Carolina Panthers need to get Jalen Coker more involved

Carolina Panthers need to get Jalen Coker more involved

We do have a bit of uh roster news for the uh the Carolina Panthers. Uh just to start off the conversation, Mike White to the practice squad. If you remember Mike White, I guarantee you it’s because he had a a couple bananas games for the Jets a couple years ago. Quarterback, by the way. True. Uh he threw for 400 yards in a game. I think it was a nationally televised game. Can’t remember if it was Monday or Sunday night, something like that. May have been a Thursday. Uh but he threw for 400 yards in a game. Had a couple other 300 yard games the next the next year. um seven starts in his career, I think 15 appearances. Um he’s bounced around a little bit, but once you you prove like beyond like you’ve done it, that you can throw for 400 yards in an NFL game, at least bounced around as a backup for a few years, like you’re going to get some shots. Um he’s been on the the Bills, he’s been on the Dolphins, he’s obviously been on the Jets. Now he’ll be signed to the practice squad of the Carolina Panthers. uh which I mean it’s obviously insurance, but it’s a pretty good indication they’re preparing for Bryce Young to not play this week, which we anticipated, but you know, with every action, it becomes more obvious, uh that it’s an Andy Dalton game. Uh what I want to focus on for the moment, we’ll get into the Andy Dalton of it all a bunch as the week goes on. Matter of fact, uh we have an a conversation that’s going to air tomorrow between myself and Mike Glennon, who Mike has played every role in the NFL, starter, backup, uh emergency quarterback, like the every different role you could possibly play. So, we talked to him about what the week is like with a backup quarterback taking over. That’s going to air tomorrow. I encourage you all to uh to tune in and check it out. Um but right now, I want to talk about why Jaylen Coker finished his first game back off injury with no catches. Jaylen Coker. When when they traded Adam Thielen this preseason, everybody had the same reaction. They can do this because of Jaylen Coker. They have a guy that can fill that role and it’s Jaylen Coker. Jaylen Coker last year after taking uh you know, I want to say taking a while. He was an undrafted rookie free agent. And by halfway through the year, he had made it pretty obvious that he’s an NFL rotation wide receiver. And then at times he was their best wide receiver. So going into this year, we heard a ton about his uh dedication to transforming his body and working harder and he stayed in Charlotte when everybody else uh was was going home to work out and and uh it felt like he was poised. I don’t want to say he was poised for like a 1200 yard season, but it felt like he was poised to be a part of the offense the entire season. Uh between preeason and regular season, he suffered an injury, had to start on the IR. Uh took one week of practice to kind of ramp up. Then he was activated this past week. Um, didn’t finish with a catch. Okay. Over. Made my job easy because when I have these conversations, what I like to be able to say is I go back and watch every target from every angle or I go back and watch every route run. Didn’t take me that long. Jaylen Coker played 26 snaps. He ran 16 routes and he had the two targets that I referenced. I will describe the two targets for you. Uh there was one on a deep corner, kind of a smash route for those of you that are aware of concepts. Uh where you had an outside receiver, not really running a hitch, kind of an in. Uh and then he ran a corner route, right? The flag route, the seven route, whatever you call it. Um probably a probably bad read by by Bryce Young. And then an underthrown ball. Didn’t really have a chance, right? The corner sagged off. probably should have banged it to the uh thrown the pass to the outside guy on the little slow in route. Uh either way, it was incomplete. Like the the wide receiver gets neither a plus or a minus. He gets an NA on decision, NA on execution because there was nothing he could do. Uh the next target was a playaction kind of strange route. It was kind of like a over stop like he he he ran a deep curl over the ball. strange route, but hey, you design it how you design it. Uh, the pass was severely underthrown, may have probably intentionally underthrown because he had a guy in coverage. Uh, play action deep curl that was, I call it, dirted, right? Thrown in the ground. Uh, close enough that the the refs couldn’t say you were intentionally throwing it to no one. Uh, but it was it was low and to the right. Difficult catch. I mean, nearly impossible. I’m not I’m not putting that one on the wide receiver either. And that’s it. Those are the targets for Jaylen Coker. Those are the two. Now, I I said this last week, so I’m I kind of I I like the idea of, you know, saying things and then they hold me accountable. I said last week that I am okay, I am accepting of one week ramp up, right? If he’s out there and they just want him to get some game reps, they want him to block. Like I said, he played 26 snaps, only ran 16 routes, which means 10 times he was uh out there on a football field doing something other than running a route, aka blocking. Um, if that is the case, they just wanted to get him out there on an NFL field. He was back to return a kick, although I didn’t think he got he didn’t get the chance to. Yeah, he was out there for a punt. It hit to the sideline and bounced away. If they just want to get him in the mix, I’m okay with a oneweek ramp up because he he didn’t get, you know, the any of those reps for the first however many weeks. This week, get him involved. It’s worth it. Okay, he’s good enough. He is valuable enough to the offense. get him involved. Okay. And and I’m not saying like hopefully he wins, right? Because to me the the two routes that he ran like I’m not saying there were zero% chance of a catch, right? If Bryce put the the corner route on the money over the top, he could have made a really nice catch on the sideline, but you’re depending on really two really good plays in order for that to be a catch. Scheme him up a couple this week. Scheme him up a couple, right? Make him the number one option. give him a likely to be open route. Whether it’s a screen, whether it’s a shallow cross, whether it’s uh you know just a a kind of a ex receiver route like a like a hitch or something with with a soft corner, get him the ball in his hands two or three times that you’re pretty confident he’s going to end the play with the ball in his hands. And then beyond that, it can be well, if he’s open, Bryce can, you know, the defense can lead him towards the open man. And if that’s Jaylen Coker, it’s there, right? two or three schemed up targets shouldn’t impact uh you know Terrar McMillan’s usage, right? Because I don’t want to take anything away from him. Shouldn’t impact the running game’s usage because if Rico D is cranking, I don’t want to give anybody a reason to not give him the ball. Like there it shouldn’t impact the offense in a negative way in any direction, but if it gets Jaylen Coker uh into the mix, into a rhythm, it is valuable to the offense to do so. two targets probably not enough. 16 routes probably not enough depending on uh you know his his health and availability. Um I want him out there in two wide receiver sets. And that’s even being said with this don’t be complicated by Xavier Leette having a big game. Xavier Leette I first of all we we said it yesterday kudos to leg maybe his best game is a pro. um the sealing uh the the one that sealed it down the right sideline from Andy Dalton that is a huge play and give him a ton of credit. I still think his role at this stage in his career is kind of the more boomer bust guy, right? Like three wide receivers, move Jaylen Coker into the slot, you could put Tedro McMillan into the slot, you can be creative uh and and use Xavier Leette for his speed. But the two most complete wide receivers I see on the roster right now based on what we’ve seen over the last two years are Tedo McMillan, large gap, Jaylen Coker, and then you know everybody else has their role, right? I have no problem with getting Jimmy Horn some touches. No problem with leg. I mean I 11 targets felt like a lot last week, but if he’s going to catch nine of them for however many yards, it’s hard to complain. Jaylen Coker needs to be a part of the offense. oneweek ramp up, I’m not mad. So, I’m not mad right now. But in the same way that last week I said if it’s a oneweek ramp up, I’m okay. Now, I’m saying I won’t be okay next week if I’m I’m presetting my expectations. I will not be okay if he has two two targets, neither of which a real opportunity for him to make any impact. I think he’s really good on those intermediate routes and he has such short hands. Like I think that’s and he’s big. Yeah. He’s not a small guy. He and and when I say like sometimes I feel like I need to when I say he’s big that means he plays big, right? Um I’ve seen tall guys play small. I’ve seen small guy like uh uh Amra Saint Brown. He’s not a big dude. When I watch him I’m like oh he’s a big dude. Uh, and what that means is you can have a guy on your back and he attacks the ball in a way that he catches it and and he tucks it aggressively so he doesn’t leave the ball hanging out there for somebody to poke away. Uh, Jaylen Coker has some of that, right? The the deep ball catches that he has made, he’s not a 4-4 guy, right? He’s he very rarely has three steps on somebody unless it’s a blown coverage. But if you put it up there and you give him a chance, he comes he comes down with the catch a lot. So, so that’s what I mean by, you know, I don’t know how tall he is exactly. He’s somewhere over 6 feet. Um, uh, he’s about 6’2. Yeah, 6’2. I stood next to him, interviewing him oneonone. He’s I’d say he’s a solid 61, 6’2. So, while that is tall, that’s not like gargantuan. No, he’s not 6’4 McMillan, but he plays big. Yeah. So, give him an opportunity to make a couple plays, right? Give him an opportunity to make a couple plays. And uh and I would actually say guarantee him like two catches if he if he ends the game with two like almost like basically long handoffs and two more targets of some other variety. Anything more than that I think it’s okay. Anything like a screen, a shallow cross and then two targets just within the flow of the offense acknowledging that you know Andy Dalton might only throw it 24 times and I want to take care of some other guys. That’s enough for me. I will set my expectations there. Anything less, you’ll hear me on Monday. I hope they were just ramping him up because he I mean, if there’s one thing this this regime is uh kind of I don’t want to say overly cautious, but they take their time. It’s bringing guys back off injury. They they very much are like one baby step at a time. When I think myself sometimes I get a little impatient. I’m like, if he’s active, send him out there all the time. Deep balls, give him a shot. They’re like, well, it’s his first game back after five games off, and you know, we’re going to see how he reacts to NFL game football. Stop that with your logic and your conservative thinking. I want go. But I’ve I’m okay with last week. I won’t be okay with the same thing this

Tim Donnelly & Dennis Cox discuss how Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales needs to get 2nd year WR Jalen Coker more involved in the passing game with his return.

Find us anywhere!

The Fan App for iPhones: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/99-9-the-fan/id6749218703
The Fan App for Androids: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bal.thefan&pcampaignid=web_share&pli=1
Website: https://www.999thefan.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/999thefan
X (Formerly Twitter): https://x.com/999TheFan
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@999thefan
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/999thefan/
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/99.9TheFan

This podcast is presented by Hempie’s, North Carolina’s premium hemp dispensary. Order online at https://www.hempies.co

#CarolinaPanthers #KeepPounding #NFL #Football #profootball #professionalfootball #DanMorgan #DaveCanales #BryceYoung #FrankReich #ScottFritterer #MattRhule #NorthCarolina #Carolina #Panthers #DavidTepper #999thefan #sports #BrianBurns #NFLdraft #nflplayoffs #playoffs #nflnews #AdamThielen #AndyDalton #DerrickBrown #Charolette #CharoletteNC #SC #SouthCarolina #onecarolina #QueenCity #CamNewton #Quarterback #Superbowl #nflnews