Antonio Brown: Haley seems like a real friendly guy...

i agree about being foolish not to use the qb/wr we are giving him. we are starting our backup rb this year, so we should be a little pass heavy. it's our stregnth. [/quote]

The pass is a strength but it only led to a 21 ranked offense, you can dink and dunk the ball down the field and it makes the personal stats look good, but if it doesnt end up in points what good is it? To make the passing game effective you need to set up the pass with the running game, thats how this new offense is supposed to do it this season: I like that concept better than passing the ball out of desperation ending up in more sacks than points...

 

ok whatever. we are not paying a franchise qb that kind of money to hand the ball off 50% of the time. our receiving corp is the stregnth of the team right now. do you really think we will run 1st and 2nd down and pass on 3rd? not!! dink and dunk is what ben didn't do and will be asked to do more of. if you all think we are going to line up and play 3 yards and a cloud of dust you are in for a disapointment i'm afraid. it may not be BA like, but we will throw it.

 

i think theres a misconception of a passing offense and running offense. if you look at how much our RB's have been thrown to, it's painfully low. when i talk of passing game, it's not just about the wr's. we need to use rainy and batch and whomever else is on the field. brees uses sproles, miami and NO used reggie bush, baltimore uses ray rice that way. they are successful doing it. this isn't a question of just run it up the gut or chuck it 60 yards downfield as the only passing game options just like the bubble screen is the only successful screen play. the short pass can open up the run too. it's not only the run opening up the pass. there are alot of ways to mix it up and keep defenses honest. there are also other ways to spread a defense out to help the run with the pass.

 

That makes more sense and I can get behind that.

 

i agree about being foolish not to use the qb/wr we are giving him. we are starting our backup rb this year, so we should be a little pass heavy. it's our stregnth. [/quote:3bsvjqjt]

How is that our strength? We have a wildly inconsistent QB, who is fighter I will give him that and a proven winner but lets face it his ability to drop back make the quick read is suspect as well as his ability to take the check down. As of this moment there is no veteran leadership at the WR position. They have Cotchery who is a great possession slot receiver but doesn't exactly light it up, Sanders who we are hoping stays healthy, Brown who had a phenomenal year last year but may or may not have been the recipient of Wallace being double and triple covered to get those impressive numbers and lastly Wallace who is holding out and may be behind the curve with the new offense and will take time to gel with Ben again should he actually come to camp. This is hardly a veteran group of proven playoff winners and no more or less experienced than a backup rb who is starting. I say they real strength of this offensive team is that no one part is better than the next so it will be unpredictable and force teams to play honest. If they come out slinging it around it will be just the same as it was under Arians and teams can come after Ben and the running game will have no hope of getting going late in the third quarter.[/quote:3bsvjqjt]

Wow, Thorns, we have no where near the same view of our QB. Bens number one problem has been his health, that's the culprit for any "inconsistencies" he has had. You'll see what Ben can do when he's not held together by duct tape at the end of the year. Hopefully this line and a better game plan by Haley will allow us to witness that. I totally agree with Mac, passing game is without a doubt our strength.[/quote:3bsvjqjt]

I think his injuries have lead to the inconsistency issues but you have to admit it he is not the type of QB that can generate 300+ yards passing every week even against some of the best defenses in the league. He has great games where he throws for huge yardage and then struggles the next week and no it has nothing to do with the game plan. He has games where he can thread the needle between tight double coverage and times where he goes high on a 15 yard slant route. Some of that is injuries, some of it is lack of consistent practice, some of it is coaching but it all eqautes to the same thing he has to be more consistent in order for the passing game to work effectively the way many of you are envisioning. I will agree hopefully the Oline improvements and Haley will help Ben to grow a player, but I also remember when they had a pretty solid oline with Hartings, Faneca and Smith and Ben still had up and down games. Yes he is great at extending the play and creating onthe fly but he has to get better at reading the defense making the quick throw and here is the big one, in my opinion, trusting his teammates to make the play.

 

IF Todd Haley can get #7 to reach his full potential, lights out baby,
Along with the addition of David Decastro we should be alot better on offense
than under BA, Did I mention this recently, Thank you ART II for firing BA. A job well done.