Marcedes Lewis in the fold!

[WaitWhat]

“Our WR situation” is pretty good. Too bad they didn’t go out and sign the diva Dez Bryant. Now we will be lucky to win 4 games. Fire up the hashtags, it’s time to #FireGute.

[CWood21]

2 hours ago, packfanfb said:

Sure hope not. He's a TE. Calling him a WR just so you can feel better about our WR situation seems like a stretch. Maybe when Graham was 26, I could see your point. Not at 31. 

It has NOTHING to do with feeling better about our WR position.  Jimmy Graham isn't offering a ton as a blocker to begin with, and I can't venture to believe that MM is going to ask him to do a ton of it.  Prior to the Minnesota game, Richard Rodgers was playing in 15% of the offensive snaps and Lance Kendricks was roughly 30% of the offensive snaps.  Martellus Bennett played in roughly 80% of the defensive snaps.  I just find it hard to believe that we're going to have Lance Kendrick sitting on the bench with a cap hit of $2.25M.  Last year, Marcedes Lewis played in 80% of the offensive snaps.  I expect that to come down, but I don't think he's dropping to that low a snap percentage that Kendricks and Rodgers had last year.  I'd suspect we're going to see more "12" formations where we have Jimmy Graham flanked out as a WR.  Call it what you want, but I'd venture a guess we're going to see quite a bit of Lewis and Graham on the field together.

[packfanfb]

2 hours ago, smetana34 said:

He wasn't brought in for his blocking prowess. 

No doubt, he's a receiving TE. I think the idea that we are going to line him up outside on a consistent basis and treat him like a WR is far-fetched.

[packfanfb]

1 hour ago, CWood21 said:

It has NOTHING to do with feeling better about our WR position.  Jimmy Graham isn't offering a ton as a blocker to begin with, and I can't venture to believe that MM is going to ask him to do a ton of it.  Prior to the Minnesota game, Richard Rodgers was playing in 15% of the offensive snaps and Lance Kendricks was roughly 30% of the offensive snaps.  Martellus Bennett played in roughly 80% of the defensive snaps.  I just find it hard to believe that we're going to have Lance Kendrick sitting on the bench with a cap hit of $2.25M.  Last year, Marcedes Lewis played in 80% of the offensive snaps.  I expect that to come down, but I don't think he's dropping to that low a snap percentage that Kendricks and Rodgers had last year.  I'd suspect we're going to see more "12" formations where we have Jimmy Graham flanked out as a WR.  Call it what you want, but I'd venture a guess we're going to see quite a bit of Lewis and Graham on the field together.

I can surely see this happening quite a bit in the redzone. Not so sure about between the 20s. 

[AlexGreen#20]

26 minutes ago, packfanfb said:

No doubt, he's a receiving TE. I think the idea that we are going to line him up outside on a consistent basis and treat him like a WR is far-fetched.

I keep seeing this, why is it far-fetched?

It's not like we're talking about a significant change from what we were playing before Graham. That is literally how we played last year with Bennett and the year before that with Cook and the year before that with Rodgers. TEs playing outside as opposed to not on the line is not an uncommon coincidence. It's extremely common. It probably happened more last year than it did with a TE on the line next to a Tackle. 

You're right that it shouldn't make anybody feel better at WR. You play with 3 WRs and 1 TE all spread out as a standard. 

 

 

[HyponGrey]

More likely we see him in the slot than the outside. It's where he does his best work, not the outside. I remember when Graham was tagged by NO, and the NFL ruled that a players position for tag purposes is determined by where they line up. NO was lucky they lined him up inline just enough to avoid him getting that WR designation.

[Jaegybomb]

4 hours ago, packfanfb said:

I can surely see this happening quite a bit in the redzone. Not so sure about between the 20s. 

Yea, I'd still expect to see more Geronimo than Lewis for nomal down and distance.

[Uffdaswede]

It seems to me that we often move TEs and RBs a lot pre-snap so that the QB can pick up tells in the coverage. (Really just Football 101 I suppose.) But Mr. Lewis may stay right where he is. For him it looks like slipping into a pass route is the changeup pitch; it’s made effective by its infrequency.

I’m honestly kind of stoked to have a really good blocking tight end in the fold—especially one who has shown the ability to function well in the passing game when called upon. Here’s hoping that Graham and Lewis become kind of a Yin and Yan, Shake and Bake, Thunder and Lightning, Boris and Natasha sort of thing. 

[Malfatron]

so are we cutting rodgers or kendricks

[Cakeshoppe]

28 minutes ago, MathMan said:

so are we cutting rodgers or kendricks

Richard Rodgers? He's on the Eagles now

[packfanfb]

14 hours ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

I keep seeing this, why is it far-fetched?

It's not like we're talking about a significant change from what we were playing before Graham. That is literally how we played last year with Bennett and the year before that with Cook and the year before that with Rodgers. TEs playing outside as opposed to not on the line is not an uncommon coincidence. It's extremely common. It probably happened more last year than it did with a TE on the line next to a Tackle. 

You're right that it shouldn't make anybody feel better at WR. You play with 3 WRs and 1 TE all spread out as a standard. 

 

 

I guess I was more addressing the argument "hey we are set at WR because we signed Jimmy Graham." I think people believe he's going to be split out all the time running WR routes.

[Malfatron]

9 hours ago, Cakeshoppe said:

Richard Rodgers? He's on the Eagles now

jesus where the hell have i been.

thanks

[skibrett15]

23 hours ago, smetana34 said:

He wasn't brought in for his blocking prowess. 

TEs don't need to block.  None of the best TEs since the 80s have been premier blockers.

[Golfman]

4 hours ago, skibrett15 said:

TEs don't need to block.  None of the best TEs since the 80s have been premier blockers.

Rob Gronkowski? Jason Whitten? 

[AlexGreen#20]

25 minutes ago, Golfman said:

Rob Gronkowski? Jason Whitten? 

Jason Witten was never an elite blocker in his career. He was above average at his ceiling and spent most of his career as a league average blocker with several seasons as a below average guy. Looking the part and playing in the top football market did amazing things for his reputation.

 

Gronkowski is an elite blocker when playing motivated, but he also spends huge numbers of snaps away from the line of scrimmage even on running plays. He's just more valuable split out.