Lions | Two key wide receivers not impressing the coaching staff

[That Guy]

Lions | Two key wide receivers not impressing the coaching staff
Thu, 6 Apr 2006 21:08:56 -0700

Tom Kowalski, of mlive.com, reports just three short weeks into the Detroit Lions offseason conditioning program, sources said WRs Charles Rogers and Mike Williams have not impressed the new coaching staff. Rogers has been attending the workouts but the coaches have been underwhelmed by his attitude and focus. Rogers' alleged reputation for being a partier remains. Williams didn't show up for any of the workouts last week. His agent said he left because of a "family matter.'' Williams is reportedly out of shape and overweight. Both wide receivers will need to improve their focus, or they could find themselves battling for a roster spot.


SURPRISE!!!

[GoSkins!]

Repeat after me... character counts. And it counts more than all the draft day analyists will admit to. How many of us wanted Williams on draft day?

[SC Skins Fan]

Originally Posted by GoSkins!

Repeat after me... character counts. And it counts more than all the draft day analyists will admit to. How many of us wanted Williams on draft day?

Guilty . . . can I change my pick to Shawn Merriman? Hopefully Carlos turns it on this year.

[3rd ID SOLDIER]

you are right i wanted that dude bad! how wrong i was !

[freddyg12]

I thought williams was a special talent but not a sure thing, I certainly didn't favor him over carlos rogers or one of the other top cb's last year.
In their defense, these guys have a long ways to go & there's been such a dysfunctional vibe in detroit that it will probably take a good ass whippin to get them to come around. there's plenty of time though & you can't expect williams to light it up just yet, its only his 2nd year coming up.

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by freddyg12

I thought williams was a special talent but not a sure thing, I certainly didn't favor him over carlos rogers or one of the other top cb's last year.
In their defense, these guys have a long ways to go & there's been such a dysfunctional vibe in detroit that it will probably take a good ass whippin to get them to come around. there's plenty of time though & you can't expect williams to light it up just yet, its only his 2nd year coming up.

Bingo. The Detroit Lions are such a woeful, floundering "organization", this is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from younger, unfocused players. In every single regard, the Matt Millen experiment has been disasterous.

[freddyg12]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Bingo. The Detroit Lions are such a woeful, floundering "organization", this is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from younger, unfocused players. In every single regard, the Matt Millen experiment has been disasterous.

and that's why sometimes you see players leave for another team & suddenly flourish, e.g. santana moss. I think M. Williams could be a decent player for gibbs, but he's not gonna be much there until detroit gets some stability.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by freddyg12

and that's why sometimes you see players leave for another team & suddenly flourish, e.g. santana moss. I think M. Williams could be a decent player for gibbs, but he's not gonna be much there until detroit gets some stability.

moss wasn't unfocused, and the jets weren't terrible, its just that he's a speed guy, and mixing him with one of the weakest armed QBs in the league and negating his speed isn't exactly "smart." I guess it is an organizational thing...

[Daseal]

That Guy -- How many of Moss' yards came on throws under 10 yards this year? I believe a majority of them. He got a few over the top, but most were dinks and dunks that his speed took advantage of.

Part of the problem with young players is you need a coaching staff to keep them focused. It's a sad day. I really liked CHarles Rogers at Michigan State and I hated Mike WIlliams at first but he grew on me. THat said, he was never exactly skinny and in shape.

Either way, I really want to see the Lions do well. I've been pulling for them ever since they've had the best player in league history IMO (Barry Sanders). Feel bad for teams who are consistantly in the basement.

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by Daseal

That Guy -- How many of Moss' yards came on throws under 10 yards this year? I believe a majority of them. He got a few over the top, but most were dinks and dunks that his speed took advantage of.

Part of the problem with young players is you need a coaching staff to keep them focused. It's a sad day. I really liked CHarles Rogers at Michigan State and I hated Mike WIlliams at first but he grew on me. THat said, he was never exactly skinny and in shape.

Either way, I really want to see the Lions do well. I've been pulling for them ever since they've had the best player in league history IMO (Barry Sanders). Feel bad for teams who are consistantly in the basement.

I agree. I'd like to see the Lions turn it around, too. But only because I hated Matt Millen as a broadcaster, and I don't want to see him doing color anymore.

[jdlea]

I think that part of the reason those wide outs don't have any disclipine is because there is no veteran leadership on that team. Not at wide out at least and Maricucci was a sissy. He lets players walk all over him. I remember during the Thanksgiving game they were saying that Roy Williams told them that he was looking for a vet to teach him how to do certain things in the NFL. ie study film. Without that, it's hard to get players to focus and play up to their potential.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by Daseal

That Guy -- How many of Moss' yards came on throws under 10 yards this year? I believe a majority of them. He got a few over the top, but most were dinks and dunks that his speed took advantage of.

He got 613 yards after catch and 870 came through the air. 2 at dallas, 2 at the 49ers (down the sideline and 30yard td), etc. he did get a lot of yards in chunks. In NY he had a 1100 yard season, so i'd imagine the stronger arm here helped him get that extra yardage. It seemed like we threw 400 screens, but he got downfield more than anyone (including smith and the other moss). 24 20+ and 10 40+ yard gains this year, vs 17 and 5 with the jets.

[SC Skins Fan]

Originally Posted by Daseal

That Guy -- How many of Moss' yards came on throws under 10 yards this year? I believe a majority of them. He got a few over the top, but most were dinks and dunks that his speed took advantage of.

Part of the problem with young players is you need a coaching staff to keep them focused. It's a sad day. I really liked CHarles Rogers at Michigan State and I hated Mike WIlliams at first but he grew on me. THat said, he was never exactly skinny and in shape.

Either way, I really want to see the Lions do well. I've been pulling for them ever since they've had the best player in league history IMO (Barry Sanders). Feel bad for teams who are consistantly in the basement.

From ESPN.com article by KC Joyner . . . just shows that by the numbers the "dinks and dunks" were less than half (though only slightly, but still far from a majority) of Santana's numbers. The deep ball was critical.

The reason Washington's deep pass numbers were so high was the performance of Santana Moss. Take a look at Moss's metrics from 2005:

Moss

Short 55/87 616 yds 3tds 2ints 29pen yds 7.4yds/att
Medium 12/20 189 yds 0tds 0ints 0pen yds 9.5yds/att
Deep 16/27 678 yds 6tds 0ints 36pen yds 26.4yds/att
Total 83 1483 9 2 65 11.6

Before I conducted this analysis, I thought Moss would have incredible short pass numbers, as it seemed for a few weeks last year that Moss was running 50 yards with a short pass. His short pass numbers are actually quite good, but those deep pass numbers are simply phenomenal. When you consider that Moss was the only legitimate deep threat on this team for much of the season, these numbers are even more impressive. To put these numbers in a team perspective, consider the Redskins attempted 35 deep passes to receivers other than Moss (including tight ends and running backs). They completed only four of these attempts and drew penalties on three others. The other receivers gained a combined 206 deep pass yards for an incredibly low 5.9 yards per attempt. Randle El should add a much-needed vertical threat to the Redskins' offense.

[Misterbillysells]

Rookies like that need a coach that can groom them and teach them who to act in the NFL. The coaching staff has a huge influence on how a player turns out. Detriots coaching staff sucked under mariucci who doesnt really have a good track record of teaching his young wide outs how to act in the NFL......I mean its probably better these guys werent successful under Mariucci or we'd have three TOs to deal with. Three times the drama

[That Guy]

63%, 60%, 60% on completion stats mentioned above. Very solid WR. Thats good info.