Rob Gronkowski vs Matt Spaeth

Their size.build:
Spaeth: 6-7, 270
Gronkowski: 6-6, 265

Senior year:
Spaeth: 47 receptions, 564 yds
Gronkowski: 47 receptions, 672 yds

My point:
Didn't the Steelers draft Spaeth to give them another option in the passing game? So why was he not the type of TE Gronkowski has become? Is it because Spaeth couldn't catch? (I didn't see anything in his career with the Steelers that indicated that.) Or is it because one team knows how to use personnel and the other doesn't? How was Spaeth not a monster weapon for this offense in his time with the team?

 

i think it's more of the Steelers not having a system that utilized Spaeth's talents the best way. also, i think it's because Spaeth wasn't the Steelers' number 1 TE like Gronkowski is for the Pats.

 

yep that is what it is...Heath is our go to guy

 

I'm not sad to see Spaeth gone

 

Spaeth had his chances. He dropped them.

And yes, here's a news flash. Bruce Ariens doesn't utilize or maximize his tight ends properly. Go figure....

 

Somehow ( a good OC maybe?) the Pats manage to get production out of both their top tight ends, Gronkowski and Hernandez. Our coaching staff didn't have the same creativity to utilize both Miller and Spaeth. Heck, they barely can keep Miller productive. Haven't others commented recently how Heath sometimes disappears in games? Gronkowski and Hernandez stay in the Pats offensive game plan throughout the game. That's coaching my friends not the result of the players!

 

Uh, because Spaeth is slow as molasses, can't get open, and can't do anything after the catch. Gronkowski runs a 4.5 or something like that.

However, I don't think hands are an issue. Spaeth's hands weren't the best, but they were fine.

 

You don't have to be fast to create a serious mismatch problem inside the 10.

 

Thanks for head line of this post. Like comparing a gold bar to a penny. Plus I'd drafted Gronkowski as the top TE in my fantasy league. Everyone told me I was so stupid for taking him as the top TE, not so stupid now. But, I give the Steelers credit last year when he caught 3 TD's against us, that caught my attention big time and made me draft him this year. Just hate how he plays for the Patriots, but man what a player.

 

This is a thinly veiled shot at Bruce Arians, but it doesn't hold water.

Since Bennie Cunningham, and other than Eric Green, the Steelers have historically under used their Tight Ends in the passing game.

What about Mark Bruener?

Or Jay Riemersma? He played 22 games with the Steelers and averaged 10 yards per game as a Steeler. Before that he was an excellent pass catcher in Buffalo averaging over 3 times as many yards per game there.

Neither had BA as their OC.

Or what about the fact that Miller is actually used more in the passing game since Arians took over? In his first 2 years without BA as the OC, his best season was 459 yards as a rookie. Since BA took over, hes eclipsed that mark every single year and has yet to have a season with less than 500 yards receiving.

 

He was both under utilized and also not athletically gifted as Gronkowski.

I believe he was drafted with intentions of being a TE duo with HEath, just like Gronkowski and Hernandez, but if you recall his rookie year was the first year our offensive line took a downward turn in a big way, and ever since he has been used as a blocker....

 

It wasn't necessarily a shot at Arians. I have another post this evening designed to do that. No, what I was suggesting was that Spaeth seemed to have the same tools as Gronkowski, maybe not quite as good. When the Steelers drafted him, remember, there was a lot of tongue wagging, because the Steelers had a good TE already. If the idea was to take advantage of his size, then it certainly seemed that the Steelers didn't. Furthermore, if Arians' offense is one in which the TE is NOT featured, then why the hell would you draft Spaeth in the first place?

The basis for the post was seeing Gronkowski break the TE TD record and thinking, wasn't Spaeth supposed to be this kind of guy?

 

As others have said, Spaeth may have had a similar size/weight to Gronkowski, but Spaeth was a slow rolling beast and Gronkowski is far more athletic. I was really pleased when we picked up Spaeth, but he seemed to make too many errors at clutch moments. Maybe that's a selective memory. But he remains one of the bigger (literally) draft disappointments of recent.

 

I don't claim to understand it, but I can try to explain it. Arians is a big fan of tight ends. He insists on having three, and having three on the field all at the same time, regularly. And it doesn't matter how good or terrible they are, and it doesn't matter how amazing the dudes on the bench at WR and RB are. He is going to play David Johnson and Matt Spaeth over Emmanuel Sanders, Isaac Redman, Antonio Brown, etc. Sure, those guys aren't big threats to block, but Johnson and Spaeth aren't a threat to block or catch. But he insists. He loves tight ends. He loves to put them on the field to do nothing. He doesn't like to run, and he scoffs at fullbacks, but he does think making the OL extra LONG with tight ends who can't even block will help. Then he uses one of those useless tight ends as a fullback, and that guy can't do it. I swear he intentionally sabotages the running game in order to create excuses to pass.

I think Spaeth was not supposed to be the same type as Gronkowski. He was supposed to be more balanced. He was supposed to be a big-time blocker too as well as a threat to catch, and he stunk at blocking. I thought he finally became decent at it last year, but by then his contract was up and we had Saunders coming in.

 

If the offensive line was better they would have had more opportunity to play around with 2 or 3 tight end sets where they dominate in the pass game. That's over now though with emergence of Wallace and Brown....