01-22-2020, 09:05 AM
(01-22-2020, 12:21 AM)Synric Wrote: I was a fan of Tate going into the year but soured after it.
It's not just his long speed he has zero short area quickness which limits his route tree. I remember seeing him run a whip route in the end zone and box out the defender but he was so slow the defender had enough time to smoke a cigarette and then jump the route and knock the ball down.
Auden Tate can make some crazy catches down the sideline but hes also a 50% catch rate guy because he ALWAYS has a defender in his grill. He doesnt scare defenses coordinators at all they arent going to put a safety over him and he isnt going to take a short pass for a distance. For a guy his size he struggles against press coverage that is why he only has a single touchdown.
I went into a bunch of advanced stats on this topic last time so I'll avoid doing that again for the most part. The summation of my stance based on those stats was Tate suffered from a lot of uncatchable balls and poor ball placement. He was top 20 in the league in contested catch percentage so he makes the most out of it, but no one of the team was thrown more uncatchable balls. For some reason even when he'd run a slant and he has the CB shielded off Dalton either thew it way behind him (Bills) or way in front where he has to dive (Baltimore), he very rarely got a chance at a ball in stride.
People came back and countered with separation, blah blah. He got more separation than Mike Williams in LA and was better at catching contested balls. The big difference was Williams got thrown FAR more catchable passes. Overall I think Mike Williams is a really fair comparison on what Tate probably can be with improved QB play and more opportunity.
