I understand there are a variety of things that went wrong yesterday that led to our loss. Plenty of blame to go around.

With that said, I am sick of Mike Thomas being on this roster. The argument is always "oh but he can play special teams!" We can teach other guys to play special teams. Then you hear "oh but he's Zac Taylor's guy!" Well how's that working out for him? How'd that help the Bengals yesterday?

The dude is a bad WR. Unfortunately he got sprung into game action yesterday with the Higgins injury and he was absolutely atrocious out there. 1 catch for 5 yards on 5 targets. But the worst play of his day was dropping a touchdown in the endzone because he's soft as charmin and didn't want to get hit. If the dude isn't willing to sell out to help the team then why are we keeping him?

I was a Pryor fan in the preseason and one of the reasons was because the kid was sacrificing his body to try and make catches. Mike Thomas won't do that. Send him packing and find someone who will.

Yeah i dislike WRs who dont catch the ball

(09-12-2022, 10:37 AM)XenoMorph Wrote: Yeah i dislike WRs who dont catch the ball

Yeah generally that's a negative.  And wasn't it the ST monster who let the big punt return go.

That's what is interesting about this loss. It wasn't 1 or 2 things that went wrong. It was literally A LOT of things.

When that happens, the coaches didn't have the team ready to play.

(09-12-2022, 11:38 AM)THE PISTONS Wrote: That's what is interesting about this loss. It wasn't 1 or 2 things that went wrong. It was literally A LOT of things.

When that happens, the coaches didn't have the team ready to play.

Thought The Defense held up about as good as they could most the game. considering how much they had to bail out the offense.  

But yeah the team in general wasnt ready

(09-12-2022, 10:36 AM)ChaseThis Wrote: I understand there are a variety of things that went wrong yesterday that led to our loss. Plenty of blame to go around.

With that said, I am sick of Mike Thomas being on this roster. The argument is always "oh but he can play special teams!" We can teach other guys to play special teams. Then you hear "oh but he's Zac Taylor's guy!" Well how's that working out for him? How'd that help the Bengals yesterday?

The dude is a bad WR. Unfortunately he got sprung into game action yesterday with the Higgins injury and he was absolutely atrocious out there. 1 catch for 5 yards on 5 targets. But the worst play of his day was dropping a touchdown in the endzone because he's soft as charmin and didn't want to get hit. If the dude isn't willing to sell out to help the team then why are we keeping him?

I was a Pryor fan in the preseason and one of the reasons was because the kid was sacrificing his body to try and make catches. Mike Thomas won't do that. Send him packing and find someone who will.

Completely agree.  He is not worthy of anything but maybe special teams snaps.  I want Lassiter out there over him, or just go two TEs and more 12 personnel.  No need to have him out there at all.  

Wonder what kind of relationship him and Zac have? This just doesn't make any sense.

I’ll take Trent Taylor over Thomas for that matter.But there were a lot of other things that went wrong for this team yesterday.
I think it would benefit this Offense if they would pump the brakes a little on Joe Mixon.Every time they were first an ten the ball was either handed off to,or thrown to Joe Mixon.Each and every time they enter the red zone on first and second down,the ball goes to Joe Mixon.All opposing teams have to do is to key on Mixon.They know he’s getting the ball.Very predictable.This guy is over used to the extreme,and not just on running plays.
Play calling wasn’t just bad,but very predictable.

Should of held on to Pryor!

In all fairness he beat the Steelers on a double move that Burrow missed and might have been 6 had he connected.

(09-12-2022, 02:06 PM)ezekiel23 Wrote: I’ll take Trent Taylor over Thomas for that matter.But there were a lot of other things that went wrong for this team yesterday.
I think it would benefit this Offense if they would pump the brakes a little on Joe Mixon.Every time they were first an ten the ball was either handed off to,or thrown to Joe Mixon.Each and every time they enter the red zone on first and second down,the ball goes to Joe Mixon.All opposing teams have to do is to key on Mixon.They know he’s getting the ball.Very predictable.This guy is over used to the extreme,and not just on running plays.
Play calling wasn’t just bad,but very predictable.

Taylor can really only play slot, so with Tee out Im guess they went Thomas, although I agree with you - slide Boyd outside and bring in Taylor.  Of course this limits what you can do with Chase as well....

What if we went with 2 backs?  Evans and Mixon, slide Evans to the slot or put him in motion... I could imagine a variety of plays.

Many of us complained (heavily) in the offseason that this team has no one to fill in for Higgins or Chase especially.
Thomas and Morgan are not NFL-caliber WRs. They are ST-only dudes.

Bengals could have won that game yesterday if they just had Clark Harris, but they also would have likely won it if they had a better WR filling in for Higgins than Thomas/Morgan.

Boyd is really good in the slot, but he's not a great boundary option.
Otherwise I'd suggest shifting him out and putting Taylor (or Evans?) in the slot.

(09-12-2022, 04:50 PM)ochocincos Wrote: Many of us complained (heavily) in the offseason that this team has no one to fill in for Higgins or Chase especially.
Thomas and Morgan are not NFL-caliber WRs. They are ST-only dudes.

Bengals could have won that game yesterday if they just had Clark Harris, but they also would have likely won it if they had a better WR filling in for Higgins than Thomas/Morgan.

Boyd is really good in the slot, but he's not a great boundary option.
Otherwise I'd suggest shifting him out and putting Taylor (or Evans?) in the slot.

Right and we need a true NFL caliber WR #4. Can Lassiter move up into that role ?

I was a fan of Thomas. He coming from a smaller school but he makes bonehead plays sometimes. I believe the coach has held on to him because he was good in special teams but he does not look like an NFL wide receiver at least not against the Steelers

I actually thought he got some decent separation at times, he just didn’t uh, you know, catch the football. Pretty important part of the job IMO

Just asking because I legitimately can’t think of any, but can anyone name a better WR4? We can hope that we could sign a better WR3 that moves Boyd to a WR4, but I think it’s safe to say that will never happen. WR4 seems like one of those positions where you’ll have a special teams caliber player that you just hope for the best with.

(09-12-2022, 04:56 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Right and we need a true NFL caliber WR #4. Can Lassiter move up into that role ?

I'm sorry, but in no way do I see Lassiter as a true NFL-caliber WR either.

If they want to address it this year, they're likely stuck with who they have or try to sign a veteran off the street.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/2022/all/wide-receiver//

Some notable names still available:
TY Hilton
Allen Hurns
Keelan Cole
OBJ
Dede Westbrook
Will Fuller

Keelan Cole might be one of the best options.
He has the necessary height/size, he's been a productive WR2/3 in the NFL, and he's even done some KR and a bit of PR.

(09-12-2022, 04:42 PM)casear2727 Wrote: Taylor can really only play slot, so with Tee out Im guess they went Thomas, although I agree with you - slide Boyd outside and bring in Taylor.  Of course this limits what you can do with Chase as well....

What if we went with 2 backs?  Evans and Mixon, slide Evans to the slot or put him in motion... I could imagine a variety of plays.

The plan this year is to play Boyd more on the outside and Chase in the slot more...If you want Chase to get the ball more run him out of the slot in 4 wides. But do not try to make an outside WR out of a slot guy Boyd does not have the tools or skill set to play outside.

I can't think of one thing that Mike Thomas
Does well at playing WR.
He is not quick. He can't accelerate in open field
He doesn't make tackers miss in open field

(09-12-2022, 05:03 PM)StoneTheCrow Wrote: I actually thought he got some decent separation at times, he just didn’t uh, you know, catch the football. Pretty important part of the job IMO

I don't think I've ever seen Burrow react as he did when at the most critical moment of the game he threw a pass on the money to Thomas in the end zone and he dropped it. What a look of incredibility.