Heath Miller's breakout season

This is some of the most encouraging news coming out of the offseason. Todd Haley will be the best thing that has happened to Heath since Al Groh decided to convert him from a QB to a TE at UVA.

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/spo ... 38236/?p=0

I'm going on record with a bold 80/8 prediction this year. Heath will have 80 receptions and 8 touchdowns (minimum) in 2012! Book it!

(Hey, I was right about the Haley hiring) :-D

 

Maybe he'll finally be one of the 20 best tight ends in the NFL :roll: :-( ...I made myself sad.

 

I don't completely disagree, the problem is Ben is known to look off his TE's and RB's and launch it deep. If Ben continues to look off Heath and doesn't listen to Haley, then we're going to be faced with the same BS we had last year. If Ben will just listen to Haley, then Heath will have a big year.

 

unless all those deep launches go for TD's. then haleys head will explode.

 

Agreed...And the use of the Gap system coupled with a North and South runner the TE'S as a whole will have a lot more room to work in the middle....

Anyone who has not seen the Bowie State film on Redman needs to take a look.....The reason this is key is their QB sucked ,but when they ran PA Guys where wide open all the time.....Redman's running style forces 2 extra defenders in the box that means a lot of 1 on 1 coverage for the TE'S....

If we had PA passes off the runs that we called against Denver we could have scored 50 points or more.....Our old system was a joke gain 8 yards on 1st. down running then go empty on 2nd. and 2 .....The DC was like great a no running back package send in the Dime and dial up the blitz....The TE really had no choice but to stay in and block even if we would have had a all pro OL....

 

wait I thought he was already the best TE in the league?

 

I think the majority of deep balls you see this season will only be on broken plays where Ben has to do his thing out of the pocket (unless Mike comes back). Arians was the king of slow developing plays which just didn't suit our OL (and still doesn't, I'm excited but we'll still be shaky in the short term).

Haley is pushing dink and dunk to keep Ben from getting killed, which is a great thing. Ben will always be Ben so I'm sure we'll still see some playground ball, but it's nice to know Haley sees the value in keeping Ben clean.

 

I don't know. I think Haley is focused on keeping Ben clean for the most part, but I think he is going to accomplish the long pass differently than BA tried to accomplish it. For BA it was, okay Mike run long. He would vary this by changing from a post to a fly to a corner route, but the idea was still the same...Mike create space, Ben gain time until you can throw it out there to him.

Haley is going to look to use play action and the other elements of his offense to create space and a situation that Wallace can exploit. If you get the FS to bite on the run because Redman has pounded you for 8 yards 4 plays straight, you are still going to get the long shots, you are just going to get them differently.

(On a side note: I do not hate BA, but he wasn't good at setting up things for the long term gameplan or making in-game adjustments. He was a....we are going to do this, and if it doesn't work the first time we will try again....type of gameplanner. That isn't what Haley has been as evidenced by the statements from Tomlin about the adjustments that were made at halftime during the Super Bowl and in KC last year. I know BA gets a lot of crap on here, and rightfully so, but he was a risk-taker by nature. Look at the INT for a TD in the GB Super Bowl. He gets blasted for that play, but had Kemo held his block and that was completed it probably would have been a TD for us and tied the score. It also would have changed the face of the game. Who know what happens after that? It was a bold move that didn't work. Haley will have a different more controlled approach to the game looking for long term benefit rather than short term gain.

 

From what I have seen of Haley in the past, he is more apt to set up the long pass than try to set everything else up by using the long pass...if that makes sense to anyone other than me. To me (my own personal opinion) Heath is the best TE out there (I have a bromance like PWP does with Redman towards Heath). Really, I look forward to what Haley can do with Heath. I love a tough, hard fought game but man would it be fun to crush a few teams once in a while so I'm not on the verge of a heart attack every time we play.