Where is Devin Thomas?

[Salty]

I expect him to have a breakout game after the break. I think his play on Special Teams has been great and that he is def learning the offense. We def need his size in the redzone during the final push to the playoffs. the fade is going to be all his and that will helpl us alot. I am really liking this kid, dont know why but i do.

[GC8 Bunta]

That's completely insane. Throw the ball into coverage when you have an open receiver underneath? Just because you want to see the ball fly down the field? I'm really glad Zorn is calling the plays and not folks on this board. INTs are never good, they serve no purpose. They are always bad and should be avoided at all costs. And I've said this before: if you take a shot and it's incomplete and you had an easy completion to either pick up a 1st down or get positive yards, you're immediately behind in the down and distance. Then you start facing 3rd and longs, and then punting, and the whole thing unravels. You take your shots when you have favorable matchups, otherwise you complete what you can and live to fight another play.

Why this is so difficult to understand is completely beyond me. If we were gaining ~170 yards per game, I would understand, but we had ~430 yards of offense against Detroit.

I'm so confused.

We DO take shots down the field. What do you think the 50 yard TD to Moss was on Sunday?

I'm going to have to agree with you on this one.:applause:

Some people on here thinks the NFL is a game on Madden NFL 09. . .:doh:

[S4L]

He's too low on the depth chart to realize any significant looks during the game. Remember we have the leading rusher in the NFL right now.

Hell... James Thrash is eatin' his lunch right now... Did you see his deep catch in the game yesterday?

Moss

ARE

Thrash

Thomas

I'm more concerned about Santana's hamsting "tweak". I saw when he pulled up and I immediately said, OMG... That's like 4 or 5 games in street clothes. :doh:

[SKOALSKIN]

Moss had 2 catches for 40 yds his rookie season. It takes time for WRs to transition.

[Hooper]

The staff thinks more of Kelly -- he was clearly the better and more polished receiver in camp and just has better football instincts. It's why they're praying his knee will somehow get better and stay that way. If they didn't think Kelly could contribute this year and that Thomas could, they would have put Kelly on IR already.

Now who knows? Maybe Thomas surprises the staff and rises to the occasion -- he might have to if we suffer any kind of receiver injuries. But more than likely, he just keeps doing what he's doing -- which is learning how to play WR in the NFL while he contributes on special teams.

And as far as this, let's just "send him deep" way of thinking, well they did that a couple times earlier in the year and he couldn't get any separation. The NFL ain't the Big 10 -- everybody is fast.

[Blackest Eyes]

In all honesty, I kind of wish Zorn would just throw Devin in the mix for an entire game and see how well he does. I think when given the opportunities, he could contribute but with his few opportunities every game, he can only do so much.

And speaking of few opportunities...where the hell is Fred Davis? ugh.

[shakinaiken]

im pretty sure Devin ran a 4.4 at the combine, not a 4.34.... that would ridiculously fast for a guy 6-2, 215

[Voice_of_Reason]

im pretty sure Devin ran a 4.4 at the combine, not a 4.34.... that would ridiculously fast for a guy 6-2, 215

.06 is really splitting hairs. I mean, a good strong breeze from the air conditioner or somebody sneezing in the RCA dome can effect .06 seconds.

Some people on here thinks the NFL is a game on Madden NFL 09. . .

DING DING DING! Give the man a cookie. Madden has both made the casual fan smarter and stupider about play calling. Smarter because people know more what goes into it. Stupider because you can't just chuck it up there and hope good things happen.

In all honesty, I kind of wish Zorn would just throw Devin in the mix for an entire game and see how well he does. I think when given the opportunities, he could contribute but with his few opportunities every game, he can only do so much.

And speaking of few opportunities...where the hell is Fred Davis? ugh.

Read my long rant in Post #40 of this thread and all the answers will become clear.

[phishisthegreatstuff]

my guess would be that hes not open.... he did have one catch yesterday. Id love to see us get him more involved. Hopefully he can get open more often when he is in.

[1972FAN]

We got three guys with atleast 30 catches each. ARE has 33, Cooley has 40 and Moss has 42. Those three guys are going to catch the most passes.

Exactly, You go to your PROVEN PLAYERS first, taking nothing away from Devin, I wish we throw more to him as well, but right now guys we have alot of offensive weapons, hell Yodler has caught as many as Devin and thats not even counting Davis and recently added shaun Alexander, were very talent heavy. He'll get his turn, he just has to step up and take it when its going his way.

[Arsenic]

colliding into punt returners near you

[REDSKINZ-RIDEORDIE]

who.....Waldo????

No, Malcolm Kelly is Waldo..........I damner forgot about him, I hope he gets on the field soon.

[dustinwhylee]

If you see a yellow flag, Thomas won't be far.

:laugh:

To my knowledge, Thomas has kept away from penalties the past two games. But then again, I haven't been able to watch the last two games in entirety and I don't think Thomas has been getting looked at as often anyway.

[DarrellGreenFan]

I don't agree with you, VoR. Having a big WR is a major need for our team. That's why we tried to trade for Chad Johnson in the offseason. That's why we drafted three tall pass catachers in the second round. We wouldn't have tried so hard to address this need if it wasn't a big issue not having one.

The fact that we lack a good tall WR threat is showing up in that we are one of the top offenses in getting yards, but not in getting points. This was a problem last year, and it's still a problem. Having a tall WR is really helpful for short yardage plays- and with Devin Thomas's speed he'd be particularly good for throwing fade routes to.

Devin Thomas performing to his potential would also be great for creating mismatches. With Moss, ARE, Cooley, and Thomas on the field- it'd be hard to enough talented DBs to cover everyone.

You said that:

My guess is most plays are designed to go to either Moss or Cooley, with the other the second look, ARE the 3rd, and then the next receiver as the 4th

James Thrash has gotten quite a few balls thrown to him this season. Even if Moss and ARE are better, Thrash isn't going to draw as talented of a defender. Thrash is a great Redskin, but his talent level isn't the same as DT's. If we have DT going against a nickleback, we're probably going to have an advantage in size or speed.

So then the question is when he is going to be ready. That's Zorn's call, but the sooner the better. I'd like to see him get more of a chance and feature him more- since playing someone and giving them a shot is really the best way to tell if they are ready or not.

See, I think we have a good football team this year- a really good football team. In a year like this with no dominant teams- we should be working at getting ourselves good enough to be a super bowl winning team. Having a tall and quick WR would be a huge help for us in getting to the next level.

[hitmandm]

Listen...Devin from day 1 was tought to be a project--a player with great upside who wasn't there yet. that is exactly what we got. I think he has great upside. The few opportunities he has been given he has done the most with. he doesn't drop passes and seems to be getting better. Devin may not deliver this year or the next, buit he will be a very good football player in this league

[FrFan]

He had problems mastering the playbook, then he had bad plays, and an unlucky reversed TD. I hope he will score soon, that will help him. He has talent but he needs to earn Zorn's confidence.

[KokoMike]

We faked everybody out. We draft these big receivers and for some reason, our opponents think we have big receivers. In the meantime, Santana Moss is running circles around them. Brilliant!

[jaydogg3eb]

That's completely insane. Throw the ball into coverage when you have an open receiver underneath? Just because you want to see the ball fly down the field? I'm really glad Zorn is calling the plays and not folks on this board. INTs are never good, they serve no purpose. They are always bad and should be avoided at all costs. And I've said this before: if you take a shot and it's incomplete and you had an easy completion to either pick up a 1st down or get positive yards, you're immediately behind in the down and distance. Then you start facing 3rd and longs, and then punting, and the whole thing unravels. You take your shots when you have favorable matchups, otherwise you complete what you can and live to fight another play.

Why this is so difficult to understand is completely beyond me. If we were gaining ~170 yards per game, I would understand, but we had ~430 yards of offense against Detroit.

I'm so confused.

We DO take shots down the field. What do you think the 50 yard TD to Moss was on Sunday?

This guy is absolutely right on every level. I totally agree with this.

[xxprodigyxx]

I believe Zorn will get the rookies more involved when he feels the time is right. At the very least, Devin has been in more plays throughout the game, gradually. Hopefully this eventually leads to him getting more touches. I really don't care how Zorn involves the rookies. Just no reverses to Fred Davis, please.

[Voice_of_Reason]

I don't agree with you, VoR. Having a big WR is a major need for our team. That's why we tried to trade for Chad Johnson in the offseason. That's why we drafted three tall pass catachers in the second round. We wouldn't have tried so hard to address this need if it wasn't a big issue not having one.

The fact that we lack a good tall WR threat is showing up in that we are one of the top offenses in getting yards, but not in getting points. This was a problem last year, and it's still a problem. Having a tall WR is really helpful for short yardage plays- and with Devin Thomas's speed he'd be particularly good for throwing fade routes to.

Devin Thomas performing to his potential would also be great for creating mismatches. With Moss, ARE, Cooley, and Thomas on the field- it'd be hard to enough talented DBs to cover everyone.

You said that:

James Thrash has gotten quite a few balls thrown to him this season. Even if Moss and ARE are better, Thrash isn't going to draw as talented of a defender. Thrash is a great Redskin, but his talent level isn't the same as DT's. If we have DT going against a nickleback, we're probably going to have an advantage in size or speed.

So then the question is when he is going to be ready. That's Zorn's call, but the sooner the better. I'd like to see him get more of a chance and feature him more- since playing someone and giving them a shot is really the best way to tell if they are ready or not.

See, I think we have a good football team this year- a really good football team. In a year like this with no dominant teams- we should be working at getting ourselves good enough to be a super bowl winning team. Having a tall and quick WR would be a huge help for us in getting to the next level.

Funny, you started out by saying that you disagreed with me, but I'm not entirely sure that we aren't saying much the same thing.

I completely agree that having a big WR was a need, and they tried like hell to get one. I'm not disagreeing that Thomas, if he was playing well, wouldn't be an asset.

I also agree that a tall WR in the Red Zone would be great, for fades and also just basic come backers where the receiver is sheilding the defender from the ball with his body.

See BOLDED above: The key phrase there is "Performing to his potential." Which is he is not doing yet.

I also wrote in a post that I didn't know why they don't design some plays specifically for him. They should, I have no issue with that statement and I would like to see it.

As to why James Thrash is getting more balls, have you considered that the knock on Thomas so far is that he's not disciplined in running his routes, while that's a strenth of Thrash? So when Thrash is in, Campbell is more likely to find him where he's supposed to be? That's not even a knock on Thomas, he's a rookie who missed all of camp. I would expect a proven vet like Thrash to be running crisp routes.

Also note this: he's getting a lot of playing time while he's not getting a lot of catches. That's useful also. He's getting out there and putting stuff on film, which the coaches can use as a tool to get him better.

Also, because we do have a good team, you don't want to trust a rookie to play a huge role. "You might as well fall in love with a stripper as a rookie, they'll both break your heart." (Or something like that.) I'm sure they're trying to get Thomas involved, it's not like they are shelving him. But ultimately, he needs to prove to the coaches they can trust him. And it appears as though he hasn't quite done that yet.

I think the real problem here is that he missed all of camp.

[Ghent]

Here's how I see it. The reason why we picked MK & DT is because we needed a big red zone target. We're 7th in YPG and 24 in PPG so it's not a "why fix it if it's not broke" kind of thing. When we're in a position to score our offense breaks down. Why not give Thomas some targets in the endzone and use hime for the exact reason why we picked him in the first place? Or we can continue to kick field goals.

[hitmandm]

Rookie WRs have a tough time adjusting...he is no different. He is third or fourth option on a team with pretty good options.

[Voice_of_Reason]

Here's how I see it. The reason why we picked MK & DT is because we needed a big red zone target. We're 7th in YPG and 24 in PPG so it's not a "why fix it if it's not broke" kind of thing. When we're in a position to score our offense breaks down. Why not give Thomas some targets in the endzone and use hime for the exact reason why we picked him in the first place? Or we can continue to kick field goals.

All I'm going to say is that if you thought of that, then maybe, just maybe, somebody on the coaching staff might have thought of it already.

CLEARLY there's a reason. We don't know what it is. Maybe he's screwing up the routes in practice. Maybe it's the lack of time with JC, and they are not hitting on the fades, maybe it's because they think that somebody else is better. I don't know. But SOMEBODY at Redskins Park has had this thought and I REFUSE to believe they are not working on it. The fact that it hasn't happened says that there is something going on that we don't know, and guessing what it is should be left to BMitch, Riggo and JLC.

[hitmandm]

DT and MK need to be developed. We are developing them. Just having them out there or their head in the playbook is developing them. It took JC and Carlos Rogers 3-4 yrs to develop and they were first round picks. Mk and DT have been here 8 games. Rocky McIntosh barely played his first year and he was drafted before any of them. It might take 2 yrs or more to develop them. We all need to get a grip I think.

[Ghent]

All I'm going to say is that if you thought of that, then maybe, just maybe, somebody on the coaching staff might have thought of it already.

CLEARLY there's a reason. We don't know what it is. Maybe he's screwing up the routes in practice. Maybe it's the lack of time with JC, and they are not hitting on the fades, maybe it's because they think that somebody else is better. I don't know. But SOMEBODY at Redskins Park has had this thought and I REFUSE to believe they are not working on it. The fact that it hasn't happened says that there is something going on that we don't know, and guessing what it is should be left to BMitch, Riggo and JLC.

Maybe someone can explain this concept of learning how to run a route. Is it really that difficult? How hard is it to send him to the back of the endzone for a jump ball. Kind of like the one Roy Williams pulled in for Dallas yesterday.