Meet Tim Wright

Something I noticed watching Wright last night that surprised me. His style of route running looks more like Gronk than Hernandez to me. Obviously he's not as big or as good, but just watching him run he looks like that tall, rangy, deceptively fast because of a big stride type of guy that Gronk is, rather than AHern's catch it and make the first guy miss style.

Could have been a product of the plays they let him run for his crash course, and it doesn't mean he's a Gronk fill in at all (they're very different players), just thought it was an interesting look.

Geez, I might have to take back those posts I made the other day about keeping low expectations for this guy the first half of the season while he ramps up and how the key will be having him on the system by mid-December.

And then I remembered it was against 4th stringers last night.

All the same, McDaniels put him in motion a few times and had him play 43 snaps on ONE day of practice. Hell, I'm not sure he knows everybody's uniform number yet.

THAT was what was so impressive last night. Great football intelligence. Remember Ochocinco and Brandon Lloyd lining up wrong at the LOS halfway into their seasons here.

shmessy said:

Remember Ochocinco and Brandon Lloyd lining up wrong at the LOS halfway into their seasons here.

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Hell, I remember Ocho and Brady on the sideline in December going over hand signals. It looked like Brady was taking a six year old through his times tables.

robertweathers said:

I agree. I just don't think its a huge gap. Thats all.

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I watched Wright block last night. I won't lie and say he was dominant or anything, but he wasn't rag dolled either. He did fall down on one block, but he didn't let his defender by him.

Sicilian said:

Something I noticed watching Wright last night that surprised me. His style of route running looks more like Gronk than Hernandez to me. Obviously he's not as big or as good, but just watching him run he looks like that tall, rangy, deceptively fast because of a big stride type of guy that Gronk is, rather than AHern's catch it and make the first guy miss style.

Could have been a product of the plays they let him run for his crash course, and it doesn't mean he's a Gronk fill in at all (they're very different players), just thought it was an interesting look.

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I don't know if you can make a definitive analysis of him based on this one game though. I am sure they simplified a lot of his routes to make it easier on him last night. He could have a little Hernadez in him. Hopefully not the psychopathic murder part.

Rob0729 said:

I don't know if you can make a definitive analysis of him based on this one game though. I am sure they simplified a lot of his routes to make it easier on him last night. He could have a little Hernadez in him. Hopefully not the psychopathic murder part.

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Oh, I agree. Just an observation based on style is all. Not what I was expecting.

shmessy said:

All the same, McDaniels put him in motion a few times and had him play 43 snaps on ONE day of practice. Hell, I'm not sure he knows everybody's uniform number yet.

THAT was what was so impressive last night. Great football intelligence. Remember Ochocinco and Brandon Lloyd lining up wrong at the LOS halfway into their seasons here.

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What has impressed me so far about Wright is his work ethic and football intelligence. From all accounts the guy got off the play, grabbed a playbook and didn't put it down until game time, then went out and played a solid game. That kind of work ethic and ability to pick things up will take him far. It reminds me a bit of the way Danny Woodhead came in in 2010 and jumped right in. I think that TB will love this guy.

shmessy said:

Geez, I might have to take back those posts I made the other day about keeping low expectations for this guy the first half of the season while he ramps up and how the key will be having him on the system by mid-December.

And then I remembered it was against 4th stringers last night.

All the same, McDaniels put him in motion a few times and had him play 43 snaps on ONE day of practice. Hell, I'm not sure he knows everybody's uniform number yet.

THAT was what was so impressive last night. Great football intelligence. Remember Ochocinco and Brandon Lloyd lining up wrong at the LOS halfway into their seasons here.

Click to expand...

Yep. Lesser competition and I'm sure there were only a handful of plays he was comfortable with. As I understand it, the TB offense does have similar formations and plays as the Pat's offense. Maybe that helped a little...Regardless he looks like he knew what he was doing and was not the second-coming of Donald "Don't Know The Plays" Hayes.

shmessy said:

Geez, I might have to take back those posts I made the other day about keeping low expectations for this guy the first half of the season while he ramps up and how the key will be having him on the system by mid-December.

And then I remembered it was against 4th stringers last night.

All the same, McDaniels put him in motion a few times and had him play 43 snaps on ONE day of practice. Hell, I'm not sure he knows everybody's uniform number yet.

THAT was what was so impressive last night. Great football intelligence. Remember Ochocinco and Brandon Lloyd lining up wrong at the LOS halfway into their seasons here.

Click to expand...

Although Garoppolo didn't throw to him when the Giants' 1s were in other than the quick screen where Garoppolo was way off with his throw, I did see Wright get open a lot against the 1s. On the INT that was overturned because of penalty, Wright was wide open.

I hope they Work him in slowly and save the 2 TE sets for atleast 8 games. Then use it around week 9... Untill then he and Maneri ( Or Hooman ) can reduse the workload for Gronk.

He looked very comfortable in the offense despite very limited time with the team.

Did anyone see him going through blocking drills on the sideline with Daboll too? It looked like they were working on his kick step for pass pro.

Luxusdk said:

I hope they Work him in slowly and save the 2 TE sets for atleast 8 games. Then use it around week 9... Untill then he and Maneri ( Or Hooman ) can reduse the workload for Gronk.

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I think that is a key point in the Wright acquisition. With the amount of wear and tear hes had at such a young age, you do have to wonder if the team's plan is to keep Gronk's snap count around 700 or so and not in the 1000s during the regular season. I'm sure they will ease him in during the first few weeks of the year regardless. Parcells ran Bavaro out there 1000 times earlyin his career and he was cooked by his mid 20s.

robertweathers said:

I think that is a key point in the Wright acquisition. With the amount of wear and tear hes had at such a young age, you do have to wonder if the team's plan is to keep Gronk's snap count around 700 or so and not in the 1000s during the regular season. I'm sure they will ease him in during the first few weeks of the year regardless. Parcells ran Bavaro out there 1000 times earlyin his career and he was cooked by his mid 20s.

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Then again, this is football. You play or you don't...

Lets not forget, the guy caught 54 passes for 500+ yards as a ROOKIE. thats not just something any JAG can do. Those numbers are very comparable to Hernandez/Gronks rookie years. The guy has skills and football intelligence to be successful.

He obviously suceeded under Greg Shiano's offense which is similar to the patriots/belichecks so I dont see why he wouldnt suceed here. There have been players that jumped right in and contributed such as danny woodhead.

RIpats88 said:

Lets not forget, the guy caught 54 passes for 500+ yards as a ROOKIE. thats not just something any JAG can do. Those numbers are very comparable to Hernandez/Gronks rookie years. The guy has skills and football intelligence to be successful.

He obviously suceeded under Greg Shiano's offense which is similar to the patriots/belichecks so I dont see why he wouldnt suceed here. There have been players that jumped right in and contributed such as danny woodhead.

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Just for comparison, here are Gronk's and Hernandez's rookie numbers:

Gronk - 42 catches, 546 yards, 10 TDs
Hernandez - 45 catches, 563 yards, 6 TDs

And they had Brady throwing to them and not Mike Glennon and Josh Freeman.

Bruins29 said:

LOL Sure AH light it up here but how do we know AH is better and why would you proclaim it at this point? TW had a better rookie season than AH and AH had a QB throwing to him that was light years better than what TW had. So, given the sample size and variables how can you say AH was better when right now clearly TW is better?

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I meant blocker....

Dude I know the thing is to hate AH, and rightfully so, but the guy was an elite, unique talent on the field

robertweathers said:

I agree. I just don't think its a huge gap. Thats all.

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Agreed!

Rob0729 said:

Just for comparison, here are Gronk's and Hernandez's rookie numbers:

Gronk - 42 catches, 546 yards, 10 TDs
Hernandez - 45 catches, 563 yards, 6 TDs

And they had Brady throwing to them and not Mike Glennon and Josh Freeman.

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2010....seems like a long time ago.

Not going to go crazy about him after the 4th preseason game. But after being with the Pats for barely 2 days my first impression is he looks like he belongs.

AzorianPats said:

I meant blocker....

Dude I know the thing is to hate AH, and rightfully so, but the guy was an elite, unique talent on the field

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He was awesome. He was as awesome as he was a scumbag. And he is a huge scumbag.

Regardless, I think you are giving TW a bad rap here. I dont think AH was that much better a blocker. Just as Jimmy Grahams blocking skills are universally disregarded. I think right now, TW has the potential to be as good a TE as Hernandez.

A lot has to do with scheme and also which poison the other teams want to die from. If they went to a Two TE offense (Gronk and Wright) and also had JE, DA, AD, what have you out there, teams would have to key on Gronk and probably one of the slot guys as they know Brady will pick them apart.

Bottom line Wright could easily put up AH numbers if the D is focused on other weapons.