincos Wrote: While he needs to produce more, perception is not always reality. You might THINK he is giving minimal effort, but perhaps he's not.
And his "calling card" you identify I think is what the team wants it to be, but I don't think it really is his calling card.
While the team (and some fans) expect his niche to be a deep threat, it shouldn't be.
His best skill set is actually his ability to get YAC due to his speed and elusiveness.
Ross has never been a lay-out-for-the-ball guy. He's a catch-and-go guy.
If people look at his primary season in college, he had 81 receptions for 1150 yards (14.2 ypc).
It's more difficult to catch the ball the further down the field you get, and it's even more difficult given Ross's hand size (8.75").
So for him to be most effective, he needs to actually be used far more on shorter routes and let his speed and agility make defenders miss once he has the ball.
I think the biggest thing with Ross that people have is they want him to be a different receiver than he is. They want him to be AJ Green because he was drafted in the Top 10. He's never going to be a receiver like AJ. He's a smaller speed guy with electric feet who has questionable hands.
Now that I've defended how he can better be utilized, he still needs to have more impact on the game. So I am in agreement with you there. I just don't think it needs to be primarily with 40+ yard passes downfield.
I don't think our coaching staff knows how to bring the best out of our talent. Putting Ross into positions he's not comfortable or good at. We should play to our strengths and not ask them to get better at their weaknesses just to fit something ZT wants. We have speed and have no clue how to use it, Mixon can't be the only thing going for us on offense when the line is this janky. I bet other coaches laugh at our ineptitude on offense with the talent given. So far we see nothing from ZT that screams mastermind superbowl champion.
Nobody is AJ Green, they can improve their weaknesses to the point it's not a red-rover type deal and then continually crush people with their strengths. I just see vanilla offense. I think NE did so well over such a long period of time because they could adjust, some games they'd only run other games only pass. It's good to have flexibility but I think for Ross he's just not a long ball guy, AJ can pull those down, don't trust Ross with these plays, get him and Gio the ball in space. I don't understand the lack of usability of Gio. We're not built to score a lot of points just running the ball. That game was a blowout if the defense didn't hold continually, the offense on display would not have done well against most teams.a
I put this also on players who don't speak up though, like Ross is just trying to fit in maybe and not tell people hey I'm not good at that, I should be doing this instead. Gio seems like too nice a guy (person who still drives a minivan) to tell the coach you gave my job to Mixon, cool, but I can do a lot more than just block.
Also never know the types of people on the team, some are just happy being paid.
I think Burrow will be successful partially because he will make thsoe things happen (tell peopel we need Gio and Ross in space), or he will make it happen (like his audible run) instead of trusting this inept coaching staff. He seems like a Lebron in some of those ways, probably smarter than the coaches and they have to all figure out how "that works".
