How bad was AJ Green last year?

[Whatever]

(03-02-2021, 12:27 AM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: I think something that needs to mentioned with AJ's disappointing play is the disappointing way he was used (targeted way too often, running routes he shouldn't have been).

You don't get to the level of OP's numbers without both the player and the playbook and playcalling being a cause in this.

The fact of the matter is, besides his decline in skill and besides the front office overvaluing him, the coaching staff never really altered their approach.  AJ Green was still being forced into the offense at a ridiculous rate long after it was apparent he wasn't the player they had hoped for.  He was still running routes down the field long after it was apparent he couldn't seperate, and couldn't go up and make plays.

After weeks 4 and 5, where he produced 1 catch for 3 yards, and 0 catches, he was targeted 11 times in week 6, and 13 times in week 7.   These were by far his most productive games, but I think it was clear they went out of their way to get him involved.  (Fwiw, we lost both games)

Then he went on this run in weeks 8-12:  2 for 19 yards, 0 for 0, 4 for 41, 0 for 0, and another 0-0.

So at this point you would think they'd phase him out of the offense a bit, right?  Well, no.  He ended the season with target totals of 7, 3, 6 and 7.  Sill a 92 target pace when averaged over 16 games, and this came in an offense we were thowing less than earlier in the season.

And you can't just blame Burrow for forcing him the ball.  It was clear they had designed plays for him.  And it was clear, despite it never working, they kept trying to hit him down the field.

I could be wrong, but I think AJ had one catch on the season that was down the field 20 yards or more.  Pretty sure he had zero beyond 30.  At what point do you realize he can't run these routes?

So yeah, AJ did not look anywhere near what he once was.  But the question you have to ask yourself, is why was a guy liked that targeted so much?  Why didn't they use him differently?

Larry Fitzgerald has been running pretty much all underneath routes for the last few years.  It's rare you'll see him run a route beyond 12 yards.  Perhaps we could have had AJ strictly playing a similar role?  Perhaps we could gone with more 2 RB sets and pulled him from the field more often?  Perhaps we could have run out an extra lineman?

All I'm saying is, as much as this is an indictment on AJ, it's just as much as indictment on the coaching staff that allowed these numbers to come to fruition.

FWIW, AJ had 3 20+ yard caches and at least one of those was 30+ yards per NFL.com.

Thing is, his targets actually were greatly reduced from what he would typically get.  He had 77 in 9 games in '18. The guy was getting 160-170+ targets a year in his prime.  

We couldn't use him like Fitzgerald.  Fitzgerald is basically a pure slot WR now.  They paid big money to Boyd to be the slot WR and Boyd sucks on the outside.  I mean, you technically could, but you're just robbing Peter to pay Paul.  That makes the FT even dumber.  They did it when there was every reason to expect a dropoff knowing that they couldn't move him to the slot to salvage something because of Boyd.


If you bench him and cut his targets even more, who do you give his PT and targets to?  Ross sucks and got hurt.  Tate sucks and got hurt.  Erickson sucks and is a slot WR, anyways.  Thomas sucks.  Morgan sucks.  It's not like we had any good developmental talent on the bench.

I ultimately put it on the FO.  They made a terrible decision to tag AJ in the first place and didn't do enough to address the position group in what was the deepest WR class in history, instead blowing 3 picks on stack LB's.