Up until this point, I have unfairly defined QJ’s rookie season based on two things:
Dropped passes on key critical moments.
How he compares to other receivers in his class.
After watching this video, some positives that I’ve learned.
- YAC is there
- Separation is there
- Target shares are there
- A lot of PI calls (a good thing)
- His strengths are harder to correct/his weaknesses easier to correct.
He’s not Buster Davis. Those were some hard earned yards and catches. After that other post getting locked, that’s all I’ll say 🤐
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PFF grades/stats from his rookie year
https://preview.redd.it/rs9qqbh00brc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0be35cf30650faf704e8b8bf0581dd518fcfbba4
I have faith that he is putting in a lot of work this off season, he has a year of NFL experience, and Harbaugh will utilize him properly.
My argument this offseason has been this:
– QJ was drafted to be a project WR who excels at making plays after short yardage catches.
– We were repeatedly told by the coaching staff that he is not a Mike Williams type player or replacement
And then when Mike went down, QJ was asked to be a Mike Williams type player and replacement.
The drops are terrible. He’s a professional NFL WR and needs to fix them. That’s fine.
But certain people on this sub continuously scream about him being a bust after year one when he was forced into a position that he (and we) were told he absolutely would not be playing.
He has the YAC skills, he has size and physicality, he can get separation (but needs to work on getting off the line).
The guy is a bonafide talent if he’s used correctly.
He’s not a deep ball or jump ball receiver and calling him a bust because he can’t do a thing he wasn’t drafted to do is silly.
Two things. Those drops are very disappointing. Two, our Oline was fucking awful last year. Herbert was running for his life on more than half those passes.
Are your opinions on separation based only on targets? Because PFF & ESPN separation (which are all routes) are NOT good. I don’t have PFF’S on hand (theirs isn’t public, they’ve just tweeted out the data before), but ESPN’s separation over expected (where exact positions are taken from the pad sensors) has him 105th of 109 qualifying WRs.
I watched some Herbo highlights the other day and there was a huge 3rd down play (I think it was the Lions)
Herbert was running for his life, QJ got open, and caught it with his hands. Fingers crossed for next year. I am not saying it makes up for the other stuff, but QJ kept that drive alive because Herbo was going to get sacked on a 3rd down.
For sure think we need to give Q one more season before we make any judgement call on him. But he seemed like a “big brain” reach for telesco (most analysts worth their salt thought we’d draft Jordan Addison, Zay flowers or dalton kincaid and literally all 3 of them were far better. Addison made lemonade out of lemons when Jj and Kirk went down).
My only concern this year is we try to be clever again and hope for a steal at receiver that misses instead of a clear blue chip prospect at #5. Obviously Jh2 > tt
Idk man, when I look at this video, it’s just littered with egregious drops, to an inexcusable level. And when the drops are a little more excusable, e.g. he has to adjust and make a one hander or a guy is kind of draped all over him, it still feels like he could help himself by just being not atrocious at generating separation. Ultimately, if he is going to be less than stellar at separating, herbert has the velocity and accuracy to still get him the ball, but he has to be a contested catch guy (which is a weakness of his rn), not to mention he has to get his wide open drops to zero.
Also this video leaves out all the times he wasn’t targeted because he got absolutely erased by a cb on a route, which happened way too often. Heck, you can see some of that here where Herbert’s deep passes are uncharacteristically off and it’s kind of obvious qj got manhandled by the cb and couldn’t get to where he was expected to be.
He has a couple decent reps for sure, but he would have to replicate those few catches he has where he breaks 2-3 tackles every single time he has the ball in his hands to make up for his other flaws and be a playable wr in my eyes, otherwise how can you ever play him on a third down situation or on any drive late in a close game with his anti clutch drop tendencies?
QJ is also judged on opportunity cost. There were several receivers we could have taken instead who had far more impact as a rookie. Maybe not fair to the player but hard not to think that way. If we didn’t have to watch how successful flowers was with the Ravens for example it wouldn’t have been so painful
Well…. When you put it like that.
Burn the tape.
This is his rookie year as far as I’m concerned.
Man rewatching those drops after watching it live on the TV last season got me all frustrated again hahaha
I’m optimistic he’ll pull out a 700+yd season this year now that Jim/Greg are at the helm and are able to use him correctly.
Well most likely draft a WR to replace Mike Wills role and have Palmer take over Keenan’s role
If we don’t get MHJ/Nabers/Rome in the first round, truly hope we stock up on drafting 2 WR in the later rounds like Rice, Baker, Coker, Cornelius, Means, Weaver, or Vele to name a few that I liked
He’s going to be fine. The talent is there, just needs to work with Justin a little more and get comfortable using his hands instead of his body to catch these balls.
I noticed:
1. For some reason a lot of those dropped cross routes he was trying to underhand catch. Not only does it look awkward but it’s not necessarily the best way of catching it.
2. He’s 6’4, high point those deep balls instead of trying to catch them on the run. There’s a time to do either and the more reps he takes the more he’ll understand that. I understand it’s not how he played in college but that’s crucial for him. Can’t be that big and not be able to do that. He’s giving up one of his strengths and allows the smaller corners the ability to play the ball.
The guy has all the tools. The plan wasn’t for him to be WR2. I was as disappointed as anybody, but I’m not writing him off after one season.
He’s gonna be fine, he just had some jitters his rookie year.
I hate how everyone overreacts and thinks he’s not even gonna be on the roster in another year.
Remind me! 1 year
The drops are really the only thing I’m worried about. He seems like a good kid, and I get the feeling he’s heard all the noise and is working on it. I have faith he’ll be ok. Still think we need one of the big 3 WR’s this draft.
Came away thinking I don’t want him starting next year unless there is massive improvement. I don’t think he’ll ever surpass Palmer on the depth chart and I think Palmer is a high end #3/low end #2.
If anything this reaffirms my belief that they’re going Nabers/MHJ.
I feel like these comments are a little bit too high on hopium. His separation is not good and he absolutely gets erased at the slightest hint of contact which is a bad thing for a receiver that’s already a mediocre separator and his hands are bad. At least with Mike despite being a mediocre separator he was probably the best receiver in the league at playing through contact and his hands were strong at the catch point. You can’t be bad at all the things that happen before the catch and during the catch.
I don’t really have high hopes but maybe he’ll prove me wrong.