Hypothetical GM: What to do about the Tight Ends?
by Hawkwind on Oct 24, 2008 3:57 PM MDT
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PrintLeonard Pope: OUT
I see that on the injury report and I wonder if "OUT" applies to Leonard in general in regards to the Cardinals. After showing some ability in the middle of last season he suffered the devastating injury in Seattle and has struggled to come back to full health and form.
With Ben Patrick gimpy and listed as Questionable, that leaves Jerame Tuman the only "healthy" TE on the 53-man roster and he's recovering from a torn hamstring that had him out the first five weeks of the season.
It's past the trading deadline so Tony Gonzalez talk isn't applicable, but what would you do about our TE situation if you were GM/Coach? Would you put Pope on IR? Sign another TE and release someone? Pull up Alex Shor from the Practice Squad? Figure out where Tim Euhus went? Adam Bergen? Bobby Blizzard? Is Leonard Pope's future with the Cardinals in question?
Chime in and let's keep the energy going for Sunday' big contest!
This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Revenge of the Birds' (ROTB) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of ROTB's editors.
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we really don't need much offense from the TE right now...
what we really need is more run blocking when they are in the game.
Two tight end formations
You want to keep the defense guessing and two TE formations are helpful in disguising which direction the ball is going.
We do need more offense out of the TE position. In the Miami game Warner was dumping off to Ben Patrick regularly and kept the chains moving. Also with the attention the WRs draw, the TE should be in single coverage in the middle of the field, critical for converting third and long situations.
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
good point...
i’m just so frustrated with them at this point and the fact that whiz played the position urks me even more. we haven’t been able to get any consistency from them to this point. i’m just ready to get rid of all of them and add an extra tackle to the line. maybe then we could run the ball.
Sounds like you're wishing we still had Fred Wakefield
I loved that guy. He made the Raiders 53-roster I believe after sitting out all of last year with an injury. He’d be handy right now being able to play T, TE, or DE.
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
It's affected the run game all season
We saw a lot of positive things in preseason out of the two TE formations for the running game. Granted, it was preseason, but we haven’t had Tuman healthy for the first five weeks (best blocking TE) and rarely saw the formation with Patrick and Pope, as both have been dinged off and on all season.
As for the difference for today, it’s all mental. I’m watching the Cards on the West Coast drinking coffee, not a beer. Cards rarely win when I’m drinking coffee. Warner seems to have more pressure coming on the East Coast and tends to make more mistakes. Having a capable TE to dump off to or pick up some rushers would help.
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
Tuman played well I thought
great game Cardinal fans. Sure everyone hates to lose but you guys have one hell of a offense and the defense is pretty good too. You guys will win the West for sure. I’m hoping we don;t draw your number in the playoffs.
I blog the Carolina Panthers at www.catscratchreader.com
TE
Great question Hawk and I’m sure this is one that Whiz and the front office have discussed. At this point, I’m not sure what they can do other than pull a guy off the practice squad though. Hopefully Pope and/or Patrick will get healthy b/c there really isn’t a better option out there. I wonder how quickly they’ll pull Shor up if Patrick or Pope aren’t able to practice early in the week.
Shor is a big guy and can block
He has decent hands but isn’t a big threat on the receiving end. I think he only had a dozen receptions in ten games for the Berlin Thunder in ’07. Most of those receptions were for first downs though if my useless NFLE memory serves me.
I bring up this question mostly out of concern for Pope. He was a Denny guy and seems to be going the way of most of Denny’s guys under Whisenhunt’s coaching: OUT. It seems odd that he comes out of the BYE in worse shape than he was going in. What happened? Screwed himself up playing Wii Fit? Pick-up game of soccer? It seems that Pope has one foot on the IR list and isn’t there yet because of Patrick’s uncertainty.
Whisenhunt’s “plan” for the two TE formation was to line up Elton Brown at TE. Should have had him go out for Dirk’s pass as the result would have been the same. BONEHEAD call! But that’s for another thread…
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
Pope
Yea he doesn’t seem like he has much of a future here. If I remember correctly he’ll be a RFA after this season which means they can bring him back on the cheap if they want to but we’ll see. He’s just such a big target but he’s not a great blocker or a threat as a receiver so he doesn’t really ‘fit’ anywhere.
Sounds like Shor and Tuman in a double tight would be good for the ground game. Maybe that would help.
We need something to work on the ground
Even if it’s a screen pass or a draw. I thought the one screen called Sunday looked good but Edge dropped the ball. The draws were HORRIBLE though. Warner’s arm is going to fall off at the rate he’s throwing…
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
Not a Pope fan.
I’ve never really been a big fan of Pope. Not a great blocker, too many penalties, not great yards after catch either. I hope we can pick up a decent blocker who can also catch. For now, I’m ok with Tuman. Good blocker, can catch if he needs to.
Welcome to RotB, Andrew.
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
pope is definitely on his way out.
He has great size as a redzone threat, but is too tall and lanky to get good leverage on the block. If they both were healthy now, I think Patrick would be the man. He reminds me of a mix bteween Crumpler and Gates. Great wheels, great hands and fearless across the middle. Once his blocking improves, he will be a complete threat. Woh, de’javu. It feels like I wrote this about three months ago. That’s right I did. And I still stand behind it. Pope can go. And shame on Tuman for playing possum to let us see how much we needed a blocking tight end vs a receiving tight end. But a little of both wouldn’t hurt.
Saw lots of Spach and 2 TEs
Spach didn’t catch an audible on one throw his way…he had a penalty for illegal formation too I believe. But there were a lot of penalties this week.
BUT…the running game was productive today and having two TEs for some formations only helped. I look forward to a MNF game with my mute button on!
We all leave footprints in the sands of time, just watch out for the discarded fish hooks!
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