A new toy is coming out of the box soon, and I wondered how you good people would like us to use him? We don't need to use him exactly the same way Minny did - we have a functional QB and an offense that actually makes use of the legalisation of the forward pass. Some of my thoughts as to how I would like to see him deployed:-
1 - Receiving out of the backfield - but not just catching passes in the flat. Harvin is a match-up nightmare for LBs, but put him wide to be covered by a CB or a S and you lose some of the advantage. Remember the wheel route that Russ hit Turbin on in the loss at SF last year, which Turbin dropped near the goalline? I would love to see Harvin running deep-ish routes from the backfield, where he may get dropped in coverage.
2 - in the slot - for bubble screens and quick slants naturally.
3 - sole back in obvious passing situations. I think that Harvin may help the pass protection simply by being there. Let's say he looks for an inside blitzer. There is none, so he slips through/passed the line to go into the gap between the DL and the secondary. If Russ climbs the pocket, what does the D do? If there is a LB/DB spying Russ, move towards him and he can flip it to Harvin (who you would rather have with the ball in his hands than Russ). Or maybe Harvin's presence freezes the D and gives Russ even more room to run.
4 - as a runner - I don't think that we need to use him exactly like Minny did, and I wouldn't like to see him take a battering after coming back from his hip surgery, but I would like to see a few wrinkles on what we have done already. How about an option run for Russ where he has the choice to pitch it out to Harvin? Or, say we run a read option play with Lynch to the left, how great would it be if Harvin was behind Russ and we could pitch it to him going right? The D will have to take account of him even if the give is to Lynch - might just freeze the LBs a bit, who have to worry about Lynch inside left, Russ outside left, and Harvin going right. Or even Russ faking the handoff and looking to throw. I honestly have no idea what a D does in that situation.
5 - hot route on blitzes. See Marshawn's easy TD catch against the 9ers. If Russ spots a blitz and Harvin splits wide for the quick pass, how much space does he have in front of him? Does the D even risk the blitz from the side Harvin is lined up on?
Should be interesting. What say you?
1 - Receiving out of the backfield - but not just catching passes in the flat. Harvin is a match-up nightmare for LBs, but put him wide to be covered by a CB or a S and you lose some of the advantage. Remember the wheel route that Russ hit Turbin on in the loss at SF last year, which Turbin dropped near the goalline? I would love to see Harvin running deep-ish routes from the backfield, where he may get dropped in coverage.
2 - in the slot - for bubble screens and quick slants naturally.
3 - sole back in obvious passing situations. I think that Harvin may help the pass protection simply by being there. Let's say he looks for an inside blitzer. There is none, so he slips through/passed the line to go into the gap between the DL and the secondary. If Russ climbs the pocket, what does the D do? If there is a LB/DB spying Russ, move towards him and he can flip it to Harvin (who you would rather have with the ball in his hands than Russ). Or maybe Harvin's presence freezes the D and gives Russ even more room to run.
4 - as a runner - I don't think that we need to use him exactly like Minny did, and I wouldn't like to see him take a battering after coming back from his hip surgery, but I would like to see a few wrinkles on what we have done already. How about an option run for Russ where he has the choice to pitch it out to Harvin? Or, say we run a read option play with Lynch to the left, how great would it be if Harvin was behind Russ and we could pitch it to him going right? The D will have to take account of him even if the give is to Lynch - might just freeze the LBs a bit, who have to worry about Lynch inside left, Russ outside left, and Harvin going right. Or even Russ faking the handoff and looking to throw. I honestly have no idea what a D does in that situation.
5 - hot route on blitzes. See Marshawn's easy TD catch against the 9ers. If Russ spots a blitz and Harvin splits wide for the quick pass, how much space does he have in front of him? Does the D even risk the blitz from the side Harvin is lined up on?
Should be interesting. What say you?