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zn
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Classicalwit
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wv ram
They lost faith in him and the reasons are pretty obvious.
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If that's true, AND they're right, he will do nothing in Dallas.
Right?
He should do better in Dallas if Dez Bryant does not come back. He did not fit here anymore because the Rams have much better receivers now. It would be a shame to take touches away from Kupp, Woods, Cooks, Gurley and Everett. And if Josh Reynolds makes progress, that will be yet another player that will be an option.
The time had come.
Well here's me repeating my own take, though that's getting old. So one last time.
You say the time had come for him? IMO the time came last off-season. McVay was never going to use him the way he is best used. I was saying before the season it could go that way. Last year though it would have cost cap space to cut him.
I disagree with a lot of your assessment. If you use a Tavon the way he could have been used, the other receivers
open more space for him. Then his big play threat potential is maximized. Do you take touches away from Kupp? Sure if it means touchdowns for a breakaway threat.
All Dallas has to do is use him the way Schott and Cigs already did in 2014/.15. Combined that's 83 catches, 88 runs, and 11 TDs on offense. As I said having other receivers just opens more space for that.
My take is that McV was just never going to program in the kinds of plays you use with a Tavon. He's not a running back, he's not a receiver, though he can do some things in both the running and receiving game. He;s an offensive weapon. Because of that he actually really was an effective decoy too. Why? Defenses paid attention to him. Do defenses pay attention to the guy you're describing? I mean if he didn't have that much to offer, as you apparently are suggesting, then why did defenses pay so much attention to him, to the point where he really worked as a decoy?
So there were things he could do (and still can do) in the running and receiving games, even though strictly speaking he's not really a back and never was a true receiver. There were things they could do with him, as 2014/15 showed, but you have to program those things in. I don't think McV was ever really interested in doing that. And that's not even a criticism. McV didn't draft Tavon. He didn't have to build Tavon type running or receiver plays into the offense for him, and so pretty much didn't. (The injuries didn't help.)
Dallas is saying they will use him about 12 plays a game (runs and passes), which is 192 in a season. The most he had with the Rams was 139.
Does Linehan watch tape and mistake what he sees and think a guy can make plays when he really can't?
....
What you have described is the offense running through Tavon. It was much more effective running through Gurley. With the complex machinations required to try to manufacture successful plays for TA, you would be, in effect, reducing the effectiveness of better players, and in some cases, Pro Bowl players. Those offensive schemes that you are lauding Cignetti and Shottenheimer for were terrible in scoring ranking, just terrible. But hooray for Tavon getting his 10 touchdowns I guess. I would not want to return to the days of Kenny Britt and Tre Mason under any circumstance. That was the dark age as far as I am concerned; we have first rate NFL players now.
I agree with you that the Rams would have been better off cutting or trading him before last year, but his salary made that impossible.
I also agree that he was adequate as a decoy. In that regard, I would have been on board with keeping him. His voluntarily taking a pay cut was a step in the right direction. Too bad it did not work out.
But with all of that said Z, we have to let him go, man.