Saints Saints 3rd WR: TQS vs Bennie Fowler (1 Viewer)

[Zack Lee]

Sadly I can't give you a quick and easy comp between those years, as the helpful data at sharpfootballstats is just for the last few years, no doubt as informatics has improved. It would be great to compare and contrast.

That said, I don't see 2009-11 Saints football as the indisputable template for offensive football. For one thing, only one of those was a Super Bowl year, and for another we changed which positions/players were the focus of passing targets regularly in that period alone.

And in fact every year, SP tailors the scheme to the personnel, rather than the other way around. Which again says to me that we don't need to find a player just to fill perceived forum needs, because we use what we have brilliantly.

I'm not sure where your point about things being different in playoffs comes from. The team's playing 12 and 22 personnel all season carried on doing the same come playoff time, there's no discernible distance.

As for the 'what if someone in the front line gets injured', that's a wash as it applies to every position and every team in the league. You can't mitigate losing every potential starter on a roster, and that's just reality.

i agree that those offenses were not the only way to do but unless the arguement is that those offenses Didn’t stay on the field long enough, it’s hard to argue against how proficient they were. Again and agin as we were running out to 13-0 the guys who breakdown games pointed out that there was just no way to cover everyone.

as for more important in the playoffs my point was that though I don’t think the old saying “defense wins championships” is the only rule anymore you can’t dispute that you still see a better defense on average. Even if you can’t take CGM away, if you take everything else away we will struggle.

and I agree with you that you can’t mitigate away all fallout from injuries, you have to be trying to improve at all times. If there is a place to work on a weakest link in this offense, it’s third receiver. If Sanders missed time that is going to be very apparent unless someone has stepped up their game big time.

 

[TribuneUK]

i agree that those offenses were not the only way to do but unless the arguement is that those offenses Didn’t stay on the field long enough, it’s hard to argue against how proficient they were. Again and agin as we were running out to 13-0 the guys who breakdown games pointed out that there was just no way to cover everyone.

as for more important in the playoffs my point was that though I don’t think the old saying “defense wins championships” is the only rule anymore you can’t dispute that you still see a better defense on average. Even if you can’t take CGM away, if you take everything else away we will struggle.

and I agree with you that you can’t mitigate away all fallout from injuries, you have to be trying to improve at all times. If there is a place to work on a weakest link in this offense, it’s third receiver. If Sanders missed time that is going to be very apparent unless someone has stepped up their game big time.

I don't think your arguments are unreasonable, and I've heard many of them before, but I don't think they create any cast iron case for 'need' as people seem to (over)state.

We've seen 'unstoppable' offenses nearly every year of the modern SB era, but those units often run into trouble at championship time if they don't have the corresponding balance on defense and special teams. The 2009 team ran the ball in a way that I wish we could still do now, the defense was complimentary in generating turnovers as well as being much stiffer in red zone defense, and special teams was important at crucial times that year (ambush, anyone?).

It's tough in the playoffs for everyone, again it's a wash. Just because we don't like our 'third WR' does not mean we don't have a third (and fourth and fifth) passing option. As people will gladly point out, we have the likes of Cook, Kamara, Hill and the plethora of other options that can be called on to get it done.

 

[Que Que 6]

Also, only 7 teams in the NFL used a 3rd WR less often than us in 2019. We hardly have a need.

And the combined WLT of those 7 teams was 69-43. Including three division winners, both no. 1 seeds and 5 playoff teams overall.

Just imagine that we would need a 3rd WR EVEN LESS if we actually used our top 10 TE (who may be top 6 or 7).

 

[BelowZero]

TQS has to have the edge just based off of system knowledge. If the team had a Mahomes-like, big-arm QB? I would put my money down on Harris taking the 3rd spot. Speed kills in this game, and he has plenty of it.

 

[Zack Lee]

No i also wouldn’t try to make it into a case of need. Not at this point but I would have last year as we weren’t talking about a number three, we were talking about a number two. And for me it’s not really a case of not liking our three. If anything my disappointment in TQS has stemmed just from having higher expectations of him. I thought he would be pretty good and the book isn’t closed but if he wants to be labelled good by me, then this is a critical year for him. We have Henderson more time but what he could do was so rare that you are willing to give the extra.

 

[TribuneUK]

Just imagine that we would need a 3rd WR EVEN LESS if we actually used our top 10 TE (who may be top 6 or 7).

Are you saying we didn't use that person?

 

[Que Que 6]

Are you saying we didn't use that person?

He was wide open down the seam most games. We would hand off to AK for a 2 yard cloud of dust (plus or minus 2 yards) and then wait on MT to bail us out EVERY time on 3rd and long. So. no, we did not effectively or efficiently use JC.

 

[TribuneUK]

He was wide open down the seam most games. We would hand off to AK for a 2 yard cloud of dust (plus or minus 2 yards) and then wait on MT to bail us out EVERY time on 3rd and long. So. no, we did not effectively or efficiently use JC.

I'll have to admit that's not the way I saw the games unfold.

I trust DB's ability to see if the ball can be threaded to the seam player every time, and AK was and will continue to be a horrible dilemma for defenses to deal with on a play by play basis. Romo explained this particular factor of AK's presence very well in his games covering the Saints, I felt.