Because of all the interest in this thread, I've place all of the video content of Patrick Mahomes II's college career, and draft day goodness into a single post that can be found here. Enjoy! [Reply]
Originally Posted by suzzer99:
Next time we play the Pats, Kelce needs to drag his entourage to the opposite side any time Mahomes scrambles.
It's not a bad idea. Belichick is so damn hell-bent on not letting Kelce beat him (did the same thing against us in the playoff game and even in Wk1 last year). He's going to have guys shadowing Kelce the whole time and if you can drag those guys somewhere else during a scramble drill, the Hill/Watkins/Robinson/Conley pack of jackrabbits running around in space is more than enough firepower to find a patch of grass somewhere for Mahomes to throw it to. [Reply]
I wouldn't be surprised if some of our offensive success at the end of the game was from using Kelce as a decoy or to pull defenders away from the primary target. [Reply]
Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19:
No, but Carrington Harrison did. He basically tried to make the case that keeping Wilson would have been better than getting Watkins when in reality Watkins is twice the player he is. Whether he’s making as many catches or not, he demands a certain level of attention that Wilson does not.
They're different and Watkins certainly has a higher ceiling.
But Wilson never got due credit 'round here for his athleticism and ability in space. To this point Watkins' key contributions, at least on the statsheet, have been largely YAC yards and the ability to create after the catch. That's something Wilson was truly excellent at.
Is Watkins more valuable than Wilson and additional defensive help would've been? That's a tough question, especially when Watkins had such a difficult time being a factor last week in a game where Belichick was clearly content with putting all his efforts into Kelce.
As a #1 guy, Watkins is clearly better than Wilson would be. As a #2 he's better than Wilson would be. But when you start to get down to Watkins as a 3rd or even 4th option, you have to wonder if you don't have diminishing enough returns in that role to have been better served spending that money elsewhere.
It's not a question of pure stats, but rather strengths and how we're using them. Wilson wouldn't have been quite as impactful as Watkins in Watkins present role, but if he's 90% as effective (and I think that's an arguable position), you'd have to see that being a poor return on the investment. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
They're different and Watkins certainly has a higher ceiling.
But Wilson never got due credit 'round here for his athleticism and ability in space. To this point Watkins' key contributions, at least on the statsheet, have been largely YAC yards and the ability to create after the catch. That's something Wilson was truly excellent at.
Is Watkins more valuable than Wilson and additional defensive help would've been? That's a tough question, especially when Watkins had such a difficult time being a factor last week in a game where Belichick was clearly content with putting all his efforts into Kelce.
As a #1 guy, Watkins is clearly better than Wilson would be. As a #2 he's better than Wilson would be. But when you start to get down to Watkins as a 3rd or even 4th option, you have to wonder if you don't have diminishing enough returns in that role to have been better served spending that money elsewhere.
It's not a question of pure stats, but rather strengths and how we're using them. Wilson wouldn't have been quite as impactful as Watkins in Watkins present role, but if he's 90% as effective (and I think that's an arguable position), you'd have to see that being a poor return on the investment.
Watkins had an easy easy TD early in the game if Mahomes sees him when NE fakes an all out blitz and drops a few guys back. It confused Mahomes who threw the ball quickly towards Kelce incomplete.
Watkins could be a #1 WR on this team. Its just that we have Hill. Wilson? Nope.
Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19:
Comparing Wilson and Watkins is dumb.
Watkins is our #4 option on one of the most explosive offenses the league has ever seen. Wilson is Miami’s #2 at worst. He’s obviously going to get better numbers probably.
Wilson is the perfect Alex Smith receiver. Great YAC ability but he is pretty poor tracking the deep ball.
Watkins is almost the complete opposite and fits Mahomes perfectly. Can get YAC but is really good drop. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
Watkins had an easy easy TD early in the game if Mahomes sees him when NE fakes an all out blitz and drops a few guys back. It confused Mahomes who threw the ball quickly towards Kelce incomplete.
Watkins could be a #1 WR on this team. Its just that we have Hill. Wilson? Nope.
You're exactly right - we have Hill. That's precisely my point.
Hill makes Watkins a luxury item. So why are we talking about what Watkins could hypothetically be when that's not the reality we live in? In this reality, he's at best the 3rd target on the squad.
Is that really worth spending that kind of cap space on? Especially when we're using him in a virtually identical manner to how we would be using Wilson? He's still a guy we're making a #3 option in the read most of the time and/or coming up with gadgety plays to find ways to get him the ball in space.
I will openly acknowledge that if Hill gets injured, Watkins will be much much MUCH better to have around than Wilson would've been. But with Hill on the field (and Kelce) is there any chance at all to get our money's worth here? [Reply]
Originally Posted by RunKC:
I’m surprised that we haven’t gone deep to Sammy. Are teams trying to take hm away?
You’d think that they would be hellbent on taking Tyreek away after the dude is clowning team after team.
This is going to get me in trouble, but I think it's a scheme/green issue. The scheme rarely has Watkins as the 1st read and I think there are times where Mahomes is so confident in his ability to get out of the pocket and create that he'll leave the pocket before getting to his 3rd read and try to make something happen. It's what he's comfortable with and this early in his career, he's going to default to it a little sooner than I'd like.
I also don't think we're trying to push downfield with Watkins quite as much as I'd expected, but there are undeniably times that he's getting down the field.
Pat's not getting sacked at all because his feel for pressure is exceptional. But he's also abandoning ship pretty damn quickly at times. I've been a little more critical of our OL than most because I feel that pressure is getting to him sooner than the sack numbers suggest. But there are also times that he sees a way to get out to his right (where he's so incredibly dangerous and obviously very comfortable) and he takes it. With as often as Watkins lines up in that X slot, if Mahomes is jetting to his right and Watkins is on the left, he's just not gonna be a factor in the route downfield as much.
I just get back to where I started - it's damn hard to justify this kind of outlay for a 4th man in the offense (3rd in the passing game) when you have a roster with so many holes on the defensive side of the ball. Sammy's impressed the hell out of me with his toughness after the catch, but that's not a $16 million asset. And I think more teams have decided that they're not going to put significant effort into stopping Watkins because they'd just as soon try to get Mahomes moving away from him anyway.
Just a theory. But it's damn hard to argue that we've gotten our money's worth from Watkins through 6 games. It's only 6 games so I won't get too bent out of shape yet, but I'd really expect to see more from him to consider that a successful signing. [Reply]