2.50 - Jayden Reed [WR; Michigan State]

[Mazrimiv]

4 hours ago, LLcheesehead12 said:

I will say one thing I don't like about what we done with Reed so far is myopic focus on him running those sweep plays and returning punts, the latter of which he shouldn't be doing anyway as Nixon is our guy for that.  That's bad WR development as it wastes time and detracts from him getting his route running down.  I say enough pounding square pegs in round holes with WRs and we should only have those plays run by RB/WR hybrids who are carbon copies of Tyler Ervin.  Gute must draft another Ervin so LaFleur stops breaking our toys.

Running those jet sweeps is a fundamental requirement of playing slot in the MLF offense.  If he's not a threat to run them, that significantly limits his role in the offense.  Reed was also one of the top punt returners in the draft.  He is doing exactly what he should to be doing.

[R T]

16 hours ago, LLcheesehead12 said:

I will say one thing I don't like about what we done with Reed so far is myopic focus on him running those sweep plays and returning punts, the latter of which he shouldn't be doing anyway as Nixon is our guy for that.  That's bad WR development as it wastes time and detracts from him getting his route running down.  I say enough pounding square pegs in round holes with WRs and we should only have those plays run by RB/WR hybrids who are carbon copies of Tyler Ervin.  Gute must draft another Ervin so LaFleur stops breaking our toys.

Never got all the Tyler Ervin love, he wasn't much of a player. 

[HighCalebR]

32 minutes ago, R T said:

Never got all the Tyler Ervin love, he wasn't much of a player. 

Think it just keeps going back to him because he was the first guy used in that expanded role with MLF.  

I'm excited to see what Reed can do with a few if those manufactured  touches each game. Lazard and MVS were able to get about what was blocked for them, now we got Watson and Reed. Should be fun.

[vegas492]

18 hours ago, LLcheesehead12 said:

I will say one thing I don't like about what we done with Reed so far is myopic focus on him running those sweep plays and returning punts, the latter of which he shouldn't be doing anyway as Nixon is our guy for that.  That's bad WR development as it wastes time and detracts from him getting his route running down.  I say enough pounding square pegs in round holes with WRs and we should only have those plays run by RB/WR hybrids who are carbon copies of Tyler Ervin.  Gute must draft another Ervin so LaFleur stops breaking our toys.

You saw Watson against the Bears, right?

Our WR's all need to have reps running those things to keep defenses honest.

[Zycho32]

6 hours ago, R T said:

Never got all the Tyler Ervin love, he wasn't much of a player. 

It's a combination of two factors. One, the utter dogsh*t performance of our team on Punt Returns prior to his appearance. And the overall production of the Drafted Rookie to replace him in his niche, Amari.

[Mox]

This is my guy for our class. I'm really high on him.

[R T]

1 hour ago, Zycho32 said:

It's a combination of two factors. One, the utter dogsh*t performance of our team on Punt Returns prior to his appearance. And the overall production of the Drafted Rookie to replace him in his niche, Amari.

People always bring up Amari, but their production was very similar to each other. Ervin had 16 punt returns for a 7.9 average with a long of 18 yards, Rodgers had 40 punt returns for a 7.6 average with a long of 23 yards. Ervin had 13 catches for 95 yards, Rodgers 8 catches for 95 yards. Ervin had 6 career fumbles; Amari has 8 (not good in either case). 

People blast Rodgers and love Ervin when they produced like results in different fashions. Truth is neither one was good enough and is why they are no longer in GB. 

Back to my original comment, 'never got all the Tyler Ervin love, he wasn't much of a player'. 

[Zycho32]

3 minutes ago, R T said:

People always bring up Amari, but their production was very similar to each other. Ervin had 16 punt returns for a 7.9 average with a long of 18 yards, Rodgers had 40 punt returns for a 7.6 average with a long of 23 yards. Ervin had 13 catches for 95 yards, Rodgers 8 catches for 95 yards. Ervin had 6 career fumbles; Amari has 8 (not good in either case). 

People blast Rodgers and love Ervin when they produced like results in different fashions. Truth is neither one was good enough and is why they are no longer in GB. 

Back to my original comment, 'never got all the Tyler Ervin love, he wasn't much of a player'. 

There's a lot of us bums in the fanbase who like underdogs and discovering buried treasure, even if said treasure happens to be just an ordinary dime like Ervin was. Didn't hurt that for a brief stretch he actually upgraded a bad component of our game into something resembling decency.

[Brat&Beer]

Quote

Ryan Wood

@ByRyanWood

 

Tim Lester drove 3 hours to recruit Jayden Reed in Chicago suburbs for Western Michigan. He was an assistant at WMU when Greg Jennings attended and saw similarities in how their speed translated to route running, their body control. “Those guys, you would just call them Gumby.”

Quote

 

Ryan Wood

@ByRyanWood

 

Reed transferred to Michigan State after freshman year at WMU. Lester is senior analyst on Matt LaFleur’s staff now, an “uncle” figure to Reed. #Packers drafted Reed 2 spots earlier than Jennings. “If he stayed at WMU,” Lester said, “he would have been a first rounder.”

 

 

[{Family Ghost}]

On 8/14/2023 at 7:05 AM, R T said:

Never got all the Tyler Ervin love, he wasn't much of a player. 

He was just a gadget guy, but he did some good things in the little opportunity he was given.  

[MrBobGray]

On 8/14/2023 at 1:09 PM, R T said:

People always bring up Amari, but their production was very similar to each other. Ervin had 16 punt returns for a 7.9 average with a long of 18 yards, Rodgers had 40 punt returns for a 7.6 average with a long of 23 yards. Ervin had 13 catches for 95 yards, Rodgers 8 catches for 95 yards. Ervin had 6 career fumbles; Amari has 8 (not good in either case). 

People blast Rodgers and love Ervin when they produced like results in different fashions. Truth is neither one was good enough and is why they are no longer in GB. 

Back to my original comment, 'never got all the Tyler Ervin love, he wasn't much of a player'. 

I mean neither was any kind of impact player, but this comparison is missing that Rodgers was a 3rd round pick while Ervin was picked up by Green Bay as a street free agent.  Expectations are different for those cases.  Also, Ervin was a RB who primarily was brought to Green Bay to be a speed motion guy who ran the jet sweep.  Ervin had 13 carries in 2020 at 5.2 YPC, long of 21 yards, which coincidentally is (essentially) the same distance as the longest catch Rodgers had for Green Bay.  Ervin was actually pretty good with the ball in his hands; he was just totally incapable of staying healthy.

[ThatJerkDave]

I have to admit, after preseason, I am much more bullish on Reed.  He was a small, but not quite a midget like most of this class, but I grouped them all together.  I don't think he is quite as smooth as Greg Jennings was, but perhaps I am remembering year 3 or 4 of Jennings.  But I absolutely see the similarities.  

[Refugee]

5 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

I have to admit, after preseason, I am much more bullish on Reed.  He was a small, but not quite a midget like most of this class, but I grouped them all together.  I don't think he is quite as smooth as Greg Jennings was, but perhaps I am remembering year 3 or 4 of Jennings.  But I absolutely see the similarities.  

Reed seems tougher and twitchier than Jennings, but likely will never have that natural smoothness that Greg had. That was one of Jennings elite traits, to be able to move and change gears without it looking like it took effort. I always said it looked like he was ice skating and everyone else was on ice. Reed will be a different kind of player but hopefully can provide some of the offense Jennings or more likely a young Cobb gave us. 

[MrBobGray]

On 8/13/2023 at 5:36 PM, Mazrimiv said:

Running those jet sweeps is a fundamental requirement of playing slot in the MLF offense.  If he's not a threat to run them, that significantly limits his role in the offense.  Reed was also one of the top punt returners in the draft.  He is doing exactly what he should to be doing.

This ^

That role is what a slot is in MLF's offense.  I mean yeah that's reductive, but at the end of the day if you can't perform all duties of the role, you end up limiting the team.  The core of this team is going to involve the run game because that's where all the misdirection window-dressing starts.  You kill em with the pass, but you mess their keys up with the run.  Reed needs a role in that; the slot's role is often to play the eye candy that draws them the wrong way.

[incognito_man]

16 minutes ago, MrBobGray said:

This ^

That role is what a slot is in MLF's offense.  I mean yeah that's reductive, but at the end of the day if you can't perform all duties of the role, you end up limiting the team.  The core of this team is going to involve the run game because that's where all the misdirection window-dressing starts.  You kill em with the pass, but you mess their keys up with the run.  Reed needs a role in that; the slot's role is often to play the eye candy that draws them the wrong way.

I still don't know how I missed Reed in the predraft stuff. Was never on my radar but the guy blows me away after I saw him. Just have this feeling he's going to be a hit.