I was surprised to see this news today...I thought scheffler was going to be in the mix over in Denver.Denver TE Daniel Graham can catch, no question. As a senior at Colorado, Graham led the the nation in receiving for a tight end. But his blocking abilities were discovered in New England, and receiving took a back seat. Now a Bronco, Graham's entire arsenal will be used on every down according to HC Mike Shanahan. No matter what the situation is Graham will be in the huddle. "A guy like that you don't want to take off the field," Shanahan said.
What's up with Scheffler?
2 TE O? Didnt work for Koitite but you never know!
This sounds like breaking news, but this is actually the way that Denver has always operated. During the entire Mike Shanahan tenure, Denver has always had two distinct types of TEs that fit into two distinct types of roles. There was the "receiving TE" (Shannon Sharpe, Desmond Clark, Byron Chamberlain, Jeb Putzier, and now Tony Scheffler) that got all of the fantasy publicity. He was basically an overglorified WR who worked the middle of the field and who constantly attacked the zone between the linebacker and the safety on bootlegs. This is the guy that Shanahan's offensive system was pretty much designed to feature. Whenever the QB rolls out, his first check is to see if the Safety is double covering the deep WR- if he's not, throw deep. The second read is the TE- if the safety is covering deep, then that means either the LB is covering the TE (in which case the QB tucks and runs), or else the LB is cheating up to the LoS to stop the QB from taking off (in which case the QB dumps over his head to the TE for 12-15 yards). From Cutler's limited action last season, it looks like the bootleg is going to remain a staple of Denver's playbook, so the receiving TE should still have plenty of value.Still, for all the pub the receiving TE has gotten, there has always been a second group of TEs working in the background- the blocking TEs, guys who are basically just offensive linemen that are allowed to talk to the media and who get all of the love in the red zone. First there was Dwayne "House" Carswell, who was the Shannon Sharpe of the blocking TEs (he even made the pro bowl once), and recently there has been Stephen Alexander (who is only a mediocre blocker), and now Chad Mustard and Daniel Graham. Just to prove that these guys are really glorified OLinemen, Carswell actually got moved to Guard late in his career, and Chad Mustard has spent a lot of this camp playing Tackle. Denver also has a fun little 2-TE formation where they wind up motioning one of the TEs into the backfield before the snap and turning them into a Fullback, going from 2-TE to offset-I. These guys generally see the field much more than their receiving brethren, just because the receivers get pulled in short yardage and goal line situations. They also are generally pretty decent receiving threats in their own right, although their targets are generally limited.So anyway, as of right now, it seems everything is progressing according to script. Where we might see Denver deviating from its history a little bit is if they get Graham a bit more involved in their passing game (as I suspect they will). It's entirely possible, though, that Graham sees twice as many snaps on offense this year as Scheffler, yet Scheffler still posts the better receiving numbers. We really won't know WHAT Denver's passing game will be with respect to the TEs until we start actually seeing them in real game situations.
If history has taught us anything, it's don't believe a word that Mike Shanahan says.
If history has taught us anything, it's that this is the Jason Voorhees of Fantasy Football Myths. You can chop it with a machete, drown it in a lake, send it to hell, cryogenically freeze it, and blast it into outer space, but it's just going to keep coming back.
Didn't they draft him in the 2nd? I thought he looked good as a receiver as a rook. Maybe that foot is worse than they are letting on?Or, of course, there is the ol' standby: "This is clearly a ploy to mo..." You know the rest.
Didn't they draft him in the 2nd?
