XL makes a list of sophomore breakout candidates

[DaveThePanther2008]

A rookie with 3 different QBs in one season. (good and bad Young and Dalton).  Some terrible drops, I am sure he still envisions the drop against Philly every day.  Reduce the drop and more confidence in what he is doing is going to help him.

I love AT,JC and TMac in our WR room but XL will be a big part of our offense.  No way are we just going to slide a first round pick to the bottom of the pecking order because of a weak rookie season. 

[csx]

5 hours ago, WhoKnows said:

I’m not too critical, he was close to 100 targets. I don’t know if drops weren’t an issue but he had one season so it’s hard to extrapolate. He had 7 games of 94+ yards his only big season. He did that against Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Furman, UNC, Florida and Jacksonville St. he had 71 yards or less against Georgia, Tennessee, Clemson, Texas A&M and Missouri. Basically, good games against teams under .500 in the SEC and the meh OOC teams and meh games against the .500 or better in the SEC and Clemson.

I wanted McConkey so maybe I am jaded a bit but we have 3 WRs better than him right now on the roster and maybe more if another rookie flashes. I don’t think they will limit him as much as he’s got to step up his game to earn anywhere near the targets he had last year. 

Mconkey had 3 games over 94 yds in his 3 seasons.

During his best season he only got  to 71 yds twice.  

No idea what you were attempting with this

[jayflip]

7 minutes ago, csx said:

Mconkey had 3 games over 94 yds in his 3 seasons.

During his best season he only got  to 71 yds twice.  

No idea what you were attempting with this

Who knows?

[csx]

1 minute ago, jayflip said:

Who knows?

McConkey was obviously better last year but that just shows those college stats he picked don't define pro success 

[Icege]

This is going to be one of the more competitive camps we've had at WR in awhile...

The only locks are XL, TMac, and AT.

Coker and Horn Jr both have strong chances at making it.

I can see David Moore being WR6.

Renfrow might be the WR7 if they decide to carry that many, or he could join Dan Chisena on the PS (who gets stashed to help on ST more than at WR).

[panthers55]

16 hours ago, WhoKnows said:

WR talent includes hand catching, body control and contested catching/snatching the ball. If you don’t have that at 24+ years old, I don’t think you can say he definitely has the talent to breakout.

Also, it’s highly likely that XL’s snap count goes down. Thielen and Coker only played 10 and 11 games last year. Legette played 16 games and had 50% more snaps than Thielen and Coker. Add in a true #1 WR, a real 3rd down RB, more rookie WRs and a rookie TE and unless Young throws for 4000+ (he and Dalton had 3400 last year), XL’s opportunities don’t look better this year.

Personally, I think the top 3 WRs will be TMac, Thielen and Coker and XL rotates in as needed.

What you described are techniques you learn not things like speed or athleticism which are much harder to develop if you are lacking. Like many rookies, they could dominate at the college level but find it more difficult when every pro opponent has good talent and likely more experience.

How catches get distributed will depend of who Young trusts to catch the ball and who gets open.

Young will feed the hot hand. If that isn't Legette he can blame himself.

[Bear Hands]

XL working out really rounds out a complimentary room - McMillan is X, Legette can go slot or flanker — same with Coker. All dependent on what teams bring at us.

The nice thing is McM will warrant the CB1 and have him preoccupied.  So teams with lighter DB rooms will have an issue with Legette. Not to mention Coker will be a perfect valve who proved to have sticky hands. 

We theoretically should be able to carve defenses up pretty methodically. 

Still think adding a speedster to this mix instead of Thielen could round it out to the point where we’re a problem for teams. A Mims/Jamo type would be huge.

Thielen seems like a great presence but he’s nearing a point of only being so helpful on the field. Been a stand up dude here so no problems with him sticking this year, just hope it doesn’t limit Coker. 

[ForJimmy]

5 minutes ago, Bear Hands said:

XL working out really rounds out a complimentary room - McMillan is X, Legette can go slot or flanker — same with Coker. All dependent on what teams bring at us.

The nice thing is McM will warrant the CB1 and have him preoccupied.  So teams with lighter DB rooms will have an issue with Legette. Not to mention Coker will be a perfect valve who proved to have sticky hands. 

We theoretically should be able to carve defenses up pretty methodically. 

Still think adding a speedster to this mix instead of Thielen could round it out to the point where we’re a problem for teams. A Mims/Jamo type would be huge.

Thielen seems like a great presence but he’s nearing a point of only being so helpful on the field. Been a stand up dude here so no problems with him sticking this year, just hope it doesn’t limit Coker. 

The biggest bonus would be Hunter getting back to form and becoming our AT replacement for next year.  I know it's a bit of a longshot but it will make for an interesting WR room.  I can see TMac as the X, XL as the Z, Coker can fill in as depth but is best splitting some slot reps with AT and possibly Renfrow.  

[Navy_football]

7 hours ago, Icege said:

This is going to be one of the more competitive camps we've had at WR in awhile...

The only locks are XL, TMac, and AT.

Coker and Horn Jr both have strong chances at making it.

I can see David Moore being WR6.

Renfrow might be the WR7 if they decide to carry that many, or he could join Dan Chisena on the PS (who gets stashed to help on ST more than at WR).

Hoping Renfrow beats out Moore. If so, it's likely a very good group.

[CPF4LIFE]

20 hours ago, jfra78 said:

He had 84 targets but I wonder how many were catchable. Bryce threw him a lot of shitty balls

Omg...the last game against the bucs where bryce hit em on a fly route down the sideline and the ball was severely underthrown and folks on here were mad because XL couldn't turn around on a route and make a catch with a defender covering him that was between him and the ball. That really took me out.

[jfra78]

1 hour ago, CPF4LIFE said:

Omg...the last game against the bucs where bryce hit em on a fly route down the sideline and the ball was severely underthrown and folks on here were mad because XL couldn't turn around on a route and make a catch with a defender covering him that was between him and the ball. That really took me out.

Yea the huddle gave him about 20bdrops where as most sites give him 7 or 8.  Fun fact... people love Moore who has very similar drop rate as XL

[WhoKnows]

16 hours ago, csx said:

Mconkey had 3 games over 94 yds in his 3 seasons.

During his best season he only got  to 71 yds twice.  

No idea what you were attempting with this

McConkey played on a different team than Legette did. There was no one else on SC except Legette. Anyway, the point was that people are assuming XL is ultra talented and he’ll improve and I don’t agree. I was pointing out how he did well against mediocre to bad teams and did meh against good teams, so assuming he’ll be a 1000 yarder breakout is premature IMHO. I think Coker, Thielen and TMac will get the bulk of WR snaps.

I wanted McConkey for his separation ability, simple as that and he seemingly confirmed what a lot of us in here thought.

Also, we’ve been down this road with TMJ and Mingo and people in here predicting 1000 yarder seasons.

[WhoKnows]

8 hours ago, panthers55 said:

What you described are techniques you learn not things like speed or athleticism which are much harder to develop if you are lacking. Like many rookies, they could dominate at the college level but find it more difficult when every pro opponent has good talent and likely more experience.

How catches get distributed will depend of who Young trusts to catch the ball and who gets open.

Young will feed the hot hand. If that isn't Legette he can blame himself.

Completely disagree. Being a contested catch monster like TMac is absolutely athleticism. WRs don’t just magically learn that. You’ll hear about it when people say he’s got great body control and snatches the ball away from defenders. That’s not learned. Same with body catching versus hand catching at 24+. At this point, you are who you are. You can improve a bit but someone like Amon-Ra St. Brown has been on his Jugs machines probably a couple hundred thousand times more than XL has been. You can’t just learn that in an offseason.

Oh well, the blind faith in XL is impressive. It’s like I’m talking bad about Steve Smith in his prime.

[jfra78]

1 hour ago, WhoKnows said:

Completely disagree. Being a contested catch monster like TMac is absolutely athleticism. WRs don’t just magically learn that. You’ll hear about it when people say he’s got great body control and snatches the ball away from defenders. That’s not learned. Same with body catching versus hand catching at 24+. At this point, you are who you are. You can improve a bit but someone like Amon-Ra St. Brown has been on his Jugs machines probably a couple hundred thousand times more than XL has been. You can’t just learn that in an offseason.

Oh well, the blind faith in XL is impressive. It’s like I’m talking bad about Steve Smith in his prime.

Its not blind faith, we just aren't jaded and can see that he provides something needed that isn't on this team. Like it or not, he is our only deep threat, jump ball guy, Tmac isn't that yet. He is the fastest and biggest reciever we have.  He is really good at getting position on CBs and he also blocks downfield.  Tmac is going to take adams role and get the most targets, Coker will be third and we better hope Theilen is 4th or 5th.