Travis Benjamin
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LOL! You can bet every team will account for him now. Hopefully our staff knows how to use a fast decoy to open up the underneath game.
Speed has surprised me some, even more is that it is translating to taking the top off the D. So something else is accompanying the speed... maybe respect for underneath routes in his arsenal?
Whatever it is... I'm for it...
Should open the run game a bit too....Im guessing safetys start doubling to help out....eliminating that extra run defender....
Its all good.....
And I liked his little hurdle at the end of the punt return.....elusive...
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LOL! You can bet every team will account for him now. Hopefully our staff knows how to use a fast decoy to open up the underneath game.
Speed has surprised me some, even more is that it is translating to taking the top off the D. So something else is accompanying the speed... maybe respect for underneath routes in his arsenal?
Whatever it is... I'm for it...
Should open the run game a bit too....Im guessing safetys start doubling to help out....eliminating that extra run defender....
Its all good.....
And I liked his little hurdle at the end of the punt return.....elusive...
And I liked his little hurdle at the end of the punt return.....elusive...
Yep, I heard Johnny taught him that little jump over defenders.
BTW I saw a playback of his kick return where his speed was continually tracked. As he made his turn upfield around the 50 he actually hit 20 mph. WOW!!
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Nice! Here's his receiving stats since he's been here:
2012 14 GM 18 REC 37 TARGETS 298 YDS 16.6 AVG 69 LNG 2 TD
2013 8 GM 5 REC 13 TARGETS 105 YDS 21.0 AVG 39 LNG 0 TD
2014 16 GM 18 REC 46 TARGETS 314 YDS 17.4 AVG 43 LNG 3 TD
2015 2 GM 6 REC 7 TARGETS 204 YDS 34.0 AVG 60 LNG 3 TD
He's been targeted 7 times this year and caught 6 for 204 yards and 3 TDs at 34 yards per catch. That's the great news.
The biggest difference I see in him is that he is catching the ball now and looks to be regaining his confidence.....
The truth about him is that, as a WR, he has had very suspect hands up till now.....historically low catch rates(even worse than Greg Little)....yet, this year he's catching an amazing 85%.....just hoping it's the real deal and not a few fluky games ....no doubt his speed is for real....dude is lighting fast.... definitely a risk to take it all the way on any play.....
Here are his catch %'s. Note he started bad and then got worse each year. As a reference, good receivers usually are 60%+ and the best ones are in the 70's.....
Catch rates
2012 = 50%
2013 = 41%
2014 = 39%(lowest in the league)
2015 = 85%......kablammo....huge increase....
I will say it looks like he is using his hands better to catch and no more body grabs....looks to me like this is a learned improvement in technique and a guy who has taken his coaching to heart.....just keep it going Benji!!!
The biggest difference I see in him is that he is catching the ball now and looks to be regaining his confidence.....
The truth about him is that, as a WR, he has had very suspect hands up till now.....historically low catch rates(even worse than Greg Little)....yet, this year he's catching an amazing 85%.....just hoping it's the real deal and not a few fluky games ....no doubt his speed is for real....dude is lighting fast.... definitely a risk to take it all the way on any play.....
Here are his catch %'s. Note he started bad and then got worse each year. As a reference, good receivers usually are 60%+ and the best ones are in the 70's.....
Catch rates
2012 = 50%
2013 = 41%
2014 = 39%(lowest in the league)
2015 = 85%......kablammo....huge increase....
I will say it looks like he is using his hands better to catch and no more body grabs....looks to me like this is a learned improvement in technique and a guy who has taken his coaching to heart.....just keep it going Benji!!!
Just a guess here but I think your catch rates above are target % which should not be confused with drop %. More on that in the next 2 paragraphs below. I'll agree he's had a lot to improve upon as a WR since he came here in 2012. That said, I don't think it was ever his hands that needed the biggest areas of improvement. In fact, the only season he has dropped more than 1 pass is 2014 (with 3). However, despite how many less reps he had than others - he led our WR Corps in TD receptions and yards per catch.
Here's a link that shows dropped pass leaders (and you can choose whatever year you want to see). http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/drops/2014/ Be careful not to count targets or target % as drops because we haven't had many keepers at QB here in terms of accuracy since 2012.
Here's Benjamin's drops stats/rates per the link I gave:
2012: 18 receptions 1 drop 37 targets 48.6 target% 2.7 drop%
2013: 5 receptions 1 drop 13 targets 38.5 target% 7.7 drop%
2014: 18 receptions 3 drops 46 targets 39.1 target% 6.5 drop%
2015: 6 receptions 0 drops 7 targets (50% of his receptions are TDs where the biggest thing challenging his yards per catch has been the goal line)
As for the Greg Little comparison, here's his drop stats/rates per my link:
2011: 61 receptions 12 drops 121 targets 50.4 target% 9.9 drop%
2012: 53 receptions 6 drops 92 targets 57.6 target% 6.5 drop%
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Good points Flugel....
Was not implying that he had drops.....just that he didnt win too many balls....(Little may have more drops, but he still caught a higher percentage, which is what matters)
I guess there are guys who drop....guys who can catch.....guys who win contested balls....and guys who go get it.....
No matter how you slice it....consistently catching 39-40% "could" land you in the "guys who can catch" category, but in reality that is not good enough to be a starter in this league.....and if 6 out of 10 plays to a guy dont work out, then they will not be going to him for long.....
So far, hes at 8 outta 10, so no worries for now.....will ride the wave and see how it goes.....
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Good points Flugel....
Was not implying that he had drops.....just that he didnt win too many balls....(Little may have more drops, but he still caught a higher percentage, which is what matters)
I guess there are guys who drop....guys who can catch.....guys who win contested balls....and guys who go get it.....
No matter how you slice it....consistently catching 39-40% "could" land you in the "guys who can catch" category, but in reality that is not good enough to be a starter in this league.....and if 6 out of 10 plays to a guy dont work out, then they will not be going to him for long.....
So far, hes at 8 outta 10, so no worries for now.....will ride the wave and see how it goes.....
Good points Flugel....
Was not implying that he had drops.....just that he didnt win too many balls....(Little may have more drops, but he still caught a higher percentage, which is what matters)
I guess there are guys who drop....guys who can catch.....guys who win contested balls....and guys who go get it.....
No matter how you slice it....consistently catching 39-40% "could" land you in the "guys who can catch" category, but in reality that is not good enough to be a starter in this league.....and if 6 out of 10 plays to a guy dont work out, then they will not be going to him for long.....
So far, hes at 8 outta 10, so no worries for now.....will ride the wave and see how it goes.....
Well said Mud. You know what's nice? When he has an accurate QB hitting him in stride - the outcome is fun. Like you said - I hope he keeps it up. The preseason projected some good stuff though like that slant pass McCown threw behind him that he hauled in with 1 hand. Best of all, I love it when we invest time in players like Benjamin and Greco to see the kinds of improvements they're showing us. Craig Robertson, Tashaun Gipson are a couple more examples.
I welcome the only Defensive Coordinator to earn a Superbowl Ring in New Orleans while understanding Revenge of the Nerds is a sequel. "Come get some!" -
yep...and the best news is that he did overcome all that mess from last year and the difference is huge....
Im definitely in his corner and NOT suggesting he's gonna bust......just trying to maintain a level reality after 2 games.....
cause you know how THAT goes.....2 good games and he's a god.....2 bad games and then he suddenly sucks and Farmers an idiot.....another good game and he's all pro again.....
The good news(for him) is that if he has an off game this week, it'll all be McCowns fault.....
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Good points Flugel....
Was not implying that he had drops.....just that he didnt win too many balls....(Little may have more drops, but he still caught a higher percentage, which is what matters)
I guess there are guys who drop....guys who can catch.....guys who win contested balls....and guys who go get it.....
No matter how you slice it....consistently catching 39-40% "could" land you in the "guys who can catch" category, but in reality that is not good enough to be a starter in this league.....and if 6 out of 10 plays to a guy dont work out, then they will not be going to him for long.....
So far, hes at 8 outta 10, so no worries for now.....will ride the wave and see how it goes.....
Well said Mud. You know what's nice? When he has an accurate QB hitting him in stride - the outcome is fun. Like you said - I hope he keeps it up. The preseason projected some good stuff though like that slant pass McCown threw behind him that he hauled in with 1 hand. Best of all, I love it when we invest time in players like Benjamin and Greco to see the kinds of improvements they're showing us. Craig Robertson, Tashaun Gipson are a couple more examples.
Well said Mud. You know what's nice? When he has an accurate QB hitting him in stride - the outcome is fun. Like you said - I hope he keeps it up. The preseason projected some good stuff though like that slant pass McCown threw behind him that he hauled in with 1 hand. Best of all, I love it when we invest time in players like Benjamin and Greco to see the kinds of improvements they're showing us. Craig Robertson, Tashaun Gipson are a couple more examples.
Yep. Targets don't mean a lot when the guy throwing at the target keeps missing it. Unfortunately, it STILL counts as a target & is often used against the receiver, who may not have had a chance of catching the ball.
Mike
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LOL! You can bet every team will account for him now. Hopefully our staff knows how to use a fast decoy to open up the underneath game.
Speed has surprised me some, even more is that it is translating to taking the top off the D. So something else is accompanying the speed... maybe respect for underneath routes in his arsenal?
Whatever it is... I'm for it...
Should open the run game a bit too....Im guessing safetys start doubling to help out....eliminating that extra run defender....
Its all good.....
And I liked his little hurdle at the end of the punt return.....elusive...
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