Stats: Greg Olsen Has The Potential To Be Even Deadlier With Our New Rookies

[Saca312]

Greg Olsen is arguably one of the league's best tight ends to date. His reliability, durability, and consistency enables him to be called one of the elite.

Coming off a third consecutive 1000 yard season - only TE in history to do so - it's hard to imagine him getting any better. However, when looking at the stats, his potential may have actually been limited.

The Panthers haven't had a true slot receiver last year, so Olsen was to compensate in that role. As the stats show, that was primarily where he was lined up most of the time.

However, it was obvious that wasn't the best way to use him.

As you can see, Olsen accounted for most of the work out of the slot, but it wasn't his best position. He produced far more when not there.

Olsen is at his best when he's able to exploit zone defenses and get himself open. For example, put him in a few flood concepts and let his route-running expertise and speed overtake the defense. Olsen coming from the slot limits what he's able to do.

With guys like McCaffrey, Samuel, and even Shepard at play to take snaps from the slot, Olsen is more free to be able to play where he's most deadly at. He potentially could be even better this upcoming season because of our new rookie additions, and that's a scary thought for the NFL.

Just one small little detail that shows how deadly our offense could be.

[L-TownCat]

Maybe not having a true slot receiver is the reason our offense was stagnant instead of needing a second tight end?

[LinvilleGorge]

6 minutes ago, L-TownCat said:

Maybe not having a true slot receiver is the reason our offense was stagnant instead of needing a second tight end?

I still can't wrap my mind around why we didn't simply run more tackle eligible plays. We were running all those double TE sets because we needed help in protection, but we almost exclusively used the second TE as a blocker. If you're going to use the guy almost exclusively as a blocker, just put another damn OL out there already instead of trying to use your backup TE as an extra blocker while rarely asking him to actually run a route.

[panthers55]

8 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I still can't wrap my mind around why we didn't simply run more tackle eligible plays. We were running all those double TE sets because we needed help in protection, but we almost exclusively used the second TE as a blocker. If you're going to use the guy almost exclusively as a blocker, just put another damn OL out there already instead of trying to use your backup TE as an extra blocker while rarely asking him to actually run a route.

Because if you line him up as a second tight end defense don't know if he going to block or be a receiver. If you line up an extra OL you are limiting your options and signaling to the defense what you are going to do.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, panthers55 said:

Because if you line him up as a second tight end defense don't know if he going to block or be a receiver. If you line up an extra OL you are limiting your options and signaling to the defense what you are going to do.

I'm assuming they watched a little bit of tape on us. If they did, then they pretty much already knew.

[panthers55]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I'm assuming they watched a little bit of tape on us. If they did, then they pretty much already knew.

There is a difference between thinking they know what we are going to do and realizing we only a few choices based on the personnel we have on the field. The more the defense has to cover during a play the more likely they may be to make a mistake or not cover all of our options. You don't telegraph what you are going to do. Football 101.

[csx]

7 minutes ago, panthers55 said:

Because if you line him up as a second tight end defense don't know if he going to block or be a receiver. If you line up an extra OL you are limiting your options and signaling to the defense what you are going to do.

Not really. The extra tackle can help with both run blocking and pass blocking.

[panthers55]

Just now, csx said:

Not really. The extra tackle can help with both run blocking and pass blocking.

Yeah really. Can they be an receiver and actually catch the ball?

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, panthers55 said:

There is a difference between thinking they know what we are going to do and realizing we only a few choices based on the personnel we have on the field. The more the defense has to cover during a play the more likely they may be to make a mistake or not cover all of our options. You don't telegraph what you are going to do. Football 101.

Ed Dickson: 478 snaps, 19 pass targets. That's less than 4% of the time that Dickson was on the field that he received a pass. It'd be interesting if anyone has compiled stats on the percentage of time a tackle eligible is targeted with a pass. I have a suspicion it wouldn't look much different than that. We were basically treating Dickson as a tackle eligible.

[Saca312]

Just now, panthers55 said:

Yeah really. Can they be an receiver and actually catch the ball?

I don't even know if Dickson can do that half the time.

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, panthers55 said:

Yeah really. Can they be an receiver and actually catch the ball?

When lined up as a tackle eligible? Yes, they can.

[UpstatePanther]

34 minutes ago, L-TownCat said:

Maybe not having a true slot receiver is the reason our offense was stagnant instead of needing a second tight end?

Don't tell Sanjay that

[Ricky Spanish]

29 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I still can't wrap my mind around why we didn't simply run more tackle eligible plays. We were running all those double TE sets because we needed help in protection, but we almost exclusively used the second TE as a blocker. If you're going to use the guy almost exclusively as a blocker, just put another damn OL out there already instead of trying to use your backup TE as an extra blocker while rarely asking him to actually run a route.

In all fairness to the team, I don't think we had any linemen left at that point...

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, Cracka McNasty said:

In all fairness to the team, I don't think we had any linemen left at that point...

LOL! Honestly, probably not terribly far off from the truth.