As a reminder, we’re working out our semi-ball-knower minds this week in preparation for the season. I’m rekindling a feature from last year, the 4 Key Questions for Georgia’s Season.
Question Two: Does Georgia need a true #1 WR?
Georgia has elite TEs, LBs, and DBs, great OL and QB, and really good RBs and DL. The WR group lost its top 3 performers from last year, and Kirby plucked Isaiah Canion off Tech’s roster. The former Warner Robbins HS Demon was a miss on the recruiting trail a couple years back, and Kirby has admitted as much, but he’s with the good guys now. I watched a few Tech games last year and he stood out to me, even if he was underused. He seems destined for the X role, but all these guys train at multiple positions so he’s likely to be found at Z and in the slot as well. London Humphreys found himself as WR4 last year, but made a couple remarkable grabs (@ UT-Knoxville, for one) and seems primed for a nice year. Sacovie White-Helton is a slot guy all the way, but he’s got to hold off Landon Roldan, who has turned heads in camp and David Pollack says is the next Ladd McConkey.
Speaking of up-and-coming young WRs, the Dawgs are full of them. So much so that Kirby, after missing on Tre Richardson from Vandy (now at Louisville, gah), decided he would retain these guys and see who develops into a star. So far in camp, if you can believe the rumors, no one has stood out. That includes Talyn Taylor, who many had high hopes for until he got hurt last year. Also fellow blue-chip recruits CJ Wiley, Tyler Williams, Thomas Blackshear and Craig Dandridge (my personal favorite just based on his HS film). It’s not clear who from this group will emerge this year. Yes, the Dawgs’ secondary is both talented and deep, and yes, the camp practice is mostly geared towards giving the defense looks first, and yes, the defense knows the offense’s plays. But George Pickens seemed to shine regardless. So did AD Mitchell.
This reality leaves Georgia fans wondering who amongst these guys can beat an elite coverage guy in the games that matter most. Bama has a great secondary. So does Oklahoma. There will be more in the playoffs (Oregon, Ohio State, Indiana, Notre Dame). The Dawgs could be relegated to a one-dimensional offense. But they also have a top-5 OL and a really good running game, and maybe those freakish TEs can pick up the slack. It’s worked before. Can it work again?
Yes it can.
Yes it will.
I like high percentage plays and especially throws. Give me short to intermediate yardage until the other team thinks that’s all we’re capable of and then try to air a few out when they’re not expecting it. Point being, with all the talent around the receivers, if we can’t connect on short to intermediate passes most of the game, we have some problems. We can make them think we’re looking for explosive plays in the pregame buildup, but just freakin’ connect for positive yardage and it should work itself out, IMO.
The necessity or desirability of having a “security blanket” at wr largely depends on other factors. If your offense is “clicking” – you’re running the ball, getting into the right play, getting to the open receiver, protecting the passer, it really doesn’t matter if you’ve got a guy you can force it to. Having 7-9 guys catching passes and keeping the punter on the sideline is quite sufficient.
IF you’re struggling to stay ahead of the chains and ending up in lots of 3rd and mediums, it is essential to be able to chuck it to an “uncoverable” wr.
That is distinguished from a guy who can take the top off the defense. Keeping safeties honest and their eyes out of the backfield helps stay out of those difficult down and distance situations. So having a guy who can get behind the defense, catch it and a guy who can put it on them is tremendous lubricant to an offense.
We need one or the other for sure. We will have it? Tbd.
Personally I am fine with three receivers having mid type years as far as yards rather than having a dominant game breaker type receiver. If we have three or so guys that just have solid but not really good seasons and mostly win with running and tight ends and defense I am absolutely fine with that.
When have we ever had that guy under Kirby? It has happened once. His name was George Pickins.
I’ve watched Georgia football for a long time. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the WR performance over time. Tony Ball and B Mac elevated the WR room during their tenures. The rest of the time the WR play has been lacking. In the last 25 years Georgia has had 2 elite WRs while LSU and Alabama have had what seems like a 100 each. For the Kirby era my wife says all the elite WRs are devas that can’t deal with hard coaching.
The finger nail polish and emotional support stuffed animal might suggest a bit of softness…
Mike Irvin, Hines Ward and Jerry Rice didn’t suffer any of that. So its not universal.
But as a group, wideouts do tend to have basketball player mentalities.
3 examples from long ago. I’m not sure any of todays pampered athletes possess that mentality.
The necessity or desirability of having a “security blanket” at wr largely depends on other factors. If your offense is “clicking” – you’re running the ball, getting into the right play, getting to the open receiver, protecting the passer, it really doesn’t matter if you’ve got a guy you can force it to. Having 7-9 guys catching passes and keeping the punter on the sideline is quite sufficient.
IF you’re struggling to stay ahead of the chains and ending up in lots of 3rd and mediums, it is essential to be able to chuck it to an “uncoverable” wr.
That is distinguished from a guy who can take the top off the defense. Keeping safeties honest and their eyes out of the backfield helps stay out of those difficult down and distance situations. So having a guy who can get behind the defense, catch it and a guy who can put it on them is tremendous lubricant to an offense.
We need one or the other for sure. We will have it? Tbd.
Again with the doubling of the post??
Any technical advice out there?
I’ve never seen identical comments be posted that far apart. Did you post the first one on the web or the Jetpack app?
I only comment in jetpack. It doesn’t do it on replies. Just the initial comment.
Derek I looked into the Comments section in our Dashboard and noticed that there’s two IP addresses that are reporting from the same login account. Not sure why that would be happening. Everyone else’s comments come from the same IP address. Maybe logged in to two devices that duplicate from different IP’s? I’m not technical wizard, but that’s what I see.
I don’t think you need a WR1. You do need a PC1 – pass catcher 1. Would you trade Brock Bowers for Jeremiah Smith? No way if you ask me.
A passing game’s best friend is a running game that allows you to play ahead of the chains.
Not sure how to answer the question objectively since both are amazing but Bowers belongs to us. But I do agree with all the sentiments about surrounding cast, at least when it comes to most of their schedule. Everyone wants to win the championship too, though, and I’m not sure if Elyiss Williams can carry them Brock Bowers-style without another great pass catcher. Everyone seems to forget that Brock also had beside him George Pickens and Ladd McConkey on the championship teams.
My point is that your top player in the passing game doesn’t have to be a WR. We barely had Pickens in 2021 (yes, he made the huge play in Indy), and he was on a pitch count for the few games he played. In 2022, we had Ladd, MRJ, Kearis, Granddaddy 0, and McIntosh.
True, he was the best those years. In 2021 they had Zamir, James Cook, Ladd, AD Mitchell and Jermaine (eh). That’s enough to give Bowers room to operate. They don’t have Brock Bowers this year though. Not sure if there is an elite pass catcher on the roster. Maybe what they have enough. Maybe Bobo can scheme it up. We’ll find out first when OU comes to town.
Given the mantra of “run the ball, stop the run”, it’s nice to have a wide receiver threat who can challenge the defense to spread and not stack the box. In many depth chart projections, Prothro is listed as a receiver and may be the rangy spread threat while you have a host of threat options in traditional tight end positions. Rather than the Arian Smith/Mecole Hardman type receiver, we have hybrids and, if Bobo is wise, he’ll create more confusion through sets and personnel than a defense can handle.
Given the length of the season, and given that the race is now about the postseason nuances, don’t be surprised if Saturday isn’t a “show of force” and remains very vanilla with a few flashes of what could be. It would be a great game to test line blocking concepts and run game wrinkles rather than showing every passing option in the book. Ditto with defensive concepts. It’s a live scrimmage on TV.
I hold fast to my prediction that a TE will be the leading receiver for Georgia this year. It worked with Brock Bowers, after all. The next highest back then was McConkey, who I dare say benefitted from the extra attention to Bowers (and his innate ability to cut on a dime and juke defenders) but he wasn’t a Pickens type guy, either.
I think that’s a fine approach for most games, but this isn’t 2021 or 2022, so my concern is that this team can’t win every regular season game (and definitely not every playoff game) that way. Now, if you’re good going 10-2 and getting a lower seed being more rested, that’s a trade-off maybe worth taking (this is something I’m working on for Question 4, actually). And maybe the postseason is where you unleash all your best plays. I just don’t know whether Georgia can beat elite secondaries with a couple of elite TEs. I’m not saying they can’t either. I just don’t know, which is why I posed the question. 😉
We don’t have the QB nor OC to use an elite “go to” WR. Stafford, Fromm, Stet could hit that back shoulder fade. Beck was more a a line drive thrower (to receivers who would not catch ☹️). Gunner is not a good deep ball or fade guy either…distributes fast and short or runs to fit Bobo’s offensive philosophy of waiting for mismatches to occur on defense. It will be WR by committee with those willing to block or show break-away talent after the catch getting the majority of the reps. It’s worked so far. DCs will start figuring out how to stop last year’s offense so the question is what personnel and schemes will Bobo devise to counter his known tendencies. Could be using the TEs more, could be Gunner improved his deep ball, could be a new fast screen wrinkle, could be a RB who is a real receiving threat. Doubt he shows his hand on any of this in the first game or two.
Gunner is better than most on the deep ball according to some metrics, but he certainly can improve. I agree 100% that he needs to have more confidence in finding those plays and attacking them. It could be one of the last remaining pieces to unlocking this offense. Talyn Taylor and London Humphreys are 2 guys that could benefit from that.
Some of us were reminiscing recently about the old FB trap or draw plays from the Dooley years. Sometimes a delayed release pass to the FB was very effective too. We know what Kirby thinks of FB’s.
With the TE depth there’s speculation on lots of 12 or even 13 personnel. If you want to run between the tackles as much as we seem to you’re usually more successful with a lead blocker. Use a 2nd or 3rd TE in the FB position more often, not just to lead block but as an additional threat out of the backfield. Hell, maybe let him run that draw occasionally. His presence may require a safety to pull up to cover and open a WR up over the middle. Then of course Gunner has to be able to throw over the line without the ball getting tipped which is another problem altogether.
Yeah I’m 99% sure Bobo will use TEs in an H-back role this year, which is basically what you’re describing. Redell and Barbour are perfectly suited for that role.
Agree, as we’ve seen H-back type sets with TE’s usually offset behind the tackle now for years. Was visualizing more I-formation type power sets with some creative (I know that might be stretch) play action wrinkles mixed in to take advantage of the athleticism we have at TE.
Love that, Brock did a little of that too and could absolutely see them using Redell and Barbour there.
The thing I’m watching closely out of the gate is how much Gunner has improved in processing/reading the D. For me that the whole deal. I hope the WR’s help him out. We need significantly less QB run this season.
I really don’t care about individual stats. If the end result is a championship and the room delivers mid results statistically who cares.
Yeah it’s easier with more stars. Stay healthy and make key plays when needed.
Just win and most of us will be happy.
The WR’s just need to catch the damn ball. If I see a wide open WR drop a pass he should be on the scout team the next day. Getting open is one thing but having the drops drives me crazy.