Another Receiver is Recommended

[Matthias]

At this point, I don't see us making noise for a championship with this current group of receivers.  Particularly when I take a look at our starting two.  Now, KB has been balling it up.  He is what I consider as having the potential in being the best possession receiver in the game today.  Funchess has been serviceable as the number two.  My biggest problem here is, both KB and Funchess are the same receiver, with obviously KB being the better guy.  I suggest we trade Funchess to a WR needy team.  To be completely honest, Funchess has reached his max potential in my opinion.  I don't see him doing any better than what he's done in the past.

Now when we look at our other receivers, Russell Shepard wouldn't make a dependable number 2.  My philosophy when it comes to receivers has always been to have a star number 1, and to have a number 2 that could take over games when called upon. (I'm probably spoiled from the Smitty/Moose days.)  So behind Russ, you have Damiere Byrd and the rookie Curtis Samuel.  Neither of these guys would make a dependable 2, and Samuel at this point in his first year is nothing more than a gimmick player.  This bring me to my next question, who out there available in free agency or by trade could come in and be a good number 2 to help us stabilize the offense?

There certainly aren't a lot of quality guys out there in free agency I believe could fill our need.  I see some old names out there, but you question if they have anything left in the tank.  To name a few: Stevie Johnson, Eddie Royal, Victor Cruz, Corey (Philly) Brown.  Out of that list, if he could still play, perhaps Stevie Johnson could come in and make things happen, but I doubt it.  So if not in free agency, who could we trade for that has potential?  My answer is Dontrelle Inman of the San Diego Chargers.  When Keenan Allen went down for them last year, Inman came in and did a pretty good job.  If you take a look at his stats, he's shown he got some speed to him, and has the ability to break out for touchdowns.  At 6'3", he runs a 4.47, which gives Cam a sure target who can spread the defense.

There you have it, Inman would be the perfect 2 for our offense.  I was impressed last year with his play against the Panthers, and he even scored a touchdown against Josh Norman.  When it comes to what we have to offer the Chargers in order to get him, honestly I don't know what it would take.  Obviously it wouldn't take a high round draft pick, but at the same time, I don't believe the Chargers would give him up for small potatoes.  In spite of having a crowded receivers core, very crowded, they still love Inman's potential.  Then again, they did pick up Mike Williams from Clemson.  Like I said, their receiving core is very crowded.  I would start negotiations with a fourth round pick, with the potential of adding a sixth.

 

[panthers34]

I didn't really see us going anywhere with our even worse WRs in 2015 but look how far we got. We actually have a pretty solid WR group right now with a good combo of size and speed. 

It's really on the O-Line to protect Cam and give him enough time to find his weapons down field. 

[csx]

The big two looked great

[Jeremy Igo]

Benjamin, Funchess, Samuel, and McCaffrey should be enough receiving talent for any NFL offense. 

[imminent rogaine]

WR talent is not our problem and having huge targets hasn't proven to help cam's accuracy one bit (see 6'4" Ed Dixon). OC talent is our problem. Shula is trying to square-peg/round-hole our entire offnse: our WRs, our Rbs, even our QB...OUR ENTIRE OFFENSE. The guy is dense and inept.

[therealmjl]

5 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Benjamin, Funchess, Samuel, and McCaffrey should be enough receiving talent for any NFL offense. 

Seriously.

Its like Samuel has become an afterthought in the "evolve" offense 

[uncfan888]

Just now, mjligon said:

Seriously.

Its like Samuel has become an afterthought in the "evolve" offense 

There is no evolution. Shula sucks. He's going to get McCaffrey killed

[Matthias]

1 minute ago, mjligon said:

Seriously.

Its like Samuel has become an afterthought in the "evolve" offense 

We are truly yet to see what Samuel can do.  I would love to see him get more snaps and have him run a full route tree.  I've never been one for the jack of all trade type of players, but I want to see if he can open the defense down the field.

[Matthias]

27 minutes ago, panthers34 said:

I didn't really see us going anywhere with our even worse WRs in 2015 but look how far we got. We actually have a pretty solid WR group right now with a good combo of size and speed. 

It's really on the O-Line to protect Cam and give him enough time to find his weapons down field. 

When we brought McCaffrey and Samuel in, I thought this offense would use a lot of short passing/dump off type plays to help our O-line with blitzing, but we failed to do that yesterday.  I don't feel the Bills took that away from us, but it felt like Cam was looking down the field due to not having the dump off available.  It still feels like we are running a deep ball offense, and if that's the case, I don't think our receivers can spread the defense like it did in 2015.  Even though his hands weren't great by any means, Ted Ginn could get down the field quickly.  Jerricho Cotchery also had some left in the tank, and he was a very dependable guy.  With that kind of a mix, and Olsen, it worked really well.  I didn't see us having the offensive season we had that year as well, but looking back on it, we did have that mix of speed and possession.

I don't know if we have that with this group.  Especially with KB and Funch being the same receiver who uses their body, and our speed guys either aren't that fast or they don't have the experience in Russell Sheppard and Curtis Samuel respectively.  I feel if we are still going to run the same deep ball, waiting for receivers to get open offense, we need to stabilize that with a guy who can get open using receiver's skill. (Running stunts)

Many mentioned the evolved offense.  If this is the group we are going to ride and die with, we need those dump offs more frequently than ever.  The O-line made mistakes and both of our tackles missed blocks, but there were plenty of plays that looked like it took too long to develop.  Cam holding the ball, and he's never been a pocket movement type guy.

 

[L-TownCat]

Remember when Ron said "we didn't use Funch correctly"? 

In your minds what has changed to make you think they are even trying to utilize Funch?

Additionally what have you seen from this coaching staff that shows you we can properly utilize any of our weapons correctly?

 

[Matthias]

Just now, L-TownCat said:

Remember when Ron said "we didn't use Funch correctly"? 

In your minds what has changed to make you think they are even trying to utilize Funch?

Additionally what have you seen from this coaching staff that shows you we can properly utilize any of our weapons correctly?

 

Funch is just a guy who uses his body to make plays.  He's not fast enough nor can change direction to be a sure receiver.  A lot of people had him as a tweener between TE and WR, and he's turned out to be just that.  If they are trying to make him to be a receiver who runs the full route tree, then perhaps we aren't using him correctly because I don't think he will ever be able to do that.  KB also uses his body, but interestingly enough KB has better receiver instincts.  Of course this is all just my opinion as a fan.

I believe this coaching staff is still trying to run a deep ball offense.  They haven't evolved it enough to use quick passes.  If we are going to run this same system, we need a receiver who can run those routes and spread the defense.

[L-TownCat]

2 minutes ago, Matthias said:

Funch is just a guy who uses his body to make plays.  He's not fast enough nor can change direction to be a sure receiver.  A lot of people had him as a tweener between TE and WR, and he's turned out to be just that.  If they are trying to make him to be a receiver who runs the full route tree, then perhaps we aren't using him correctly because I don't think he will ever be able to do that.  KB also uses his body, but interestingly enough KB has better receiver instincts.  Of course this is all just my opinion as a fan.

I believe this coaching staff is still trying to run a deep ball offense.  They haven't evolved it enough to use quick passes.  If we are going to run this same system, we need a receiver who can run those routes and spread the defense.

Could it not be said that with quality burners like Samuel and Byrd that we have those tools at our disposal, further reinforcing that this staff is completely lost on how to use them?

[brandon_87]

36 minutes ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Benjamin, Funchess, Samuel, and McCaffrey should be enough receiving talent for any NFL offense. 

You give that talent to any other OC on the league, it'd be unstoppable 

[Matthias]

1 minute ago, L-TownCat said:

Could it not be said that with quality burners like Samuel and Byrd that we have those tools at our disposal, further reinforcing that this staff is completely lost on how to use them?

Certainly could be.  I honestly would like to see more of Byrd, because he is probably our fastest guy.  After seeing what he could do in the preseason, why not give him the opportunity.  Yet I don't know.  As for Samuel, I don't know what to expect from him, but I certainly want to see more of him.