The name says it all, would you keep Kelly in at starter when he comes back from his injury are do you start someone else? I personally think it just got a bit harder after this win to decide who takes this position. Marquay did make some drops but put on some solid production, as did Grant. I think Chris Williams cemented his spot as a starter that game, but who takes it? I'm gonna go with Marquay, sure some drops happened but solid production and showed improvement.
No Chris Williams option?
My opinion on the import receiver spots in order are:
- Bruce
- Mann
- Thigpen
- Williams
5a) Grant
5b) McDaniel - Kelly
It's really close between Grant and McDaniel, but I gave it to Grant based on his speed and height. The problem is that Grant's speed means he might outrun Glenn's arm.
I had to go with Grant over McDaniel for my vote. Grant dropped a couple also but at least his were heavily contested by one or more DB's. McDaniel was all alone on his 2 big drops from what I remember seeing. I will watch the game again this week sometime. Always watch wins a 2nd time.
Considering that Thigpen, unless hurt, will always be one dressed receiver, because of his kick/punt returning and versatility to back up the RB, and that four import receivers is how many the team has dressed for each game, so far, this season ......
Only three of the other six -- Mann, Bruce, McDaniel, Kelly, C. Williams, B. Grant -- are likely to dress for any game. Based on performance this season alone, IMHO, a healthy Mann is the only one who should definitely be one of the three. Best advantages of the others, again IMHO: Bruce - career record and experience, McDaniel and Williams - versatility, Kelly and Grant -- height. I'd expect that one of McDaniel / Williams would be in to also serve as the second returner.
MB has stated that he plans to "tinker" until "somewhere after the mid point of the season" so I expect we may see changes in the receiver line-up for several games to come. There's enough talent there for the Cats also to seriously consider any trades offers that might be instigated, or come up, involving any them. $$$ and age would be considerations too related to trades and planning for the future --- Thiggy, Williams, Grant and Kelly are all 24 or 25, McDaniel 27, Mann almost 29, and Bruce 34 in November.
McDaniel can't catch a Cold..
He drops way too many balls
Kelly should not lose spot cause of Injury
I think they should got to 4 Canadians on the old using Smith at Tackle
That is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous. One of those “drops” was an absolutely awful throw. He would have had to be a contortionist to catch that ball. You don’t get almost 1000 yards by not being able to catch a cold. Glad you’re not the coach. You’d have AB3 off the team for the 2 bads games he’s had this year. :roll:
I’m also a little sick of this “he shouldn’t lose his spot because of injury” crap. Of course he should. I don’t care why we find out someone is better, if that person is better they should play. End of story. I didn’t know why we chose Kelly over Grant in the first place. I know Grant dropped a few, but he really did make some of those catches look easy.
Once/if all the receivers are healthy, I think Bruce, Mann and Thigpen are pretty much guaranteed three of the five import spots. While Bruce hasn’t been himself so far this year, he is usually great. Kind of reminds me of the old nursery rhyme:
And when he’s good, he’s very, very good,
But when he’s bad, he’s horrid.
OK, horrid is definitely an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
That leaves two spots, which I would give to Williams over McDaniel, and Grant over Kelly. Williams looks like a clone of Thigpen, and having both of them on the field, especially if Bruce is occupying the defence’s top DB, would be a killer. And from what I’ve seen so far this year, Grant is just a little better than Kelly. In fact, I’d even go with McDaniel over Kelly based on his ability to get open.
Not sure I agree with this. He had a 61% completion rate last year, vs. Bruce’s and Mann’s 64% completion rate. Over the season, that’s a difference of three receptions. And I remember both Bruce and Mann dropping some pretty easy balls last year - and this year. I’m not sure I’d really throw all the fault on McDaniel on that 2nd and inches bomb this week either; it looked like he was expecting it over his right shoulder, but it ended up far over his left and he ended up twisting to try to grab it. Maybe another receiver would have come up with it, or maybe not.
To what purpose? To go with four starting import receivers instead if three? If so, what do we do with Stala, Carter, and MacKay?
You should come out to practice Tom as McDaniel was amazing last week and he did a great job for us on Saturday! Alot of thing have changed since camp!
They’ve only dressed 4 import receivers, not “five,” in games to date:
Bruce, Mann, Thigpen & Kelly
Bruce, Mann, Thigpen & Williams
McDaniel, Grant, Thigpen & Williams
Thats funny as you mentioned 5 here…Bruce, Mann, Thigpen, McDaniel & Kelly
I think there's more going on than catches and drops, which are what we as fans tend to notice.
The other aspect of a receivers' performance is route-running. There were some plays on Saturday where clearly someone was not where they should have been. I'm thinking of two passes to the end zone - one long and incomplete, and the other a TD to Williams. In both cases, we had two receivers in virtually the identical place on the field. Obviously plays are not designed that way (I would hope), so someone is making mistakes in their routes. It's a very risky situation for an offence and could easily lead to interceptions. This factor has to be taken into consideration along with catching skills. Fortunately that's why we have coaches who analyze game films.
I know what play your talking about and I was thinking the exact same thing, it was the ball Grant dropped in the endzone in the first quarter. If I had to guess it was McDaniel who ran the wrong route because the ball had already been tossed to Grant and McDaniel ran right into his area.
Where did he mention those 5 guys…
McDaniels name is only on the list once the very last line, give it a count 4 names…
That’s at most four dressed per game, as I see now, not four total this season. Not sure how I missed that. :oops:
Well, depending on the injury to Jimenez, Onknight may get his wish.
It was Williams, not McDaniel, that came into Grant’s area. Grant was running streak down the right sideline, and Williams was running streak down the middle, looking over his left shoulder. When Williams saw the ball go to his right, he curled that way, drawing his defender over. Had he continued his route, the defender, who was trailing Williams and had his back to the ball, probably would have stayed with him. Rookie mistake, which I’m sure the coaches will show him on the films.
Drew Edwards reported on his blog today that Jimenez was practising:
[url=http://scratchingpost.thespec.com/2011/07/update-from-ticats-practice-2.html]http://scratchingpost.thespec.com/2011/ ... ice-2.html[/url]Smith did do a decent job filling in I will admit but Jimenez is better and did win the starting job.
Don't know how anyone could watch that game and still wonder why McDaniel was made a reserve.(other than hearing Duane Forde explain why)
Catch a couple drop a couple is just plain bad for starter's job security.
Really? He should catch balls that are thrown over him, past him, or into the ground in front of him?
- Q1 13:19 -ball thrown just past outstretched arms
- Q1 7:23 - ball thrown low four feet in front of him, almost caught it - possibly catchable
- Q1 4:33 - (2nd and inches throw by Porter) looking over right shoulder (where it should have been thrown), but ball thrown to his left - probably catchable
- Q1 3:16 - ball knocked down by two Sask players both going for pick on its way to McDaniel
- Q1 0:02 - completion
- Q2 1:26 - ball thrown into turf six feet away from him, but almost got it anyway
- Q3 13:30 - completion
- Q3 9:10 - ball tipped before it got to him
- Q3 7:57 - completion
- Q3 6:31 - interference prevented possible completion
There were two passes that were possibly catchable that he missed. The rest were definitely not catchable, IMO. So of the five catchable passes, he caught three - 60% completion rate. Pretty typical for the CFL.
Really.
Above average recs., the kind winning teams are always trying to find and develop make most of those tough catches.
If you run a team where every pass, every situation has to be just perfect for a rec. to catch the ball then MM is your man.
Meanwhile, back in reality…
Guess we have to dump Stala too, because he missed a totally catchable ball in the first quarter. Thrown just in front of him, right through his hands. Would have had the touchdown, but had to settle for a field goal.
I’m not saying that McDaniel is our go-to guy. But as our fourth or fifth receiver, he’s pretty good at getting open, and usually comes down with balls thrown near him, even some tough ones, though not always.