Sgt. Largent":2v2f9wsq said:
Okay, yeah, I wasn't totally clear so I'll give it another shot
Q: Why does JK have such a low catch rate, especially in the RZ?
A: Because he is receiving a lot of hard targets from RW under duress.
Q: Okay, so JK is a sin eater for broken plays - are there similar players on other teams that fulfill that role and have similar context with having a good to great QB? Being outlets for a QB under duress? How are they performing?
A: Oh, you see, any other receiver would similarly flail haplessly if plugged into that position and role on this team.
Q: Are you saying that JK gets the worst of the worst from RW's passing attempts and this is unique specifically to the Seahawks - having a starting WR that functions as a go to player, who eats the sins of his OL and QB? A QB who otherwise does as well if not better with his stable of other receivers than comparable QBs do?
A: Yes.
I don't buy that though. First, I don't buy that JK is possibly the best person on the team for that role - I feel vindicated in that belief by his stats. If he was as good in that role as some are intimating, I wouldn't expect two totally bogus seasons out of 4. I wouldn't expect him to receive so many targets and fail to convert him. Secondly, I am not seeing other players on other teams with good QBs have similarly profiled WRs but I'm sure the role of sin eater exists to some extent - a go to guy when things get hot for the QB. The trick is identifying these types of players that get hard targets and make the most of them. By virtue of Kearse's bad seasons in the RZ, it is a safe assumption to me at least, he is probably one of the LEAST suited to be the guy you would want to look for as a chaos outlet across the league. Again, nobody seemingly matches Kearse's profile of being a go to player who does so little because almost every other highly targetted WRs actually convert and low targeted ones generally do not.
I feel like the hard target argument is faulty because it invokes special pleading that Kearse is getting the worst possible opportunities from RW and that this dynamic singularly unique to the Seahawks. In fact looking at some of the bad teams in the league like the Browns, I see WR's who are similar to Kearse in the RZ - high volume of targets lower catch % but they are not the only player on the team suffering like this. They are one of three or four players on the team suffering with sub 40% catch rates. That simply isn't happening with the Hawks though.
So to reiterate:
If JK is getting all the hardest targets maybe he isn't the right player to get them based on his historical output of getting them. I don't understand how that point is contentious. It surely mucks up where blame lies taking some of it off of Kearse and putting it into the hands of RW and Bevell to correct for. Even if you can't personally blame Kearse for not being a better receiver, you can blame RW and Bevell for blithely trying to make hard things happen with a WR who can't.
