Can TE Watson cut it as a blocker?

[Ochmed Jones]

Graham blocked on about 80 of plays he was on the field for. Many plays he was used purely as a blocker and the others he usually chipped someone and then released.

As for running the type of routes that Clark runs, I watched a few practices last year at TC and I saw the Pats using Watson on a bunch of deep seam routes and having good success.
I also saw them use Watson on intermediate Clark type routes, I think Watson ran 5 or 6 that I saw and I know he dropped 2 of the balls thrown to him. And on all the routes Watson seemed more concerned with the LB than on securing the ball.
I think the reason we don't use Watson in internediate routes more is because his hands and his courage are suspect.

Of course I could be wrong because if the coaching staff thought this way, they would have made a larger effort to resign Graham.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Graham was offered WAY above the value assigned to the TE position by Belioli. That being said, Graham overcame his atrocious rookie dropsies and was a more complete TE than anyone else we now have. Let's hope that Thomas is just a PUP and not headed to IR as I fear.

 

[mgteich]

Agreed.

Watson is not the answer to replacing Graham as a blocking tight end. That answer is Kyle Brady who is being paid $2.65M per year to fulfill that role.

Graham was offered WAY above the value assigned to the TE position by Belioli. That being said, Graham overcame his atrocious rookie dropsies and was a more complete TE than anyone else we now have. Let's hope that Thomas is just a PUP and not headed to IR as I fear.

 

[cstjohn17]

Graham was offered WAY above the value assigned to the TE position by Belioli. That being said, Graham overcame his atrocious rookie dropsies and was a more complete TE than anyone else we now have. Let's hope that Thomas is just a PUP and not headed to IR as I fear.

Thomas can't clock either. If we use a lot of 3 WR sets the TE will be called to run and pass block. I guess it is something Watson has to improve.

 

[cstjohn17]

I think the reason we don't use Watson in internediate routes more is because his hands and his courage are suspect.

I don't know if Watson is gun shy or not but it reminds me of a quote from Lawrence Taylor about the contact in the middle of the field. This is a para-phrase but he basically called to WRs soft because they play on the outside but he when referring to the middle of the field where the big boys roam he would say that "the middle of the field is where the mother ******* bullets start to fly"

LB on TE crime is for big boys, it helps explain why TEs get banged up so much. A lot of their passes are what in hockey we would call 'suicide passes', they catch the ball looking back at the QB with a LB ready to take their heads off.

Speaking of which did you see the hit that the rookie Bishop layed on one of the Jacksonville WRs (Williams I think). It was nasty, blew his helmet right off.

 

[JackBauer]

Thomas can't clock either. If we use a lot of 3 WR sets the TE will be called to run and pass block. I guess it is something Watson has to improve.

Actually, Thomas can block.

 

[cstjohn17]

Actually, Thomas can block.

Lets call it a draw until he makes it back on the field, then we can start the evaluations. From my memory he was split out most of the time running patterns while at Texas and we had a very small sample of him as a Patriot.

 

[PatsSteve1]

Re: Hey Box

Questions for the group?

2) Why don't the Patriots use Watson like Indy uses Clark? Indy rarely asks Clark to block in-line, he kind of comes in from the side like an annoying red neck gnat.

IMO, Graham doesn't have near the agility for the quick, in and out of cuts needed for more of a slot WR. If he were to play WR, he'd be an outside, down thesideline and deep crossing route type