Biabreakable

Ok that explains it then. I didn't know he was hurt during the game.

So did they reduce Locketts playing time because of some drops? Seems like an over-reaction on their part if that is the case. It is my opinion that Lockett is their best WR. So not using him more defies reason. Yet that is exactly what happened. He still outperformed the other players despite this, but hard to count on that if they don't let him play much.

I have some concern about how they used Lockett in the most recent game. D Baldwin WR 58 87% 6 targets 3 receptions 20 yards J Kearse WR 55 82% 6 targets 2 receptions 11 yards J Graham TE 55 82% 4 targets 3 receptions 42 yards P Richardson WR 45 67% 6 targets 3 receptions 35 yards T Lockett WR 27 40% 4 targets 4 receptions 99 yards I talked about this back in June that Locketts playing time and targets greatly increased after Graham was out with injury. Now Graham has returned and getting a lot of snaps. Also Paul Richardson is healthy and he had almost twice as many snaps as Lockett did as well. Then you looks at the targets, 3 players all had more targets than Lockett in the game against the Rams. Graham and Michael each had as many targets as Lockett had in this game. None were more effective than Lockett, which begs the question WHY are the Seahawks using these players more than their best target? Was Lockett injured at some point during the game? I don't have a good answer for that, but that is exactly what happened, Richardson and Graham only had 17 snaps each in week 1 against the Dolphin (21%) while Wilson had 64 (78%) so they were apparently easing these guys back into the offense. No more of that in week 2 however as Graham played a lot more and the unexpected emergence of RIchardson having a lot of playing time. So what does that mean for Lockett if this continues? Lockett only averaged 3 targets per game over the first 11 games of the 2015 season with Graham healthy. He isn't a rookie anymore, so maybe that means more action for Lockett even on fewer snaps, but the reduced playing time has me concerned he wont be as involved as I was expecting before the start of the season.

A Gameplan to Stop Kelvin Benjamin

Well that does shift things somewhat as far as the match up goes.

I agree that Green Bay likely won't be this good in run defense for the whole season. The match up is still a negative as far as the relative performance of defenses so far. That wouldn't be the only reason to not start Washington, but I do think it is a factor to consider. The Lions are more of a passing team anyways, and with Green Bays best corner (Shields) being out, the LIons will want to use their strength against the Packers weakness. I would expect more plays for Riddick as a part of that, although Washington can catch the ball as well, he didn't have any targets in the most recent game against the Titans. Abdullah did not have any targets either. Lions week 2 snaps T Riddick RB 51 65% A Abdullah RB 17 22% D Washington RB 11 14% So without Abdullah available, Washingtons snaps might increase to 20 or so. I do think Washington showed really good balance and burst on his run against the Titans where he spins out of a tackle attempt. He looked good there. If the match up was more neutral of favorable, instead of difficult, I think that would make him a better start than I think he is this week against a defense weaker against the pass than the run.

Adam Gase Looks Towards Browns He says the use of RB will be package based and they haven't decided which package they will start with.

I don't see the situation as barren unless you are completely overlooking Jay Ajayi. I would expect Damien Williams to be active again with Foster out. Pead seems like a back up for Drake. What is your opinion of Jay EBF? I don't recall ever hearing you talk about him.

It is only 2 weeks played so far so still early for evaluation of match ups. That said the Packers are leading the league in run defense after two games by a pretty wide margin. They have only allowed 78 rushing yards so far playing against the Jaguars and the Vikings. The league average is 209 yards. This is 39 rushing yards/game so far, the league average is 101.6 They have allowed 1.6 ypc the league average is 3.9 ypc Until a team runs the ball well against GB I think they need to be considered the worst match up for gaining rushing yards in the league right now. As a whole the NFL has been defending the run a bit better over the first two weeks than they did on average in 2015 by .2 ypc and 8 yards per game. So I would expect those averages to slip as more games are played and that will include Green Bay but for now this is not a match up you want to try to break the mold with. Washington can contribute as a receiver, so there is some reason for optimism there, however Riddick is going to get the majority of those opportunities. I think you are setting yourself up for failure thinking about starting Washington against the Packers this week.

This is how I see the last two suggestions playing out.

Great thread topic MOP thanks for starting this. For the Vikings the main slot defenders for the Vikings are Captain Munnerlin and Harrison Smith who most of the time plays the closed side (whichever side the ball is closer to) of the defense. Last week Smith played a lot more as a free safety than he usually does, as part of the game plan against Rodgers having Smith support as more of a center fielder. I am listening to this right now and they bring up an interesting idea of possibly having Anthony Barr play man coverage against Kelvin Benjamin. There are problems with doing this because it would force Barr to play too far outside, meaning he would be out of position to support against the run. So I don't see this match up happening too much, but it is something they may try to do in the red zone. Captain Munnerlin is a gritty defender who does well in run support and generally does a good job in coverage as well, although he certainly loses his match ups at times. He is short and not a match up the Vikings would want against Benjamin. So if the Pathers do try to force this match up by moving Benjamin to the slot, the Vikings may have Barr take him instead of Munnerlin. The slot receivers for the Pathers are Ted Ginn and Philly Brown although I am sure Benjamin and Funchess play in the slot as well. Ginn obviously has speed to burn but I think Munnerlin matches up well with these guys. If they are really worried about Ginn's speed they could put Trey Waynes on him. Xavier Rhodes has practiced this week and may be healthy enough to play in this game. If he does he still may be on a limited snap count however. Not sure how that ends up playing out. He has been used in man to man following Calvin Johnson and some other WR like Brandon Marshall in the past. Zimmer based on his comments from a press conference does not really like to do this if he doesn't have to. He prefers his corners to play a specific side. Having a corner like Rhodes follow a receiver in man coverage wherever they go, allows the offense to do other things to get the defense out of position with motion and formations. The Vikings have tried playing Waynes as a slot corner in practice and training camp, but that didn't go all that well and so until I see differently they prefer to keep him on the outside. I would expect the Pathers to look to match up Benjamin and Funchess against Waynes as this is what both the Titans and Packers have done, trying to take advantage of Waynes more than any other defensive back. As an aside, Tajae Sharpe beat Terrance Newman, Trey Waynes and Captain Munnerlin. So I don't think they picked on Waynes as much as the Packers were. They also have 2nd round pick Alexander from Clemson who has played a little bit. Munnerlin is in the last year of his contract and may not be kept after this season. So Alexander may be being groomed to take over the slot corner next season if they do not keep him. He can play outside as well. He might mix in if the Pathers are using 3 and 4 WR formations. I don't see a match up advantage for Pathers slot receivers. The main match up where they have an advantage is with Benjamin, Funchess, Olsen being larger than most defensive backs. Munnerlin is at a disadvantage against these players if they can get one of these players matched up against him. So it will be interesting to see what Zimmer does to try to limit this mismatch. I honestly don't know much about the Pathers defensive backs right now. Diggs has been playing out of the slot frequently.

Gee if only this had been discussed before. Miami RB Situation Official Arian Foster - All Foster news, all the time All aboard the J Train - Official Jay Ajayi Thread Kenyan Drake - the other Bama RB Damien Wiliams - RB - Oklahoma

Vikings Place Adrian Peterson on Injured Reserve

Zimmer on Diggs, Rhodes' Statuses; Panthers Prep When asked about Diggs not practicing today, was it an injury or precautionary? Zimmers says it was precautionary. Then follow up question asking Zimmer is he is confident Diggs will play? He says yeah.

That is some twisted logic for sure. You can talk yourself into anything with that kind of reasoning.