I’m expecting a breakout season from Ja'tavion Sanders

[Jay Roosevelt]

19 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

My birthday wish is that the huddle changes Ians name like they did with The Golden Calf of Bristol.  I do not care to see his fuging name ever again.

My dad's a Raiders fan who has been hearing me bitch about Ian Thomas for years. When I told him the Raiders signed him he stopped for a minute, then realized I wasn't joking and said "now why the hell would they go and do that?"

[Byrdman4real]

1 hour ago, MHS831 said:

I think we will see a rotation of all 3 TEs, each with his own particular set of skills.

This

[LinvilleGorge]

I hope so. I liked him coming into the draft but then he hit the field and looked utterly lost and just like he flat out didn't belong and it was like "UH OH. That's not good." But he really showed improvement through the mid-portion of the season before that nasty spill seemed like it just kinda derailed the rest of his season.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, Jay Roosevelt said:

My dad's a Raiders fan who has been hearing me bitch about Ian Thomas for years. When I told him the Raiders signed him he stopped for a minute, then realized I wasn't joking and said "now why the hell would they go and do that?"

Because they signed him to an appropriate contract. His deal is in the range of a #3 TE who is probably expected to make the roster but if he doesn't, oh well. It's not gonna hurt us much at all to cut bait on him.

That's who Ian Thomas is as an NFL player. A guy who should be bouncing around the league trying to make it as a bottom of the roster type of player. Not a guy that you sign to a mid-level starter type of contract like the Panthers did.

[Murph]

3 hours ago, rayzor said:

we've got a lot of potential here. i really like our TE room right now. RB corps is stacked. WR doesn't look too shabby either. and we are going to see some good things from BY too. 

And a very talented OL that has good chemistry. Both starters and depth 

[tukafan21]

I really love Sanders potential and thus never understood why so many were wanting us to take a TE in the 1st.

But if he approaches 700 yards this year, it means our WR room had tons of injuries or seriously flopped.

As I've said before, this year is about Bryce proving he can be the guy, but all our offensive weapons will have slightly lower stats because he's going to spread the ball around and they'll all eat into each other's potential. 

It's next year when Thielen leaves and we don't replace him with a new player, but T-Mac, XL, Coker, and Sanders all absorb his targets that they all start putting up the stats they are capable of.

[jfra78]

Canales hasn't proven to use the TE like that.  Look for him to get around 400 yards and 3 tds

[rayzor]

it's going to be a crowded TE group...a crowded receiving corps that he will be part of. i'm not sure how much breaking out is going to happen. we're probably going to have 1 receiver with 1k yards, another couple with over 750 yards, and then the rest will be lucky to get over 500 and will probably be around 350 at best. 

i just don't see enough targets coming for him to get a whole lot. maybe 1-2 a game. not because he isn't good enough, there's only going to be so many balls thrown to a lot of different people. 

[Donald LaFell]

I like how he always stays in bounds and gets extra yards near the sideline. Somebody might pop him late eventually but it’s good to see. 

[rmoneyg35]

While I do think he will improve, I don’t expect his numbers to be that much higher. We have a good group of TEs as it is. I think Evans has the potential to be a good TE for us. Tremble will be our most experienced TE and is a great blocker who will take reps away from Sanders. There’s also the fact that we drafted Tet who is a 6’4 WR who could take away red zone targets. Legette and Coker are also listed at 6’3 so we have a lot of big WR on the team already. 
 

then there’s the fact we have 2 1,000 yd RBs on the roster. Does that mean we will run the ball more this year?

 

I also noticed that Tommy Tremble is listed as our #1 TE. Granted that could change when the season starts.

 

So overall I wouldn’t expect a big season from Sanders. That could change with injuries.

I think 400-500 yards seems more reasonable to me for this season. I wouldn’t pay attention to the stats as much as how well he plays though.

 

 

[PNW_PantherMan]

1 hour ago, jfra78 said:

Canales hasn't proven to use the TE like that.  Look for him to get around 400 yards and 3 tds

Yea I think this is the reason they didn't prioritize the position.  I don't think they necessarily view JT as some kind of star prospect.  He definitely showed more potential at the position than anyone we've had in a while though.  Not saying a lot I know, but it's something.

[Gapanthersfan]

6 hours ago, rayzor said:

seems like he wasn't quite himself when he came back from landing on his head. like his confidence wasn't 100%. hoping it is, though. 

we've got a lot of potential here. i really like our TE room right now. RB corps is stacked. WR doesn't look too shabby either. and we are going to see some good things from BY too. 

 Big part of what he does is being able to get that head around quickly at the last minute to make a catch. I can’t imagine how bad that must of hurt his neck. I hope all is good with him. 

[WhoKnows]

I don’t see Sanders getting anywhere close to that production. Tremble is likely starting and he and Sanders are just OK. Best bang for the buck is that Evans ends up being that blocker plus receiver and takes the starting spot. We want to run the ball so a TE that legitimately can block well and also get open/catch the ball would help so that Ds can’t key on the offense based on the TE.

[ColumbusCounty]

Well he did break the team record for most receiving yards from a rookie TE iirc. 

The thing is... 

Unless we plan on using more two TE sets, Tremble will get the most play Imo. I dont think alot of people caught the chemistry that Bryce and Tommy had to close out the season. I knew they were bringing him back just based off the connection those two had the last few games. 

Sanders has alot of upside though..scary upside to be honest. And if he was to get drafted this year, I think he'd be ranked between third or fifth after Loveland, Warren and Arroyo. He's probably neck and neck with Mason Taylor. 

Another TE I had high hopes for was Jordan Matthews, especially after OTA's and preseason last year. But after the Mitchell Evans pick the writing might be on the wall 4 him unless he's saved by ST play.