06-09-2020, 01:52 AM
(06-09-2020, 12:25 AM)Whatever Wrote: Tate caught 50% of his targets last year. Mike Williams caught 54%. Golladay caught 56%.
Williams had 17 20+ yard catches and 8 40+ yard catches. Golladay had 22 20+ yard catches and 6 40+ yard catches. Tate had 8 20+ yard catches and 0 40+ yard catches.
If you can't get separation, you are not going to catch a high % of your targets in the NFL. You can still be effective and productive if you can pressure the defense deep and make big chunk plays downfield. Problem is, Tate simply doesn't possess the physical talent necessary to do that.
There's a reason why Tate runs a limited route tree. He's slow getting into his routes and slow out of his breaks. In other words ,he's not a good route runner. When you aren't a good route runner, the QB is going to look inaccurate throwing to you, because you aren't where you're supposed to be. You referenced inaccurate throws on out routes earlier. That's a timing throw. That ball is supposed to be out before the receiver makes his break. If he's slow getting out of his break, the pass will appear too far out in front and inaccurate. The QB can't leave it inside because it's a pick 6 if the CB jumps it.
I don't get why we keep excuse making for a guy who has well documented physical limitations and using a bunch of comparisons to guys who are far superior athletes as an example of what he could be. Auden Tate isn't Mike Williams, Kenny Golladay, or AJ Green. He just doesn't have their God given ability. Why limit your offense by shoehorning a possession WR who can't run a full route tree into the lineup?
Let's start off that catch percentage is a horrible stat to use. If the ball is reasonably catchable or not, it doesn't matter, you get credited with a target. Let's look at "true catch rate" where only catchable balls are taken into account. Auden Tate had a 75.5% true catch rate while Mike Williams was 74.2% and Kenny Golladay 75.6%. So they all catch about the same amount on catchable balls, and they all have about the same amount of separation. I will say Golladay is an elite contested ball catcher (7th in NFL) whereas (Williams 24th) and Tate (20th) are just really good. Tate's target quality score was 97th in the NFL, whereas Williams was 20th and Golladay was 23rd meaning they simply had better situations, which is my whole point.
When you start throwing out cliches about “slow to get into the route and out of breaks” and then talking about timing throws and how they “can’t throw inside or it’s a pick 6” without even talking about the specific nuances of a particular route, or coverage, I can’t actually take you seriously. Go find a mash-up of him consistently “getting into his route and out of his breaks too slow”. Go watch back the Buffalo tape against a really good Tre'Davious White and show me where this is occuring. These over-generalizations don't actually mean anything, especially if you can't put tape to it. This is stuff you see on scouting reports as generalizations but it
On the tape my biggest issue with him was that he can sometimes round out his out route, but that is relatively common. Rounding off an out can change ball placement but it should usually be high and behind there not wide, he saw a lot of really wide balls. My biggest issue with his QB play was simply throwing the ball outside the field of play. Often times he would do a good job on a 9 ball getting up the field and hold the leverage to prevent getting squeeze to the sideline. He gives his QB's the proper spacing on the sideline to work with but they (usually Dalton) still wanted to put the ball too far outside. His best route is his slant. The thing he does well is his use of suddenness at the top of his steam to get inside positioning on corners. The key with the slant is attacking the ball when it's thrown rather than letting it get to your chest. He goes and snatches the ball out of the air with his hands, which helps beat tighter man coverage, especially on properly placed balls. When balls are thrown on a WR's numbers on these routes or on the back hip, that is where people tend to cry about "lack of separation" but that's not where that ball is supposed to be in most situations unless you are throwing into an oncoming zone defender.
I defend him because I’ve watched all 80 targets of his last season. Was he amazing? No. Was he better than people here think? 100%. There is a difference between getting a ball to a guy and getting him the ball where it’s supposed to be. There are different ball placements used for protecting receivers from defenders, and throwing them open, but more often then not Tate found himself simply with bad balls. He can be a high-end #2 WR in this league.
