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dnc
dnc Member Posts: 56,855
But every other day I just shake my head at another delusional post about John Ross as a receiver.

The last we saw of John Ross he was such an offensive weapon that they moved him to defense. He's an explosive athlete without question, but all he's demonstrated this far is a) phenomenal return ability b) an ability to beat people deep c) nice elusiveness on reverses, bubble screens etc. Despite playing on a team painfully devoid of receiving talent he caught 17 balls his sophomore year. 17! Dane Looker calls that the Arizona State game and he couldn't beat PLSS in a footrace.

OTOH Ross only caught 16 balls as a frosh, so progress!

In my amateur analysis, one of two things explains Ross' lack of production (and probably both): 1) He's a terrible route runner who can't be trusted to get open or be where he's supposed to be except on a full sprint deep or a dead stop for a screen 2) Smith can't figure out how to get him the damn ball. SmithFS is still here. Has Ross learned to run a route in his year off? It's possible I guess, but doesn't seem especially likely.

Now obviously Ross has never played with Jake, but I'm not sure that helps. Jake's biggest weakness by far is the deep ball. Hopefully he takes a big step forward as a sophomore and maybe Ross creates more separation which gives Jake more margin for error and perhaps Smith pulls his head out of his wrinkled polish grandmother looking ass but I'm not optimistic about any of those three things let alone all three. Ross will certainly be an upgrade at kick returner, but if he is more productive as a receiver next year than Mickens was this year I'll be shocked, and Mickens fucking sucks. I'd guess around 35 receptions for 500 or so yards unless we? just forcefeed him the bubble screen 5 times a game in which case kill me now.

As Race once said, it's been a bad decade for saviors. Ross isn't going to be one this time either.
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Comments

  • RaceBannon
    RaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 116,380 Founders Club
    *couple of centuries
  • Tequilla
    Tequilla Member Posts: 20,274
    Ross needs to be a better route runner ... that goes without saying. That being said there are plenty of routes that can be run that can take advantage of Ross's skill set (go routes, quick screens, deep posts, deep corners, drags/shallow crosses, and quick slants (particularly against non press coverage).

    There are other things that can be done through formations (i.e. lining him up in the backfield to promote coverage situations against LBs and S with quick swing routes, triangle routes, wheels, etc.

    The bashing of Browning on deep throws is ridiculous to me. He wasn't great on them last year. Most of the errors he made on them were by overthrowing them ... I feel better about that than consistently underthrowing them. Considering that when he did "underthrow" them so that his receivers had a chance to go win the ball they failed miserably, I don't blame Browning for erring on the side of overthrowing the ball. I expect that he'll get better next year throwing the ball deep anyway.

    I think it's fair to question how much Smith will be able to find favorable positions to get Ross the ball.

    Ross doesn't need to be a 70 catch and 1,000+ yard WR for this team to be successful next year. What is needed is for this team to have a number of receiving options that can be trusted for Browning to throw the ball to. Ross needs to take a step forward and improve a bit. Pettis needs to become more consistent. Daniels needs to step in and replace Perkins's production. Ideally need at least one of Lenius or Renfro to take a decent step forward. And ideally, we need someone that is either coming in in this class, was redshirting, or whatnot to take a step forward. Getting the WR grouping to get to 1999 or 2000 levels would be a massive win for this group next year.

    The other thing that isn't being talked about that can help a lot in the passing game will be leveraging an improvement from Gaskin in the receiving game as well as taking advantage of McGrew.
  • SweatpantsGeneral
    SweatpantsGeneral Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 2,186 Founders Club

    *couple of millennia