LOVEMESOMEBILLS

To be fair I didn't argue about his stats tonight at all, I did happened to mentioned them though. Just rubbing a little salt in the wound, that's all.??

McCloud has played well tonight when you consider he has Jackson throwing the ball to him. That was a nice run after the catch he just had on the 4th & 2 play.

Lol. Alpha I'll agree with you on that, I knew Duke had no chance tonight with Jackson at QB before the game even started.?? EDIT: I do hope Duke makes the team as the #5-#7 WR though. He's bigger than I remembered.

A treasure is stretching it, I admit, but trash nope.

What it means is Zay is the #3 WR and as much as it's going to kill a bunch of people...he's going no where.

It's great he can block, I'm not going to deny that, but his job is to get yards & TDs. He's pretty good at one and not so good at the other. On a side note how's Duke doing against the scrubs, oh wait 1 catch for 9 yards, if he's going to be a good WR in this league he should be dominating the guys he's playing against tonight. For all the talking up the announcers did about Duke in the first quarter, they each ended it as they don't know if he'll even make the team. I do have to admit, I forgot how big he really is. I wouldn't mind him being the #5, #6 or #7 WR(If we keep 7 WRs), it just shouldn't come because they got rid of Zay.

No just no back at ya. Zay had to play with Peterman, Anderson, Barkley & a rookie Josh Allen, who ended up the teams leading rusher & breaking the team's single season QB rushing record. The year before he was a rookie and had Taylor & Peterman in a season Taylor broke the team's single season QB rushing record. Zay hasn't had anything to work with at QB either, it works both ways.

We'll see, but he's already turned 26 in May and time is running out for him to catch on an NFL team and do what you think he's going to do. Tick...Tick...Tick.

You mean like Zay having to play with Peterman, Anderson, Barkley & the teams leading rusher Josh Allen? Yup I would've rather had Brown's situation than Zay's. Also I just posted this in another thread... What has he done in the last 3 years that's is head and shoulders above Zay? Last year 42/715/5 vs 56/652/7, 2017 - 21/299/3 vs 27/316/2. In 2016 obviously Zay wasn't in the league, John Brown - 39/517/2, Zay's averaged pretty much those exact numbers except with more TDs over his 2 years career. So as I said he really hasn't done much more, if any, than Zay over the last 3 years. In fact he's been very much Zay like.

What has he done in the last 3 years that's is head and shoulders above Zay? Last year 42/715/5 vs 56/652/7, 2017 - 21/299/3 vs 27/316/2. In 2016 obviously Zay wasn't in the league, John Brown - 39/517/2, Zay's averaged pretty much those exact numbers except with more TDs over his 2 years career. So as I said he really hasn't done much more, if any, than Zay over the last 3 years. In fact he's been very much Zay like.

At 26 years old he would still be an NFL project who has shown he could fall off the rails at anytime. Like I said switch him to TE with his height, good hands & being a good blocker... he's too slow to play WR in the NFL and be good. I think in a year or so he could be a really good TE if he switched and put on ~25 pounds. He averaged 5 yards a catch last game on 3 catches and caught a 16 yard TD...do the math on the other 2 receptions. In reality he's had 2 nice catches against guys that either won't be in the league in a few days or will be riding the pine. 6 catches for 53 yards & 2 TDs versus subpar talent in preseason woo hoo!!!!

Amen brother.?

Zay doesn't need to "prove himself" to anywhere near the degree that Duke needs to. McBeane know what they have in Zay, they've seen him for the last 2 years. Would you or would you not you say both of those statements are correct? Duke has outplayed John Brown also, but I don't hear you saying anything about that, why not? John Brown hasn't really done anything more than Zay over the last 3 years, he's had 1 good year in his 5 year career. Duke didn't tryout the last 2 years is a telling statement to me. Most "skilled" players don't need 2 full years to prove themselves enough to make an NFL team, most teams are very forgiving or turn a blind eye with players that have real NFL talent quickly(Just look at Hunt).

He played with the 1st team on certain plays and during that time Josh didn't even target him and most of those plays were in the Redzone. He caught 3 balls for 15 yards and a TD all after halftime against 2nd and 3rd string players. His TD was a 16 yarder, which means the other 2 catches were for minus 1 yards. He averaged a whopping 5 yards a catch!!!!! In reality he made one good play in the 37 plays he was out there. The rest of the plays he didn't do much of anything except lose 1 yard on his other 2 catches. Now I ask, how in God's name is that looking good?????

Like I said we'll see. Duke hasn't been able to make an NFL roster since he first tried in 2016. Like I said I'll take the guy who caught 7 TDs last year, in real NFL action os opposed to a guy who caught 2 TDs in his 4 preseason game career against subpar competition. One is real the other.....not so much.

No, the plays that are stuck in my mind are plays where the defender was right with him, including both TD receptions and his other 2 catches last week that got the team nothing. The stats just reaffirm what I'm seeing. In each game he had a 16 yards catch(One of those was a tightly covered jump ball), his other 4 catches were for 21 yards or slightly above 5 yards a catch. But the problem is you can't see the obvious separation Zay gets, that's what makes your opinion skewed. He was open on a lot of plays playing against either #1 or #2 CBs of the opposing teams last year(I get this was due to our weak WR group). He also got a lot better with the drops as the season rolled on last year. I'll take the proven NFL tested guy vs the guy who hasn't faced any 1st string NFL CBs aside from a few plays last week, in which he had zero targets until the 1st team's defense was on the sidelines after halftime. Obviously Zay isn't a #1 WR for the team, but easily could keep improving into a really good #2 WR. As the #3 WR, which I believe he will be this year, he will be an excellent choice. Duke would do himself good to put on weight and make the move to TE. There I think he could excel in routes vs a LB or Safety. Once again JMO.

I believe he was considering retirement before the latest injury because as he put it he was in a "dark place". Many people believe this is tied to needing to take opiates for too long or needing taking too much to combat the pain he was constantly in. I've been there with multiple injuries requiring taking opiates for months & months at a time. By the time I was healed up enough to get me off them, I had been on them so long that they had to taper me off them so I didn't get most of the bad reactions of withdrawal.

Really, I didn't see it. Last game he got half of his catches in the preseason and ended the game with 3/15/1. Outside of the 16 Yard TD his other 2 catches netted minus 1 yard, yup great separation there. Also not sure how he's getting first downs, when outside of the 2 TD catches he has numbers like that. To the end part of the bolded, the only thing he's done in the NFL, outside of this year, is catch 2 balls for 10 yards the only 2 games he played in the 2016 preseason. So in 4 preseason games he's ever played in he's caught 8 balls for 63 yards & 2 TDs against garbage players who have no future in football.He's averaging less than 8 yards a catch in his 4 game preseason career. He doesn't get separation and it shows in his numbers, his 2 best plays were contested jump balls!! Please don't waste your time giving me CFL stats, I could care less what he did against players that couldn't make an NFL roster. To the first part of the bolded, this seems awfully close to you with Zay for the last several months, doesn't it? Sorry Alpha, I normally agree with your opinion quite a bit, but your views with Duke & Zay, I believe, are skewed. But then again that's just my opinion just like it's just your opinion on this matter. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

Yup, he's so good he's played in 12 games over a 6 year span. He's had 2 good games in his career and has played well this preseason, but he shouldn't be the highest paid back up QB, that's bad money management. He doesn't have an arm and floats long passes, which will work playing 2nd & 3rd string players who don't game plan for ya. JMO.

Not if Luck had told them in March as a few outlets have reported. It would encompass the entire Spring also. I don't really believe Luck held off for months, but on the other hand I also wasn't there. I just want to keep this thread chugging along.??

Great job, thanks for taking the time to do this Bandit, it's a well thought out roster. The only guy I think may make the 53 man roster that you don't have is Vosean Joseph. I don't think the team will want to expose him on waivers.

You believe that more than 75% of Zay's catches should be for first downs? There's a ton of "elite" WRs that don't hit that mark, some aren't even close. Antonio Brown - 104/63, Devonte Adams - 111/64, OBJ - 77/51, Tyreek Hill - 87/60, Juju - 111/68, Keenan Allen - 97/62, Amari Cooper - 75/53, Michael Thomas - 125/75, Adam Thielen - 113/74, Tyler Boyd - 76/54, T.Y. Hilton 76/55, Brandin Cooks - 80/56, Julio Jones - 113/80, DeAndre Hopkins - 115/81. That's 14 WRs out of the top 20 in first downs in 2018(And that's removing 3 TEs so it's really only the top 17 WRs) that couldn't achieve 75%(Or as in your response, what should be over 75%) first downs with their receptions. If Zay ended up with 60/60+ first downs he would've placed well within this sample, 60 would've tied for 12th last year.

Absolutely!! You hit the nail on the head. It's exactly what I've been saying since I first saw him in game action. He lacks speed, ability to separate & doesn't run crisp routes. If you don't have those abilities then you're not going to make it as a WR in the NFL. Making the switch to TE, I believe he will have a better chance of a long, impactful career in the league. He's 6'3" 225 pounds, blocks well and has good hands. Put on 25-30 pounds and switch to TE.

Obviously, but then again I was called clueless umpteen times by a poster so what do I know lol? First person I've blocked in 5+ years as a member of this board.

There's some saying that Luck may have let the team know as early as March that he was going to retire, but there were people inside the organization asking him to give it one more season before he decided to retire or not. This may or may not be true, but I've heard it multiple times, PFT was one of them.