Michael Crabtree (1 Viewer)

[SUGrad03]

He's going to get more targets than Jared Cook? I really don't see how anyone would predict that. He'd probably slot behind even Murray, as Ingram was such an integral part of the passing game too. So I can't see them not utilizing Latavius in similar fashion.

Nope, more than any WR or TE not named Thomas or Cook.

 

[RaisingTheBar]

How do you know what level he's on in his 2nd year, have you seen him perform yet? None of us know what level he's on. I'm sure Coach Payton knows though and if he thought we needed to bring someone in he would have done so by now.

People take things too personally on here. An UDFA who had a few good moments in a season is not going to jump to Michael Crabtree level in one off-season. Time to get realistic.

 

[crosswatt]

Nope, more than any WR or TE not named Thomas or Cook.

But that's the, at best, fourth option in the passing game. Thomas, Kamara, Jared Cook, and then some combo of Ginn and Smith and Latavius Murry will get the most of the remaining passes.

Even if we keep it to the wide receivers, I don't think he's going to leapfrog Ginn, who had 70 targets his last healthy season. Which equates to maybe 60 targets for a guy who manged only a 54% catch rate last year and has an almost 60% for his career. That's at best 36 catches. That's slightly better than you got from Tre'Quan Smith last year, who was an overwhelmed rookie.

 

[Frank The Rat]

Shouldn't we be signing this guy instead of worried about getting mccoy?

Can he play DT?

 

[Swimmer]

You don't see a place for Crabtree but you see one for Meredith? You don't think Crabtree would be better than Kirkwood or Meredith?

I agree with you on Crabtree, However, I have watched Meredith in his 1st year when he was healthy with terrible QBs. If he is healthy, he could be a #1 WR for many teams. If healthy, he will be a gem for the Saints. But I really like Crabtree also and have wondered why we have yet to look at him. I wonder if the coaches know something we don't about his character. idn myself

 

[Westbank4Life]

.02 cents...Crab was putting up good numbers until the qb swap last season.

 

[NatureBoy]

Crabtree has had a pretty productive 10 year NFL career. He had one season cut very short by injury. Even though, he’s a guy who has more than 600 career catches and about 7500 yards receiving, to go along with 50+ touchdown receptions.

In seasons 2015-2017 he averaged more than 8 TD catches a season, and is only 2 years removed from a 1000 yard season. Last year was tough, but I doubt anyone would have had much luck as a Ravens WR last season.

It’s about winning now, and it’s unrealistic to say our WR corps are just fine. You can always use a productive player., especially at a position where outside of Thomas and Gunn, there are a lot of question marks.

I’m surprised someone hasn’t signed Crabtree yet. Makes me wonder if he hit the wall (he’s 31) or has other issues. Sure, he’s not fast, but the guy can get open (good route runner) and catch the ball well enough.

We don’t need a star, but a dependable slot type to compliment MT and Ginn could give us Lance Moore kind of production. I don’t see anyone else on this team capable of adding that kind of efficiency or consistency right now. Kick the tires. We’re doing it at every other position, why not WR?

Pierre Garçon is another veteran out there who might be worth a test drive. Similar career stats, a few less TDS than Crabtree., a year older (32).

 

[TribuneUK]

Crabtree has had a pretty productive 10 year NFL career. He had one season cut very short by injury. Even though, he’s a guy who has more than 600 career catches and about 7500 yards receiving, to go along with 50+ touchdown receptions. In seasons 2015-2017 he averaged more than 8 TD catches a season, and is only 2 years removed from a 1000 yard season. Last year was tough, but I doubt anyone would have had much luck as a Ravens WR last season.

It’s about winning now, and it’s unrealistic to say our WR corps are just fine. You can always use a productive player., especially at a position where outside of Thomas and Gunn, there are a lot of question marks. I’m surprised someone hasn’t signed Crabtree yet. Makes me wonder if he hit the wall or has other issues. Sure, he’s not fast, but the guy can get open and catch the ball. We don’t need a star, but a dependable slot guy to compliment MT and Ginn could give us Lance Moore kind of production. I don’t see anyone else on this team capable of adding that kind of efficiency or consistency right now. Kick the tires. We’re doing it at every other position, why not WR?

With an experienced NFL QB throwing him the ball in nine games, he caught 4.5 rec per game for 52yds. Say whatever you like about Flacco, but this is Michael Crabtree in an NFL offense.

In the same games, he was targeted 76 times. He was the #1/#2 receiving option and still only caught just over 4 per game. By comparison, Ted Ginn in his last 'full' season (2017) was targeted 70 times in total, in 15 games. As the #2 receiver, he got far less targets per game, but still generated more catches, yards and touchdowns 53/787/4 in much fewer opportunities.

Two things from this:

1) Crabtree is less effective than Ginn. Ginn has had the off-season to fully recover, so he's not a question mark to be the #2 receiver.

2) If Ted Ginn is only getting 70 targets a year as the #2 receiver, then how few would Crabtree get, even if he was the #3? Answer: not many, and we've already seen how inefficient he is.

Harking back to his peak season in Oakland and that barely 1000yds he got, he had to be targeted 145 times to get that, which by the way is just over 62yds per game. Compare to Michael Thomas, clearly our dominant#1 target hog this year, who took his very similar 147 targets for 1400 yards. That's what a legit WR did with that many targets. Not to mention Crabtree is three years removed from that 'good' season.

Again, there's no 145 targets coming to Crabtree on this team. He's not going to make enough of an impact with much more limited snaps to be worth anything significant.

He isn't a 'slot guy', he ran just 13.2% of his snaps from the slot last season. If he was a great slot receiver, then the Ravens would have used him there. But they didn't, because he isn't.

What he is, is an older WR who is a decent red zone target but not much else. He needs #1 WR volume to look good, which he won't get here. It feels a little similar to when people were all over re-signing an aging Jimmy Graham because he had some great years and we needed a red zone threat, but guess what, he wasn't all that great (read: terrible) in Green Bay and we were lucky not to sign him.

And 'kick the tires', seriously?

 

[NatureBoy]

With an experienced NFL QB throwing him the ball in nine games, he caught 4.5 rec per game for 52yds. Say whatever you like about Flacco, but this is Michael Crabtree in an NFL offense.

In the same games, he was targeted 76 times. He was the #1/#2 receiving option and still only caught just over 4 per game. By comparison, Ted Ginn in his last 'full' season (2017) was targeted 70 times in total, in 15 games. As the #2 receiver, he got far less targets per game, but still generated more catches, yards and touchdowns 53/787/4 in much fewer opportunities.

Two things from this:

1) Crabtree is less effective than Ginn. Ginn has had the off-season to fully recover, so he's not a question mark to be the #2 receiver.

2) If Ted Ginn is only getting 70 targets a year as the #2 receiver, then how few would Crabtree get, even if he was the #3? Answer: not many, and we've already seen how inefficient he is.

Harking back to his peak season in Oakland and that barely 1000yds he got, he had to be targeted 145 times to get that, which by the way is just over 62yds per game. Compare to Michael Thomas, clearly our dominant#1 target hog this year, who took his very similar 147 targets for 1400 yards. That's what a legit WR did with that many targets. Not to mention Crabtree is three years removed from that 'good' season.

Again, there's no 145 targets coming to Crabtree on this team. He's not going to make enough of an impact with much more limited snaps to be worth anything significant.

He isn't a 'slot guy', he ran just 13.2% of his snaps from the slot last season. If he was a great slot receiver, then the Ravens would have used him there. But they didn't, because he isn't.

What he is, is an older WR who is a decent red zone target but not much else. He needs #1 WR volume to look good, which he won't get here. It feels a little similar to when people were all over re-signing an aging Jimmy Graham because he had some great years and we needed a red zone threat, but guess what, he wasn't all that great (read: terrible) in Green Bay and we were lucky not to sign him.

And 'kick the tires', seriously?

Good stuff.

There's no doubt that the Ravens are the standard by which we should measure all NFL passing offenses in 2018. What Baltimore did with him is certainly an undeniable barometer.

Yeah, he's no Ted Ginn. Sorry I suggested as much, but then again, I didn't.

I loved the thought of signing Jimmy Graham, for another team.

Saints WR's #3 on down are so consistent and full of potential, yeah, the thought of "kicking the tires" makes no sense. They are all certain to be more productive than Crabtree has been.

Get over yourself. Assume much? We're talking about depth. The organization is searching for depth at every position, including RB where they have Kamara and Murray. They signed veterans, UDFA's, etc. To suggest that bringing in veteran competition at WR is unthinkable, is disingenuous. Whatever turns you on though.

 

[TribuneUK]

Crabtree has had a pretty productive 10 year NFL career. He had one season cut very short by injury. Even though, he’s a guy who has more than 600 career TDS and about 7500 yards receiving, to go along with 50+ TDs. In his 2015-2017 seasons, ge


Good stuff.

There's no doubt that the Ravens are the standard by which we should measure all NFL passing offenses in 2018. What Baltimore did with him is certainly an undeniable barometer.

Yeah, he's no Ted Ginn. Sorry I guess said that, but then again, no I didn't.

I loved the thought of signing Jimmy Graham, for another team.

Saints WR's #3 on down are so consistent and full of potential, yeah, the thought of "kicking the tires" makes no sense. They are all certain to be more productive than Crabtree has been.

Get over yourself. Assume much? We're talking about depth. The organization is searching for depth at every position, including RB where they have Kamara and Murray. They signed veterans, UDFA's, etc. To suggest that bringing in veteran competition at WR is unthinkable, is disingenuous. Whatever turns you on though.

I have to thank you for such a well considered and measured reply. But only because I'm trying hard to be a good person.

In truth, you haven't got a convincing argument and that's fine. Your opinion. I disagree. And so on.

 

[NatureBoy]

I have to thank you for such a well considered and measured reply. But only because I'm trying hard to be a good person.

In truth, you haven't got a convincing argument and that's fine. Your opinion. I disagree. And so on.

I made my case. You disagree and were assumptive in your reply. I gave you back what you asked for.

Disagreeing is fine. I disagree with a lot of what I read around here....but there's a way to respond.

Have a great day!

 

[TribuneUK]

I made my case. You disagree and were assumptive in your reply. I gave you back what you asked for.

Disagreeing is fine. I disagree with a lot of what I read around here....but there's a way to respond.

Have a great day!

Well, without drawing things out, you have an interesting definition of assumptive. I think of it as more dissecting a few assertions I saw you had made, by pulling together some data, with the reasonable inference being that historical data and observable trends have a habit of indicating future returns.

Similarly enjoy your day.

 

[B_doggman47]

I just read an article on the news page, where it said the Saints have the #5 ranked WR corps. How much better would Crabtree make us. Not much in my opinion. We have young WR's that we are trying to develop. Say we bring in Crabtree, you know sooner or later he will start complaining about getting more playing time and more touches and that would cut into the development of our younger WR's. I believe Coach Payton is satisfied with what he has seen in the progression of our WR's so far and he's not in no hurry to bring in any FA's at the WR position.

 

[Thunderchild]

We're talking about depth. The organization is searching for depth at every position, including RB where they have Kamara and Murray. They signed veterans, UDFA's, etc.

Depth, indeed. But in today's NFL, depth needs to play ST and you're not going to get that out of Crab. Plus he takes away a spot where a young up and coming player could improve his craft while playing ST.

So, yeah, he might be better than WR #4 but is he better than WR #4 plus a special teamer? And then there's the money aspect.

I don't think he fits this team very well. Jmo.

 

[SweetT]

But that's the, at best, fourth option in the passing game. Thomas, Kamara, Jared Cook, and then some combo of Ginn and Smith and Latavius Murry will get the most of the remaining passes.

Even if we keep it to the wide receivers, I don't think he's going to leapfrog Ginn, who had 70 targets his last healthy season. Which equates to maybe 60 targets for a guy who manged only a 54% catch rate last year and has an almost 60% for his career. That's at best 36 catches. That's slightly better than you got from Tre'Quan Smith last year, who was an overwhelmed rookie.

The sad part is Smith should have had a crap ton of catches considering he got the starting nod when Ginn went down, but outside of two games, he couldn’t produce. I’m sure Crabtree would’ve done way better if he was in our starting lineup when Ginn went down. There is no guarantee that Smith will even take a leap this year. He literally did not seize his opportunity last year.....when we needed him to. Kirkwood actually made some pretty clutch catches last year. I have more faith in him , than Smith