Evans 7th fastest WR (air yards)

[brenty]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Who-s-the-NFL-s-fastest-receiver-?urn=nfl-293467

 

thought it was pretty funny to see lee up there. Was the last bill id expect to be on there. well not dead last, you know what i mean.

 

anyway, interesting little read

[marauderswr80]

when Lee Evans was coming into the NFL he was one of the fastest WR's in the draft! Evans still is one of the fastest in the game. Remember the cowboys game on monday night when he caught Newman from behind when Newman had a 10 yard head start. Also the texans game when Lee's first 2 catches he already had 160 yards and 2 TD's he totally outran the defenders. I think Evans is top 5 in the NFL for speed.....

[jumbalaya]

unfortunately Lee plays half fast

[1B4IDie]

Lee will most likely always be on lists like this.

He is excellent at running in a straight line down the sideline and faster than almost CBs and all Safeties.

 

Asking him to run a different route or to go over the middle is where Lee cones up average to below average.

 

There is a risk/reward to going long but you have to take a few shots a game and Lee is one of the best in the game at the fly route.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Why So Serious?

[Hplarrm]

Lee will most likely always be on lists like this.

He is excellent at running in a straight line down the sideline and faster than almost CBs and all Safeties.

 

Asking him to run a different route or to go over the middle is where Lee cones up average to below average.

 

There is a risk/reward to going long but you have to take a few shots a game and Lee is one of the best in the game at the fly route.

It is in these measures that I think Evans actually has better skills than he has demonstrated fully in the real world because for the most part he has played in Bills Noffenses which were so badly designed and implemented that it made sense to fire the OC Schonert on the verge of the season beginning.

 

I think one of the most impressive things we have seen from Chan Gailey in comparison to the sophomorics shown under Turk/AVP ( a good guy but being elevated in mid-stream showed his failings as a nascent OC), Kragthorpe (so bad he got canned with time left on his contract), etc) is that finely with Gailey this year we are seeing what an entire O and pass game can produced when one intelligently uses the strengths and minimized the weaknesses pf players (and no one including Evans is perfect).

 

My estimation from watching too much football in general and way too much Bills football specifically is that:

 

1. You are correct that Evans is a great fly pattern specialist (in fact his record of more 70+ TD receptions than any other player over the last 5 or 6 years is an objective indicator of how good he is at this skill.

 

2. However, I do not think your complaints of him being less than average going over the middle are not supported by objective info.

 

Evans has not only been outstanding league wide in long TD, but the simple fact is that career wise he is pretty much third on the list of all time Bills receivers in receptions and yardage gained. Yes, in part this is due to his fly pattern success, but this also demonstrates and ability to catch shorter passes as he has racked up reception amounts which allow him to compare favorably on objective measures with the likes of Andre Reed, Dubenion and the rest.

 

Even better for Evans he has racked up his totals over a career which almost certainly will see him in the league for a long time and at least a couple of more years as the feature receiver for the Bills. The simple objective fact is that he collects catches, produces yards and scores TD that place him at the highest level of objective achievements by Bills WRs.

 

3. On the subjective side, it is true that Evans can be stopped and rendered essentially a non factor in specific games. However, the cost for stopping him can be quite huge for an opponent and can end up with the Bills exploiting weaknesses the opponent chooses to create in exchange for shutting down Evans. We have seen that big time this year in the success experienced by Stevie Johnson scoring TDs as he destroys the single coverage left for him to face as opponents shut down Evans by dting him over and under or slant the coverage his way.

 

The simple fact is that if Evans were as below average as you state going over the middle and on short passes then the obvious coverage is to have a CB stay deep on him and cut off the fly patterns and simply count on the "below" average Evans you claim exists to simply blow short and over the middle passes.

 

This simply is not the case. Evans is already third on the list of career Bills receptions because far from below average he needs to be covered underneath or his RAC ability forces one player to tackle him or see him peel off one of his 70+ yards TDs which he has simply led the NFL in producing the last several years.

 

Evans is no Jerry Rice. He can be stopped. However, we Bills fans have seen actual below average play by WRs in short patterns or over the middle such as Josh Reed simply dropping passes consistently his sophomore year or the recent (it is hoped to be simple episodes) of Stevie Johnson simply dropping a game winning TD against Pitts and a few too many drops last week.

 

Evans does make a failed play over the middle from time to time, but he has been no where near the below average consistent play Reed showed in his second season. The facts simply are that Evans is already among the career leaders in catches by a Bill and this objective showing would likely not be there if Evans were as below average as you claim.

 

Evans has never produced like the perrenial Pro Bowler we want, but this seems more attributal to ur #2 WRs being folks like a getting too old Peerless, a recalcitrant Moulds, or the total failure of the Jauron led Bills to make use of the talents of Evans and likely HOF player Owens.

 

There is a problem here in a lack of production, but based on objective evidence the problems seems to be more of one with the Bills play planning than Evans abilities.

[Buftex]

I am the greatest guitarist (air that is)!

[1B4IDie]

It is in these measures that I think Evans actually has better skills than he has demonstrated fully in the real world because for the most part he has played in Bills Noffenses which were so badly designed and implemented that it made sense to fire the OC Schonert on the verge of the season beginning.

 

I think one of the most impressive things we have seen from Chan Gailey in comparison to the sophomorics shown under Turk/AVP ( a good guy but being elevated in mid-stream showed his failings as a nascent OC), Kragthorpe (so bad he got canned with time left on his contract), etc) is that finely with Gailey this year we are seeing what an entire O and pass game can produced when one intelligently uses the strengths and minimized the weaknesses pf players (and no one including Evans is perfect).

 

My estimation from watching too much football in general and way too much Bills football specifically is that:

 

1. You are correct that Evans is a great fly pattern specialist (in fact his record of more 70+ TD receptions than any other player over the last 5 or 6 years is an objective indicator of how good he is at this skill.

 

2. However, I do not think your complaints of him being less than average going over the middle are not supported by objective info.

 

Evans has not only been outstanding league wide in long TD, but the simple fact is that career wise he is pretty much third on the list of all time Bills receivers in receptions and yardage gained. Yes, in part this is due to his fly pattern success, but this also demonstrates and ability to catch shorter passes as he has racked up reception amounts which allow him to compare favorably on objective measures with the likes of Andre Reed, Dubenion and the rest.

 

Even better for Evans he has racked up his totals over a career which almost certainly will see him in the league for a long time and at least a couple of more years as the feature receiver for the Bills. The simple objective fact is that he collects catches, produces yards and scores TD that place him at the highest level of objective achievements by Bills WRs.

 

3. On the subjective side, it is true that Evans can be stopped and rendered essentially a non factor in specific games. However, the cost for stopping him can be quite huge for an opponent and can end up with the Bills exploiting weaknesses the opponent chooses to create in exchange for shutting down Evans. We have seen that big time this year in the success experienced by Stevie Johnson scoring TDs as he destroys the single coverage left for him to face as opponents shut down Evans by dting him over and under or slant the coverage his way.

 

The simple fact is that if Evans were as below average as you state going over the middle and on short passes then the obvious coverage is to have a CB stay deep on him and cut off the fly patterns and simply count on the "below" average Evans you claim exists to simply blow short and over the middle passes.

 

This simply is not the case. Evans is already third on the list of career Bills receptions because far from below average he needs to be covered underneath or his RAC ability forces one player to tackle him or see him peel off one of his 70+ yards TDs which he has simply led the NFL in producing the last several years.

 

Evans is no Jerry Rice. He can be stopped. However, we Bills fans have seen actual below average play by WRs in short patterns or over the middle such as Josh Reed simply dropping passes consistently his sophomore year or the recent (it is hoped to be simple episodes) of Stevie Johnson simply dropping a game winning TD against Pitts and a few too many drops last week.

 

Evans does make a failed play over the middle from time to time, but he has been no where near the below average consistent play Reed showed in his second season. The facts simply are that Evans is already among the career leaders in catches by a Bill and this objective showing would likely not be there if Evans were as below average as you claim.

 

Evans has never produced like the perrenial Pro Bowler we want, but this seems more attributal to ur #2 WRs being folks like a getting too old Peerless, a recalcitrant Moulds, or the total failure of the Jauron led Bills to make use of the talents of Evans and likely HOF player Owens.

 

There is a problem here in a lack of production, but based on objective evidence the problems seems to be more of one with the Bills play planning than Evans abilities.

Nice assessment.

Thanks for the time you put into the post it is very good.

 

However I would argue that using Bills historical receiving records as an objective ruler is flawed.

 

A truer measure would be NFL reviving averages on a year by year basis for the same time period Lee Played. Which would prove to be average at best.

 

Also assigning a safety to watch the deep route is not as detrimental to the defenses ability to cover the entire field as you are giving credit.

A Safety will cover the entire half of the field 20-30 yards off of the line of scrimmage. If a pass is thrown the safety will react to the ball. It doesn't mean that the rest of the receivers are wide open. Not to mention that it doesn't happen nearly as often as some Bills' fans believe.

 

If you look at the aforementioned TD drop by Stevie Johnson. He was covered by a CB and a Safety over top, yet he still got open. He just wasn't able to catch the pass, he was thinking of what he was going to do for his TD celebration. He took a smart angle on the coverage, which something Lee still has trouble recognizing and adjusting to.

 

The best objective measure would be a break down of Lee Evans catches. Inside the hashes as compared to outside the hashes as well as length of the pass.

 

I would guess that an extremely large percentage of passes received would be outside of the hashes, and I would also guess that an abnormally % of receptions would be for 20+ yards as compared to other receives that have played at the same time in the NFL as Lee Evans.

 

Don't get me wrong Lee Evans is a good receiver, just not great. He would be an outstanding complementary receiver to a more complete WR.

 

50 Catches and 800 yards a year average is not impressive by any stretch of the imagination and it is embarrassing that 7 years of that pedestrian production puts Lee Evans as the #3 WR in Bills history.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Why So Serious?

[Hplarrm]

Nice assessment.

Thanks for the time you put into the post it is very good.

 

However I would argue that using Bills historical receiving records as an objective ruler is flawed.

 

A truer measure would be NFL reviving averages on a year by year basis for the same time period Lee Played. Which would prove to be average at best.

 

Also assigning a safety to watch the deep route is not as detrimental to the defenses ability to cover the entire field as you are giving credit.

A Safety will cover the entire half of the field 20-30 yards off of the line of scrimmage. If a pass is thrown the safety will react to the ball. It doesn't mean that the rest of the receivers are wide open. Not to mention that it doesn't happen nearly as often as some Bills' fans believe.

 

If you look at the aforementioned TD drop by Stevie Johnson. He was covered by a CB and a Safety over top, yet he still got open. He just wasn't able to catch the pass, he was thinking of what he was going to do for his TD celebration. He took a smart angle on the coverage, which something Lee still has trouble recognizing and adjusting to.

 

The best objective measure would be a break down of Lee Evans catches. Inside the hashes as compared to outside the hashes as well as length of the pass.

 

I would guess that an extremely large percentage of passes received would be outside of the hashes, and I would also guess that an abnormally % of receptions would be for 20+ yards as compared to other receives that have played at the same time in the NFL as Lee Evans.

 

Don't get me wrong Lee Evans is a good receiver, just not great. He would be an outstanding complementary receiver to a more complete WR.

 

50 Catches and 800 yards a year average is not impressive by any stretch of the imagination and it is embarrassing that 7 years of that pedestrian production puts Lee Evans as the #3 WR in Bills history.

You also present a reasonable analysis and correctly identify that additional information is need to do a proper analysis. The argument about whether he would be a good complement to a #1 or could be a good #1 with a complementary good #2 strikes me as a debate which is 5.9 of one or 6.1 of the other. Sure there is a difference but the difference is a pretty marginal one.

 

It strikes me that the difference in how productive Evans turns out to be in his career when one looks back on it obviously has as its basis how talented an athlete he is, but my sense is that good coaching, good planning, and quality teammates must make some difference,

 

When assessing Evans and looking for an explanation of why he is good but not great, I think it is pretty hard to deny that:

 

1. The offense he has played within has been developed for the most part by some pretty unproductive OCs.

2. Though the last two years have seen some notable talent and production by his peers he really has had miscast players due to their age or talent (Price, Josh Reed) as his compliments.

3. The game playcalling under Jauron has mostly been about emphasizing the D to keep things close and rarely has been an attacking offense in terms of the playcalling.

 

It is within this light that one should assess the competitive with virtually all Bills receivers career #s produced.

 

Given all the negatives he has worked with (unless you want to argue that game planning, play calling, or teammates are irrelevant- they do not dictate who is a great player but they are not irrelevant) I think it is simply a reasonable guess that the problem her is not that Evans is a below average player over the middle or in traffic (if he were he likely would be out of town or out of the league by now as a one-D player in a bad offense is pretty easily eliminated and never could be the #3 producer in many career Bill categories.

[BuffaloBillsMagic1]

You would think with all his speed down the sidelines the down and outs or button hook type of routes, would easily allow him to be open all day long 12 to 15 yards at a clip. How can this not be? Do we not run those routes and use him as a decoy or long option only?