AJ's injury a blessing in disgise ?

[HarleyDog]

(09-13-2019, 05:15 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Rep.

Losing your best weapon that could have been the difference in a one point loss is never a blessing.  

Every team that has an elite WR throws the ball to him a lot.  That is not a bad thing.  In fact it is smart.

Actually, it's not a good thing either. Forget the loss (I will address later). The OP has a point.

(09-13-2019, 05:18 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Don't even know what he means by "one-dimensional".  We already have developed a top WR to play opposite Green (Boyd).

Who developed when AJ was out and TB became Andy's next go to guy.

(09-13-2019, 05:20 PM)Nately120 Wrote: I don't get it either.  Apparently a passing game with Green, Boyd, Eifert, Uzomah, Mixon/Gio, and whichever fringe WRs want to contribute is one-dimensional as long as AJ Green isn't in traction.

When Green is in, Andy already has chosen who he's going to before the ball is hiked. You've had to have seen this in the many plays over the years. We've had WR's completely open, Andy doesn't see them because he's throwing into double coverage to Green.

(09-13-2019, 05:49 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Granted, if this were a dissertation I would have gone with his median number of catches, but my point remains.  We can call targeting AJ Green "one dimensional" but we're also celebrating the fact that John Ross was targeted more than AJ was in something like 90% of the games in his 8 year career.

Not even a comparison in a stat with 1 game but you probably know that. Andy has relied too much on AJ. I think most of us have noticed or nobody would be defending the OP. I'll support why I think it's (sorta) a blessing:

Obviously the crutch Andy has had with AJ which has been mentioned. Also because when AJ goes down, Andy seems a bit confused and his timing is off with other receivers. Having AJ get hurt in preseason forced him to adjust to the timing of the other guys, which will definitely pay off. But here's the biggest reason of all. Andy is moving in the pocket and keeping the play alive more than ever in the past. Why? Because he's being forced to look other than just throwing at AJ and relying on him to bring it down (which he has been so great).

It's never a blessing to have AJ hurt, but in this case, when he get's healthy, it could pay huge dividends during the stretch as long as Andy doesn't get back to old habits.