Patriots Trade For Rams WR Greg Salas

The more I read about, and watch videos of Salas, the more excited I get of his potential. He has good size, was ridiculously productive in college, spent his rookie season running our current offense, seemed to have been loved by Rams fans and was a huge favorite by Hawaii fans and was loved by his team. The more I watch his videos, I'll be darned if he doesn't remind me of our own Aaron Hernandez. Maybe not as explosive in the YAC, but I see him running the WR screen like AH, I see him fighting for the ball like AH, he just reminds me of AH in his overall style of play. Like the move a lot, and barely gave up anything. Hopefully he can help us out, and become better every year. I still want Gaffney back, and want Ebert on the practice squad, if that happens ill be less stressed about the WR position.

So Salas had 27 catches in just 6 games as a rookie?

Let's check in on some old friends for comparison:

Brandon Tate: 24 career receptions in 34 games
Taylor Price: 2 career receptions in 6 games

I had high hopes and expectations for both, but they never have shown the ability to be productive at this level, let alone right out of the gate.

Yes, Salas is mainly a short to medium target, likely to operate in the slot, but it's encouraging to have that kind of production in his first season. This is likely Welker's immediate primary backup, and outright replacement for 2013. He offers youth, good hands, and size for the position.

I trust McDaniels on this, and they will adjust the passing game until a Gaffney is added at some point. Not a major issue, with the receiving talent on the team, causing plenty of exploitable mismatches.

This appears to be a great trade. Another coup for the front office.

ok just watched last yrs games, rams-gb and rams saints.

Hernandez like, usually lines up in slot, great blocker and yac .

gb 8 rec 97yds 10 tgts, 1 blocked at los, 1 drop

saints 5 rec 47yds 6 tgts, thrown into ground at his feet. fumble near goal line, hernandez! 1 end around for 9yds and 1st down.

not tackled easily by only one guy, 27 rec 35 trgts

was impressed by him as were anouncers, so he will prob be cut in a few weeks

After reading Rams forums and watching videos, I like this guy. They are pretty much like, " He doesn't fit what we want at WR now, but a steal for BB and the McDaniels offense. "

mgteich said:

We're talking about players who are on the field for 1/2 of the offensive reps. You can continue to believe that the quality of this player doesn't matter. For comparison, the #3 and #4 WR are on the field as much as Love, a critical component of our DL.

We are not screwed because we have Salas and Edelman are our #3 and #4 receivers, or #3 and #4 receivers. If Josh believes that they are both better receivers than Branch, Gaffney and Stallworth, then it for Josh to make it so.

Our normal game plan in 2011 (with no injuries) called for our #3 and/or #4 receivers to be used almost 50% of the time. That is not really a "backup" position, anymore than nickel bcak is a backup position. The #3 receiver is an important part of the offense.

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I'm confused. Here you made up a fact, saying the #3 and #4 WR are on the field 50% of the snaps, then you go on to argue they will never see the field?

mgteich said:

Let's discuss the 2011 WR stats and the importance of backup WR's..

WR1.....Welker 89%
WR2.....Branch 76%
WR3.....Ocho/Underwood/Price 41%
WR4.....Edelman 13%

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This is both incorrect and misapplied.
WR3 26.3+7.2+1.3=34.8 not 41%.

Branch only played 76% because he sat out 1 game and missed most all of 2 others. 76% of 16 = 87% of 14 games. That is 9% right there and you 41% is now 25.
Add in that half of Edelmans snaps were in 2 games due to injury, and that Hernandez missed 2 games creating 3/1/1 sets in place of 2/2/1 and the majority of all snaps played by WR3,WR4, WR5 etc are filling in for injuries.
Gaffney can take 100% of that burden if he is back, and for now that is Salas. I don't see where that is worse than last year.

Let's be clear. I'm fine with adding Gaffney or another veteran to the roster. We need a veteran backup capable of starting in case of injury.

Our disagreement is with regard to how often Hernandez and Gronkowski should be off the field to be replaced by a WR (very infrequently for me), and how many times that we should not have a running back on the field (never for me).

I believe that Hernandez will get more reps than last year. I think that the situation is that simple. Gronkowski was on the field on almost every play last year, including short yardage.

Deus Irae said:

:

As for the injury thing, when's the last time the Patriots had their top 4 non-RB receiving targets all play a full 16 game schedule?

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Wow. Amazing thread about a backup. Depth at the right price.

My feeling is if this guy catches 16 passes this year, it's one more than Chad Ochocinco.

From the videos, Salas is a decent blocker in space - he doesn't shy away from going right after a linebacker. Look for him in screen pass situations.

deleted - repeat

1) I don't think that we are in worse shape than last year. Lloyd/Salas is certainly an improvement over Branch/Ochocinco.

2) Injuries do happen. Last year's injuries to WR's were relatively minor. We need to be able to handle even more.

3) We agree that 2-2-1 is the preferred almost always. I say almost because 1-3-1 is preferred for short yardage situations.

4) The issue is adequate backup. I am 100% fine with our WR situation if Gaffney is added to the current squad. We need a veteran backup AND a young prospect.

AndyJohnson said:

This is both incorrect and misapplied.
WR3 26.3+7.2+1.3=34.8 not 41%.

Branch only played 76% because he sat out 1 game and missed most all of 2 others. 76% of 16 = 87% of 14 games. That is 9% right there and you 41% is now 25.
Add in that half of Edelmans snaps were in 2 games due to injury, and that Hernandez missed 2 games creating 3/1/1 sets in place of 2/2/1 and the majority of all snaps played by WR3,WR4, WR5 etc are filling in for injuries.
Gaffney can take 100% of that burden if he is back, and for now that is Salas. I don't see where that is worse than last year.

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mgteich said:

Chad or Underwood were out there 1/3 of the time. Add them all up and you get my 50% number.

Ideally, you are correct. The #3 and #4 receivers should never see the field with Welker, Lloyd, Gronkowski and Hernandez on the team (and finally a TE backup and 3rd TE on the squad). However, we do run some 3 WR sets. In any case, here are the numbers.

==========
2011 Offensive Reps (from Reiss)

WR Wes Welker -- 89.2%
WR Deion Branch -- 76.0%

WR Chad Ochocinco -- 26.3%
WR Julian Edelman -- 13.3%
WR Tiquan Underwood -- 7.2%
WR Matthew Slater -- 3.3%
WR Taylor Price -- 1.3%

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That's bad math MG - The Pats DID NOT use 3 WR sets 50% of the time last season, and no faulty number manipulation will make that a fact. You wrongly assume that every time those other receivers were on the field it was in a 3 WR set. Just isn't so. In fact they didn't use it 40% or even 30%. 20% would be closer to the reality, and even that number might be too high

And this season? Between all the TE's and good catching RBs, it will likely be even less
Cmon. Fifty percent? .

mgteich said:

1) I don't think that we are in worse shape than last year. Lloyd/Salas is certainly an improvement over Branch/Ochocinco.

2) Injuries do happen. Last year's injuries to WR's were relatively minor. We need to be able to handle even more.

3) We agree that 2-2-1 is the preferred almost always. I say almost because 1-3-1 is preferred for short yardage situations.

4) The issue is adequate backup. I am 100% fine with our WR situation if Gaffney is added to the current squad. We need a veteran backup AND a young prospect.

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Salas is the young prospect.
If you consider Gaffeny the 54th player on the roster, which I do, then you have
Welker and Lloyd
Gaffney to back up both, and be the WR3
Salas as the 4th and developmental guy
Edelman and Slater as s/ters who can play WR
and we are right where everyone expected us to be, except for those who expected a veteran sitting the bench as the inactive 4th WR.

We are agreed, or will be when Gaffney is added as the #3 WR.

AndyJohnson said:

Salas is the young prospect.
If you consider Gaffeny the 54th player on the roster, which I do, then you have
Welker and Lloyd
Gaffney to back up both, and be the WR3
Salas as the 4th and developmental guy
Edelman and Slater as s/ters who can play WR
and we are right where everyone expected us to be, except for those who expected a veteran sitting the bench as the inactive 4th WR.

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27 catches in 6 games for 297 yards would put him around 800yards if he made it all 16 games...not bad for a rookie and if he knows Mcdaniels offense he would be able to probably come in and produce right away.

that being said, I still expect one of Gaffney/Branch coming back as the 3rd Wide receiver....

TECHNICALLY, Hernandez is our 3rd wide receiver...the only issue with that IMO is that he hasnt played a full season yet in his first 2 years...so when/if he misses time we need that 3rd wide receiver to come in..

plus, im not sure you want gronk/welker catching 90% of the passes and being on the field 100% of the time...we got lucky last year that neither was seriously injured considering how reliant our offense was on both of them

Looks like Salas is doomed, he's been assigned the number 17. I hope he doesn't channel his inner Chad Jackson or Taylor Price...:bricks:

102 Pat said:

Looks like Salas is doomed, he's been assigned the number 17. I hope he doesn't channel his inner Chad Jackson or Taylor Price...:bricks:

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Any news on other jersey numbers? I wonder who gets 93...

I feel like he's going to be fine....the pats have a history of picking up players where everyone goes "who" and then they end up surprising...no one really heard of welker or woodhead before they came here.

the pats have been very cautious in who they get for Wr this year...they either

A. have played in McDaniels offense before.
B. have played/been successful with Brady before.

and its smart to go after guys who already know the offense, because the Pats have probably been one of the WORST teams at drafting WR....if you can pick up a young prospect who you already KNOW can play in this offense its much more of a certainty than drafting someone and not knowing they can or not

Not much of a risk for someone who might work out eventually. Not sure he's the guy that relieves my concern at wideout should Lloyd go down however.

AndyJohnson said:

Salas is the young prospect.
If you consider Gaffeny the 54th player on the roster, which I do, then you have
Welker and Lloyd
Gaffney to back up both, and be the WR3
Salas as the 4th and developmental guy
Edelman and Slater as s/ters who can play WR
and we are right where everyone expected us to be, except for those who expected a veteran sitting the bench as the inactive 4th WR.

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If Gaffney returns, it's essentially the WR group many expected, minus Branch. At that point, every common play grouping (2 WR/2/TE/1RB, etc....) would be available in a way that it could create mismatches, as long as Salas works out well enough that opponents need to account for him.

What might be more interesting, from a "how do they all fit?" standpoint, would be a combination of Branch returning and Gaffney not coming back.

scott99 said:

The more I read about, and watch videos of Salas, the more excited I get of his potential. He has good size, was ridiculously productive in college, spent his rookie season running our current offense, seemed to have been loved by Rams fans and was a huge favorite by Hawaii fans and was loved by his team. The more I watch his videos, I'll be darned if he doesn't remind me of our own Aaron Hernandez. Maybe not as explosive in the YAC, but I see him running the WR screen like AH, I see him fighting for the ball like AH, he just reminds me of AH in his overall style of play. Like the move a lot, and barely gave up anything. Hopefully he can help us out, and become better every year. I still want Gaffney back, and want Ebert on the practice squad, if that happens ill be less stressed about the WR position.

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THIS.

You said everything I wanted to post in this thread, so I'll leave it there.

I'll just add two things:

1) I can't imagine why the Rams would give this kid (who averaged better than 4 catches per game in his rookie season) up for next to nothing - - it must be a new administration/Jeff Fisher "He's not my guy" kind of thing.

2) that I REALLY, REALLY want the Pats to nab Ebert for the PS. I'll add a third REALLY to this.