Let's Start Kearse Over Sydney Rice

[beasthawk]

Typical

 

[CANHawk]

Kearse has a lot of promise, but he is shinning right now because he is a depth receiver and he is lining up against depth corners. If you start Kearse, he would be matched up with a #1 or #2 CB. In which case, you can expect him to be invisible all game long. I like the way it is now, Rice/Tate starting. Once Harvin is healthy, things are going to change. Teams will put their best cornerback on him, while safeties have to account for his ability to be a consistent deep threat. No doubt this is going to open the field up for Sidney Rice and Golden Tate will be back in the slot, where I think he is best.

Ding ding ding! Hit the nail on the head there me thinks.

Not saying that Chop Chop isn't a helluva talent, but he has been playing with the benefit of being the 3rd of 4th WR on the field. Which is great! Our depth is better than their depth. But who's to say that if we make him the #1 that he's going to keep making the plays he's been making? Is he still going to make those plays with Revis or Alterrun Verner in his face? Hard to say...

 

[CEHawk]

Kearse has a lot of promise, but he is shinning right now because he is a depth receiver and he is lining up against depth corners. If you start Kearse, he would be matched up with a #1 or #2 CB. In which case, you can expect him to be invisible all game long. I like the way it is now, Rice/Tate starting. Once Harvin is healthy, things are going to change. Teams will put their best cornerback on him, while safeties have to account for his ability to be a consistent deep threat. No doubt this is going to open the field up for Sidney Rice and Golden Tate will be back in the slot, where I think he is best.

Ding ding ding! Hit the nail on the head there me thinks.

Not saying that Chop Chop isn't a helluva talent, but he has been playing with the benefit of being the 3rd of 4th WR on the field. Which is great! Our depth is better than their depth. But who's to say that if we make him the #1 that he's going to keep making the plays he's been making? Is he still going to make those plays with Revis or Alterrun Verner in his face? Hard to say...

This just isn't true... He's been rotated in for Rice at the 1 spot for a few of his catches. He is making catches against the same CBs as Rice and the others.

 

[pehawk]

Kearse has a lot of promise, but he is shinning right now because he is a depth receiver and he is lining up against depth corners. If you start Kearse, he would be matched up with a #1 or #2 CB. In which case, you can expect him to be invisible all game long. I like the way it is now, Rice/Tate starting. Once Harvin is healthy, things are going to change. Teams will put their best cornerback on him, while safeties have to account for his ability to be a consistent deep threat. No doubt this is going to open the field up for Sidney Rice and Golden Tate will be back in the slot, where I think he is best.

Ding ding ding! Hit the nail on the head there me thinks.

Not saying that Chop Chop isn't a helluva talent, but he has been playing with the benefit of being the 3rd of 4th WR on the field. Which is great! Our depth is better than their depth. But who's to say that if we make him the #1 that he's going to keep making the plays he's been making? Is he still going to make those plays with Revis or Alterrun Verner in his face? Hard to say...

This just isn't true... He's been rotated in for Rice at the 1 spot for a few of his catches. He is making catches against the same CBs as Rice and the others.

That's right, CAN! What's a matter with you?

What are you going to say next, Rice should be running forward while in motion?

 

[themunn]

Rice needs to be benched because he didn't make enough of an effort to turn that 4th down interception into a 4th down incompletion

 

[SoulfishHawk]

:sob_story:

 

[CANHawk]

What can I say... I drink. A lot.

Are you sure that #1's are on Chop Chop, and that he's performing under the exact same circumstances as Rice? I don't get the All 22, so I can't say for certain from just TV copy. But if somebody does some analysis and provides some unbiased evidence that Kearse is producing in the exact same circumstances where Rice is not, then fine... Start him, but I don't think the research is going to show that (and I think the coaches are probably doing their own All 22 research on the topic and are going with the better guy as always) .

I think this is just a lot of hateraide and people are looking to assign blame to a whipping boy. Rice makes a lot of money so he's an easy target.

 

[CEHawk]

Touchdowns against the:

Colts Vontae Davis
Carolina Josh Thomas and Charles Godfrey in double coverage

Just to start

 

[hgwellz12]

well

 

[CANHawk]

And both were things of beauty. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves...

Homeboy has 4 catches on the year. Yes two of them were long TD's, but the sample size is way too small to be making any definitive statements about Kearse being waaay better than Rice. He's only been slightly more productive than Ricardo Lockette at this point (and we all know how that story turns out).

Coming in on rotation and taking the top off the D every now and then is a different job than being out there full time. I wouldn't expect the same kind of production if he's in full time. We're dishing the rock around pretty evenly between all out recievers and Marshawn is up in the top 3 rushers again this year. If you're looking for a 100 catch/1,000 yard reciever on this team, you're not getting one. I might expect a little higher numbers from him at this point, but Sid is right around where I'd expect him to be in this system and I don't see things changing significantly if you swap him out for Chop Chop.

Kearse has a great skillset and brings a nice dynamic presence to the WR corps (and he's for sure going to be better than Lockette obviously). If Sid were to go down for any reason, I'd be totally comfortable with Chop Chop taking over. But thinking Kearse is going to come in and light the world on fire is a little naive IMO. It's back-up goalie syndrome. We're probably using him in the best capacity right now to be honest. He's an overhand right that people don't always see coming and can cause a lot of damage on the unsuspecting. He's earned some more targets and some more time in rotation sure, but Sid's probably still the best option to start at this point...

 

[CEHawk]

I would agree with most of that except Sidney Rice is on target for under 500 yards which means he'll most likely be the third highest production receiver at a 9.7 million cap hit. What bugs me about that is that it will be just under average for Sidney for his 7 year career, injured or not. If Rice finishes his year with another sub 500 yard season, like he has 5 out of the 7 years he has been in the NFL I would say it's not a tough decision. I would love to see this not be the case and have him near 800 yards like last year, but I still don't think that justifies his cap hit.

Per target Kearse is blowing everyone else out of the water. It would be great to see that production continue if he were to get a few more targets.

Of course all of this is impossible to judge until our O Line is healthy.

 

[CANHawk]

I would agree with most of that except Sidney Rice is on target for under 500 yards which means he'll most likely be the third highest production receiver at a 9.7 million cap hit. What bugs me about that is that it will be just under average for Sidney for his 7 year career, injured or not. If Rice finishes his year with another sub 500 yard season, like he has 5 out of the 7 years he has been in the NFL I would say it's not a tough decision. I would love to see this not be the case and have him near 800 yards like last year, but I still don't think that justifies his cap hit.

Per target Kearse is blowing everyone else out of the water. It would be great to see that production continue if he were to get a few more targets.

Of course all of this is impossible to judge until our O Line is healthy.

That I'll agree with, and it's just as likely that the O-line troubles are causing problems with the longer developing routes that tend to be Rice's forte. And you're right, if things stay on this pace, Rice is easily a cap casualty next year. I take issue with those who say putting in Kearse will solve all the world's problems. Fact is, Sid's here now and the cap situation if comfy, so it's all sunk dollars. This team has shown time and again that dollars don't dictate playing time, so if Kearse was the better option, I think he absolutely would be starting by now, but the fact that he isn't shows that the coaching staff still believes Rice is the better option.

 

[MarylandHawk]

Rice doesn't fight hard enough for the ball for my taste, not to mention he almost never throws blocks downfield. Russell needs tough minded receivers who he can throw the ball up to -- knowing they will either go get it or make sure the defense doesn't.

 

[Snohomie]

I'm not sure how anyone can say Rice doesn't fight for the ball. He's made a ton of difficult catches in traffic.

What he doesn't do, and this drives me nuts, is come back to the ball once it is in the air. But if you throw him a jump ball or a pass that will get him drilled (or require amazing hand/eye/body control) he will probably make the play.

Last year, his production was just a result of the lack of passing in our offense. His per-pass-attempt #s were pretty good, even with his salary. I think the OL's issues have hurt him a bit, since he isn't a great short-area receiver and needs time to get into the intermediate and deep routes. In that respect (and because Kearse has always intrigued me - I said he had 1st round talent as a jr if you stopped the evaluation at his wrists) I wouldn't mind seeing Kearse get more of Rice's snaps in the short term.

 

[Largent80]

After watching Marshall last night and the way Cutler throws him the ball, I cannot understand why we don't do 3 step drop/slants, and throwing it to spots, OR jump balls to Sid.

All 3 or any of the 3 would get Rice more involved, but as has been pointed out 1 trillion times the o-line is forcing RW to run and all of those timing plays are rendered moot.

 

[StoneCold]

Skimmed most of the thread and so maybe I missed it, but the problem is the Oline. Holmgren was on KJR last night and said the number of pass attempts to the wide receivers was low for where it should be because RW was too often being flushed from the pocket early and those routes take more time to develop. Give RW more time and the numbers for Tate and Rice will go up.

That said, Largent80 has a good point. Adjust to the current condition. If your Oline can only give you 3 seconds, run 3 second routes.

Knock 'em out, Stone Cold

 

[Teqneek]

Yeah what Balarky.. Like EVERYONE ELSE HERE COMMENTING, Ive watched EVERY SNAP of the Seahawks this year.,. and RIce NEVER gest double coverage.. I even watch on a split screen with a special camera so I can watch all of his plays :sarcasm_off: Hey arm chair QBs, your recliner is getting cold.

 

[MANUNITED23]

I agree 100% with this move. Rice doesn't get double coverage, even if he isn't covered at all he still probably won't be able to get any separation.

 

[CANHawk]

I'm not sure how anyone can say Rice doesn't fight for the ball. He's made a ton of difficult catches in traffic.

What he doesn't do, and this drives me nuts, is come back to the ball once it is in the air. But if you throw him a jump ball or a pass that will get him drilled (or require amazing hand/eye/body control) he will probably make the play.

Last year, his production was just a result of the lack of passing in our offense. His per-pass-attempt #s were pretty good, even with his salary. I think the OL's issues have hurt him a bit, since he isn't a great short-area receiver and needs time to get into the intermediate and deep routes. In that respect (and because Kearse has always intrigued me - I said he had 1st round talent as a jr if you stopped the evaluation at his wrists) I wouldn't mind seeing Kearse get more of Rice's snaps in the short term.

Exactly. I'd almost argue that he fights too hard for balls sometimes and puts himself in situations where he gets hurt. I remember cringing at several points last year after seeing him get creamed trying to make a catch. No, Sid's great at winning the jump ball. That TD he caught earlier this year where Russ just threw it up in the back of the endzone and Sid just went up and won the fight for it was classic. We need to see more of that; throw it up and let Sid high point it.

Now that I think about it, Sid's lack of production has more to do with not using him to his strengths than it does any lack of ability on his end. And of course thal all circles back to the fact Russell is running for his life because......... the O-line is buggered.

...but I guess some people just need a whipping boy.