Patriots fan blog pre-draft articles on McGrone, Collins and Evans
There are articles at the links below directed to potential Patriots' draft interest in:
Chris Evans
Nico Collins
Cameron McGrone
April 21st, 2021 at 10:04 AM ^
Regarding Evans:
"As far as running backs are concerned Evans is certainly no one-dimensional player. He can contribute as a ball carrier and a receiver, even though his touches have been limited at Michigan. His abilities in the passing game, however, are primarily why he might hear his name called in the draft."
That sums it up nicely. It is a joke Evans played 42 games for Michigan and had only 49 receptions, especially when you consider those receptions averaged 9.8 yards a pop- he should have easily averaged 2 receptions a game, if not more.
April 21st, 2021 at 10:06 AM ^
For all the struggles Evans has been through, I sure hope he makes it to the NFL. Great young man!
April 21st, 2021 at 10:19 AM ^
Not throwing to the RBs in general has been a huge missed opportunity in previous Michigan offenses. While I certainly don’t expect them to be doing that with Haskins, I hope they start throwing to Corum and Edwards more. Hell I’d even take them dumping it to RBs instead of TEs when plays break down as an improvement. With how athletic the RBs are, they need to be getting more touches that don’t involve running right through the middle.
April 21st, 2021 at 10:26 AM ^
My best friend and I have been yelling this into the void since Evans was on the roster.
I'm not getting my hopes up.
April 21st, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
It is just sad Michigan doesn't look regularly for opportunities to get RB's isolated on LB's (remember PSU torching us with Barkley doing that?) and instead tries to get 3-4 different TE's involved each game. Take, for example, the ND game in 2018 - 3 different TE's (Gentry, McKeon, Eubanks) combined for 5 receptions. Those 5 receptions went for a total of 31 yards.
On the other hand, Nico and Evans combined only had 5 receptions and they popped off 103 yards. In all likelihood, in a game where Michigan scored 10 offensive points, we gave away around 50-70 yards worth of offense by not getting Nico and Evans involved more in the passing game. People want to talk about recruiting, bagmen and OSU issues but it's shit like that drives me crazy.
April 21st, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
To be fair, though. The QBs have lacked vision, when the play breaks down...or when they get pressure. They throw to their "safety nets" (the TEs). The WRs would be running wide open, but not get targeted. The RBs weren't considered as "safety nets", even though they probably could have provided more positives.
I used to be a QB. Practice vision vs game "in the line of fire" vision are two totally different things. Coaching can only do so much to help that. Either you have "it" or you don't. I'm sure being injured didn't help the QB desirability to survey the field, either.
And....the "called" passes to the RBs are so ridiculously telegraphed, that it's been a joke.
I feel like the practice sessions should really have focused segments on QB "dump offs" to the RBs, in the flat. Let's see. This season is the season where Gattis has zero reasons why the offense isn't "humming". Let's see how they do. I won't judge until I watch the first few games.
Who’s fault is that? The answer: the coaches for not recruiting QBs with vision, processing speed, good decision-making football IQ, quick releases, and the intangible “It” factors. Instead we are looking for “athletes” with cannon arms, stature, good 40 times who are multi-sport athletes but can’t hit the backside of a barn, know when to bail and throw it away, or can’t get the ball out in under 5 seconds to anyone but his primary read.
April 21st, 2021 at 12:36 PM ^
I don’t why I thought of this and I can’t remember what game it was but I remember a couple of years back, a plane flew back and forth over The Big House towing a banner that read, “It’s OK to pass the ball Jim!”
Pretty funny.
April 21st, 2021 at 12:46 PM ^
I watched this Sark clinic last night and this really stood out to me:
"The least defended player on the field in the pass game is the running back."
https://youtu.be/d5Tnuch0-M0?t=1341
One of their base plays is a dropback pass with several crossing routes and the RB wheel route as #1 in the progression, and they kill teams with it. Sark's offense is basically designed to kill Don Brown's defense specifically. He even talks about the first TD they hit Jeudy on vs UM...it was a tendency breaker on one of the early plays he shows in the clinic.
He also said he does not throw passes to stationary receivers ever, and probably hadn't called a curl route all season. Sure, it helps to have their ridiculous talent, but he's actually using the talent appropriately. He refers to their RPOs as "free yards" many times, and makes it seem so easy. I don't know why watching Michigan on offense has to be so painful when it is derivative of the Alabama offense.
Excellent comments. Another data point for schematic problems on offense. In this case, the problem is with the Jimmies and the Joshes / other OCs.
As for the players, I hope the NFL sees their value and potential and they have great careers!
April 21st, 2021 at 10:28 AM ^
Just bonkers as to why they did not throw to him. It was as obvious as throwing it to Nico more, but it did not seem to be in the plan.
I remember 2004, where "50/50 balls to Braylon Edwards" led us to a conference title. And that was with Mike Hart getting almost 300 rushes.
In a competent offense, there's touches to go around. Now, a 2004 offense won't cut it in 2021, but we're kinda struggling to get to the point where we were 17 YEARS ago.
"Bonkers" is a good way to describe the O scheme.
Doing things the most difficult way possible. The Michigan Difference.
Also, this kind of misuse of talented skill players coud definitely affect team morale, and there's a fair amount of evidence that morale has been (negatively) affected.
That's the Michigan Difference. As ambassadors in both football in life, we need to instill in our young men the virtue of hard work and earning your lot in life. Harbaugh is cut from the old school mold forged by men like Schembechler who understand that there is nothing free in life.
As part of Michigan's commitment to this ethos, Harbaugh recognizes that although taking advantage of free yards that a defense schematically allows is ultimately cheating the players. Yes, they may get 15 easy yards by throwing to an uncovered player, but when the tight end takes a dump-off and plows through the teeth of the defense for 3 yards, maybe he falls short of the first down at the moment, but earning those three yards pays off later in life - and that's the Michigan Difference.
April 21st, 2021 at 10:05 AM ^
Chris Evans would actually be a fantastic fit with the Patriots. They're great at utilizing and getting the most out of those swiss army knife type runningbacks who are also receiving threats out of the backfield
April 21st, 2021 at 10:25 AM ^
Does "the Pats are great at it" really mean "Tom Brady was great for the Pats at it"? I genuinely don't know ... didn't watch them last year.
I understand that the Pats' scheme used that very effectively for a long time ... but it will be interesting to see if they continue down that path once their QB situation is stabilized.
On that note, I could easily see the Bucs picking him up as a later round weapon. If he can make the adjustments to the pro game quickly, he could be a very valuable addition to Brady's toolkit.
April 21st, 2021 at 10:38 AM ^
Does "the Pats are great at it" really mean "Tom Brady was great for the Pats at it"? I genuinely don't know ... didn't watch them last year
No, the Pats still use their RBs as passing threats pretty regularly. Burkhead (pre injury) and White both got a nice dose of receptions this past year
I watched the Pats regularly, but you didn't need that level of commitment to know that last years offense was based on throws to RBs because: 1) there were no professional WRs on the roster. Thats a big reason for TB12s departure, and 2) Cam couldn't get the ball upfield with his arm.
April 21st, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
As far as Tampa goes, normally I'd agree with you, but the Bucs already have a very, very crowded RB room. Fournette is back and was arguably their best offensive player in the playoffs, Ronald Jones is a good RB in his own right and will probably be RB2 to Fournette's RB1, Giovanni Bernard just came over from Cincy, and then they picked up Ke'Shawn Vaughn in the third round last year. And then Tampa also has one of the most stacked receiving corps in the league as well.
Doesn't mean they wouldn't still consider him if he's there in the late rounds, as Tampa is a team with very few holes and can generally just go for best player available throughout this entire upcoming draft. I'm just not sure Evans would ever see the field with the roster as it currently stands.
April 21st, 2021 at 11:09 AM ^
I wish UM would draft the Bucs game plan from the Super Bowl--get the ball out quick, in space, often to RBs and TEs matched against LBs. Use that to space the field and provide advantages running inside. And take a few shots.
April 21st, 2021 at 11:47 AM ^
get the ball out quick, in space
Weird.
That sounds a little like speed in space.
April 21st, 2021 at 12:03 PM ^
I don’t spend much time watching NFL football. Any Ravens fans out there with any insight into whether Weiss could be a positive influence in this regard?
Was it vs FSU or Fla that Evans made them look silly. Crushed those lbs on dump offs.
Chris Evans would be a great fit for the Patriots, at least the way they've been operating for the past decade or so.
On the other hand, I hope the Patriots stay the hell away from Nico. Probably Belichick's biggest weakness as a coach is his (in)ability to draft quality outside receivers. Besides converted QB-to-Slot WR Julian Edelman, you have to go back to 2002 for the last time Belichick drafted a WR that turned out to be even decent (Deion Branch). Again, excluding Edelman (as Belichick has been a pretty good evaluator of slot WRs--see Edelman as well as slots he got via trade/FA like Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, etc.), probably the most successful "WR" Belichick has ever drafted was Matthew Slater, who although listed in the draft as a "WR" has been pretty much exclusively a special teamer. Long story short, Belichick drafting an outside receiver has pretty much been the kiss of death...
Sometimes i thought Evans was our best rb and just hadn't gotten back into the groove. I think he will have a long NFL career as a backup.
"Viable NFL prospect with inexplicable lack of touches at Michigan" is starting to be all too common.
The Pats LOVE to get RBs involved in the passing game. James White is basically a wide receiver. Dion Lewis got a few catches per game when he was healthy. Evans could be an important role player.
And Nico is Nico.