I've had enough of Luke Willson...

[captSE]

40 posts crucifying a Seahawk......

 

[Missing_Clink]

He certainly has a knack for getting both hands on the ball, only to lose it at the last possible second. A lot of times the drop happens because he gets hit. They are tough catches to make, but he is a professional TE. He has to make tough catches. It doesn't seem like he is the answer as a pass catching TE, as athletic as he is.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

40 posts crucifying a Seahawk......

The title of this thread is "Ive had enough of Luke Willson"..........were you expecting a lovefest?

 

[Chawks1]

40 posts crucifying a Seahawk......

I'm not giving up on the kid. He was a 5th round draft pick. He was the #2 TE on his team at Rice behind Vance McDonald, who the 49ers picked in the 2nd round. Vance has 2 catches for the entire season! I still like Luke's upside, I think the speed of the game is very fast for him still. I think with more reps and time he will mature into a decent TE. I believed in RW, I believe in Bruce Irvin and I will continue to stick with Luke Willson.

 

[NorthDallas40oz]

There's a reason why Willson only caught 9 passes during his senior year as a backup at Rice. This is the risk you run when you draft players based on their SPARQ scores rather than actual on-field production and achievement. Once in a while you'll hit on one (Malcolm Smith), but more often than not you're left with players like this...or worse, Jameson Konz. Willson is, at best, a #3-caliber TE in the NFL who can be a decent catch-and-run player on plays in which he's left wide open, but making contested catches is clearly never going to be his forte, nor is in-line blocking.

 

[Evil_Shenanigans]

Were you to ask my opinion (you didnt!) during the game yesterday, I would have said that McCoy in a walking cast would have been a far better option than Willson. I cannot ladle it all onto him though, as Wilson (one L) was far from being on-form the last two games. How do you make a professional football player suddenly learn how to catch though? Easy to work on route running, footwork, blocking etc. But if you can't catch, you just can't catch! And I have a hard time believing that it exclusively manifests itself in game situations.

 

[firebee]

OMG.... This guy is not Jimmy Graham in his 2nd year... That's it... He's a lost cause.... Let's get rid of him.
:roll: :roll: :roll:

 

[bbsplitter]

I remain optimistic about Willson. This is only his 2nd year, he is a 5th round draft pick who is supposed to be still on limited reps learning and progressing behind Miller. He has been forced into action and I think has done OK. The last game obviously his drops were killer. But a couple games before he blocked like a stud and was the reason RW didn't get killed on a couple plays. He has been banged up so who knows how that is effecting him. Someone like Chancellor who had been missed tackles like crazy yet no one was giving him crap cuz he is already a stud. I have never understood that, to me it would seem more concerning if someone you KNEW could play at a high level all the sudden starts having crap games, vs. a newbie who is still trying to get to that point has a crap game.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

OMG.... This guy is not Jimmy Graham in his 2nd year... That's it... He's a lost cause.... Let's get rid of him.
:roll: :roll: :roll:

We don't have to go to extremes or put on rose colored Hawk glasses to have a rational discussion about a player.

No one worth their salt who analyzes NFL football impartially would say that Willson is playing well right now, nor would they say he's progressing nicely as a TE prospect should in year #2.

Here's the cold hard facts on Willson

DAVIS HSU ‏@DavisHsuSeattle 1h1 hour ago
Grey says TE Luke Willson has 15 targets and 4 catches last two weeks

......and if it wasn't for his game winner last week, I'd go as far as to say he's a complete bust this year. You're in the game to CATCH balls..........Dammit catch them.

 

[sc85sis]

To me, it looks like the issue is fear of getting slammed after the catch. Unfortunately for Luke, that's what his position often calls for. He needs to practice with the JUGS machine while some of his teammates smack him with blocking dummies.

 

[HunnyBadger]

Willson had a down day, but Kearse had a worse one. Wilson was like 2-12 throwing at those two guys alone. They've had far better days and will again.

I don't know, they both had bad games (Kearse and Willson), but it looked like a lot of the balls thrown to Kearse were inaccurate. Willson dropped some catchable balls thrown his way.

 

[canfan]

The guy has struggled with drops his whole career. I want him to succeed as much as anyone. And since you mentioned coaches their actions would indicate they agree. They went after tight ends heavily at the trade deadline. Are they just fickle fans too? If they were confident in Willson they wouldn't of gone after anyone right?

He seems to have real trouble catching in traffic. His blocking is better than it was last year, but I don't know if the first issue is fixable. A couple of big hits and his effectiveness as a TE seems to be done for the day. Too bad, I had very high hopes for this dude!

 

[Ozzy]

I'm pulling for him, seems like a good guy who works hard. He just has to get better or the staff will move on. I would guess they already somewhat have unless he really does well to finish the year.

 

[kpak76]

OMG.... This guy is not Jimmy Graham in his 2nd year... That's it... He's a lost cause.... Let's get rid of him.
:roll: :roll: :roll:

Im not saying lets get rid of him just yet, but hes not even Jenny Graham at this point.

 

[morgulon1]

...and his incessant drops.

CATCH THE BALL!

Nice use of the word "incessant". Oh and I agree, Willson is terrible.

 

[LickMyNuts]

I don't think he is terrible. He is a young player who is learning the position.

I think his pass catching problems are due to his stiff shoulders. He looks like he has trouble reaching up for the ball. I'm not seeing the fluidity there that you see from good pass catching tight ends.

However, you don't have to be a Pro Bowl TE to do well in the Seahawks offense. He will have better days.

 

[rideaducati]

Not to rain on the hatred parade, but dude has been hit hard just as the ball arrived on some of those drops and on a lot of others, he has had to change direction at full speed because Russell was off with the throw. It's hard to do that if you're as big and as fast as he is.

Miller only has one speed and that's SLOW, so it's easier for Russell to know where he is gonna be and easier for him to come back for the ball.

Willson hasn't been in the NFL very long and has only been starting for a few weeks. Give him a chance to work with the starters a bit more and I bet we'll see improvements. I think Willson has done well just getting his hands on some of those poorly thrown balls for us to be able to call them drops. A lot of less athletic guys don't even get their hands on some of those "drops". Every player drops an easy pass now and then, but very few of Willson's drops are of the "easy" variety.

 

[Rob12]

I've calmed down on him, and I actually meant to post this in the Gameday forum. He just has to learn how to catch the ball. He can't be a player in this league with a very bad case of the dropsies. I watched him again and it really just seems that he's scared of getting rocked.

Pulling for him... But we can't afford his drops. Russ is struggling a bit as it is, and adding the drops massively magnifies the problem and makes it look much worse.

 

[-The Glove-]

OMG.... This guy is not Jimmy Graham in his 2nd year... That's it... He's a lost cause.... Let's get rid of him.
:roll: :roll: :roll:

No one is asking him to be Jimmy Graham...we just want him to, ya know, catch the ball

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

..................Here's the cold hard facts on Willson

DAVIS HSU ‏@DavisHsuSeattle 1h1 hour ago
Grey says TE Luke Willson has 15 targets and 4 catches last two weeks

Ouch. I knew it wasn't good but didn't know it was this poor. Hawks will drafting a TE by round 3 in May.