07-29-2020, 03:44 PM
(07-29-2020, 02:48 PM)fredtoast Wrote: The following post is a compilation of different comments and stats from ProFootballOutsiders.
Taylor has a specific offensive scheme that he likes to employ. Last year no team in the league used 3+ WR more often than the Bengals, and only one team used multiple RBs less often. So it will be interesting to see how Taylor uses his TEs in the 2020 "Burrow Offense". At LSU Burrow threw over half his passes to slot receivers, but in the LSU offense that included TE Thaddeus Moss.
Last year Eifert had 64 targets while Uzomah had 40. While they were both listed as "TE", they were used in completely opposite manners. Seventy-five percent of Eifert's targets came when he was lined up in the slot or out wide. That was the 4th HIGHEST percentage among all TEs in the league (min 25 targets). On the other had only 15% of Uzomah's targets came when he was slot/wide and that was the 5th LOWEST rate among all TEs in the league.
So even though Eifert played almost half of the offensive snaps last year (491) he was mainly a slot receiver or even a WR. Uzomah played 644 snaps, but he was much more of a traditional TE. So how will Taylor replace the snaps that Eifert had? Since Burrow loves to look at the slot/TE so often I wonder if we will just use an extra WR instead of Eifert. Or will Uzomah get more snaps lining up in the slot or out wide. Or will Sample get the snaps when the TE moves out to the slot/wide position?
Thoughts?
Nice thread Fred. It was a bit peculiar to me that with the injuries to AJ and Ross that we didn't use the TE's and RB's more in
the passing game instead of going about it the way Taylor did. I suspect since Taylor used a 2nd round pick on Sample that he
will be used more, much more this year. Especially with Burrow, as you say, he likes to throw to the Slot Receiver, TE's and RB's
much more than what we have been used to. I have found it to be a tragedy in the way we don't use Mixon in the passing game.
Bottom line is we need to adapt to more of that LSU/Saints type of Offense with Burrow which uses the TE and RB much more
in the passing game. Much more shotgun and running it out of the shotgun.
