Miguel's Jonnu Smith question

[PatsFanInVa]

Patriot Maven Mailbag, Part II: Jonnu’s Revenge, Mac in the Cold and More New England Patriots Questions - Sports Illustrated New England Patriots News, Analysis and More

Patriot Maven tackles various issues, such as the long-awaited emergence of Jonnu Smith and the fate of Chase Winovich in this weekend’s question-and-answer session with fans.

www.si.com

So a couple 'graphs in, one Miguel Benzan (@patscap) asks,

" Is this the game against his former team (Tennessee Titans) in which Jonnu Smith breaks out?"

SI runs down the same thing the rest of us do lol... he's being used as a blocker, he has a shoulder injury, but damn you don't pay the boy 12.5m apy to use him as a blocker... etc., concluding with...

In Week Twelve, the Patriots will be facing an aggressive Tennessee defensive front. As a result, the 6-foot-3 248-pound former Titan might be poised for a breakout performance as a ball carrier, or as the red zone target for quarterback Mac Jones.

"Might be"...."or".... we're at a magic 8 ball level of WTF with Jonnu

My gut says this is something we'll look back at and say "ohhhhhh," but right now it's a mystery.

 

[oldrover]

Jonnu will break through!






In case he doesn’t though, I’m prepared here…

 

[JayNM]

Im not expecting much this year anymore. I think we arent going to keep trying new things to see whats good in December, now its time to enhance what is good, and Jonnu isnt in this category, except in a few plays

Cant wait to be wrong tho

 

[Pape]

always seems like they try to force things to guys who are "returning" to their former teams... they tried to force a few throws to HH in the san diego of los angeles chargers game iirc...

would rather have them establish a good offensive rhythm before starting to worry about crap like that

 

[Froob]

I don’t have a good feeling about Jonnu but, I think this will be Ocho’s breakout game

 

[VectorPrime]

I don’t have a good feeling about Jonnu but, I think this will be Ocho’s breakout game

Oh god. Every single week in 2011. Every single week...

 

[Ochmed Jones]

Smith is best when he is doing anything other than running a pass route.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Oh god. Every single week in 2011. Every single week...

One name: Chad Jackson

 

[Mack Herron]

Smith and Agholor are the two most athletic mismatches on offense and Josh hasn’t figured out how to get big plays from either. This remains something of a mystery to me and time is running out.

 

[stinkypete]

Tennessee is 4th league wide in rush yards per game, 24th in pass yards. Their best player defensively has been DL Jeffrey Simmons.

Which leads me to believe the offensive game plan will be to neutralize Simmons. I would assume this is best done with Jacob Johnson rather than Jonnu Smith.

 

[Tony2046]

Smith and Agholor are the two most athletic mismatches on offense and Josh hasn’t figured out how to get big plays from either. This remains something of a mystery to me and time is running out.

I agree but they need to perform too.

 

[farn]

Not giving up on him, but def wish he’d shown more by now.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Smith and Agholor are the two most athletic mismatches on offense and Josh hasn’t figured out how to get big plays from either. This remains something of a mystery to me and time is running out.

Why is time running out?

 

[Mack Herron]

Why is time running out?

Team has pretty much learned who it is by Thanksgiving.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Team has pretty much learned who it is by Thanksgiving.

I think Agholor and Smith will be back next year. It would be great to see them more active by now, but I think there is plenty of time as long as they keep getting better game to game (even if that is too slow for some on PatsFans).

 

[Kontradiction]

Why is time running out?

Technically, time is always running out.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Technically, time is always running out.

Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?

 

[Ochmed Jones]

Did not someone else post that dumping smith this offseason would be a bit of a cap problem?

 

[doesntmatter1]

Jonnu=Cordalle Patterson. Great with the ball in his hands but not really sure what to do with him on the field. It took years before Patterson became a consistent rb. Smith is probably a rb as well but doesn't look the part so it will take forever before he is transitioned there long term probably by a different team.

 

[PScottman]

Team has pretty much learned who it is by Thanksgiving.

No question, but if Jonnu Smith had no role on this team he wouldn't be on the field.

Even just one play - like the ATL leak into the flat catch and run for 17 yards - and now the defense HAS to account for him making the entire offensive team more unpredictable and harder to stop.

It's only fans who bemoan the $ to yards and catches by individual player thing during a season. The Patriots tend to get what they can from a player in their role on that particular team (as you noted which forms each and every year and starts to define itself around week 8 or so) because the money is already spent - it's a sunk cost, and then they re-evaluate that player's likelihood to continue in the offseason.