Auden Tate: Where to play him

[impactplaya]

(12-31-2019, 12:25 AM)Whatever Wrote: Tate was tied for 68th in the league in Targets.  He was also tied for 102nd in catches, 73rd in yards, and 164th in TD's.  That's poor production for that number of targets by any measure.  

He has a good ypc for a couple of reasons.  He doesn't have the short area quickness for a lot short routes and doesn't have the top end speed for deep routes, meaning he runs a bunch of intermediate stuff.  He also did a good job this year of breaking tackles and dragging guys to generate YAC which adds to his ypc.

You don't run him on fly routes because any CB in trail technique will be right in his hip pocket and have a play on any underthrown ball and any S with over the top responsibility will easily get there due to his lack of speed.  He caught 50% of his targets this year.  Just because a lot of those were contested doesn't mean he wins a high % of contested balls.  Furthermore, we heard this "just chuck him 50/50 balls" stuff during the preseason when people were making him out to be this unstoppable red zone TD machine.  He had 1 TD all year.  

At the end of the day, his production simply doesn't live up to this narrative some are trying to spin for him.  He is not a starting quality WR in the NFL.  He's a #5 or #6 that had some inflated yardage numbers due to seeing a large number of targets due to injuries and lack of quality depth.

Yes you are correct. But this where scheme comes in.
Who says he has to be strictly lined up on the outside to run a go route ?
You can put him on the heels of a TE and have him run a myriad 
Of routes.
I thought ZT and Callahan were porous in the route combos 
This year.and their lack of pre snap motion with WRs.
You can spin it any way you want .....but at the end of the day 
14 yds per catch is still 14 yrds per catch.