11-09-2022, 08:35 PM
(11-09-2022, 06:56 PM)TheFan Wrote: I'd be curious to see how many routes he actually gets to run downfield compared to most TEs. He almost never is running seam routes and any time he does get it its no more than 5-10 yard dump offs.
He hasn't been good about getting anything after the catch but it seems a lot of his catches have been fairly acrobatic ones where he's having to dive or about to be going out of bounds. Not sure how much of that is one him or the offense. Given his history I'd say it's a bit of both
Sometimes that's all a guy can run reliably. I was being a bit sarcastic when I mentioned Auden Tate, but it was also a little serious that seemingly always having to make tough/contested catches isn't actually a good thing. If you're getting separation you should have some easy ones mixed in there. As for the YAC that's actually another point of concern with the AVG. It's not just the average that's dropped every single year he's been in the NFL. Both his yards before the catch and yards after the catch have dropped each year too. When it's a 5 year pattern of it all going down each and every year, it gets harder to explain away by it just being an offense change.
Yards Before The Catch Per Reception
6.8
6.7
5.8
5.1
4.7
Yards After The Catch Per Reception
5.7
4.9
4.4
3.4
3.2
It's not like there's a rebound year in the middle there that you can be like "see, he just needs to be used that way!", it's dropped off every single year one after the other without fail. 8.0 yards per reception is already running back territory. Any more shrinkage and it'll be bad running back territory. There are 137 qualified pass catchers in the NFL right now (WR, TE, RB) and Hurst is at 111th. There are only 3 non-RBs on the list below him, 2 of them are on the Bucs, and the final 1 missed all of 2021 with a knee injury and his team traded for a new guy to replace him.
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