Without Tate our offense could take on a whole new identity. Our best 5 skill players were Tate, Jones, Golladay, Kerryon, and Willson/Roberts. We were in 11 personnel (1 TE, 1 RB, 3 WR) 62% of the time through week 7. In fact, 31 of 32 teams are in that set over 50% of the time with San Fran the only exception.
Do we just plug in TJ or Powell and stay with that or do you guys expect to see more 12 personnel (2 TE, 1 RB, 2 WR) with Roberts and Willson getting more PT? We could start pounding the ball more and utilizing more PA passes to get Jones and Golladay working deep vs 1 on 1 coverages with Willson and Roberts leaking out for TE checkdowns.
Will we see more 21 personnel (1 TE, 2 RB, 2 WR) with Theo and Kerryon on the field together? Riddick has been injured lately so I don’t expect to see AA and Kerryon out there together. Maybe we’ll see Blount and Kerryon groupings? Interestingly enough, SF leads the league in 21 personnel groupings at 41% of their plays. Guess who’s second? The Patriots at 28%. Is this the beginning of a new trend? Or what is old is new again? Getting teams out of their nickel and getting pass catching RBs matched up on LBs seems to be a good recipe for success for us.
I’m having a tough time thinking that we can just plug in TJ or Powell and believe we’ll have the same type of success. Tate is a YAC machine and is that guy that can make 2-3 guys miss or break some tackles to move the chains. How do you guys feel we’ll try to evolve?
My guess is that everyone else gets a couple more looks per game.
TJ, Powell or Riddick will take over the slot role and our TE’s should see more playing time as well. I don’t think it will hurt that bad losing him as long as we can run the ball enough to keep defenses honest. Tate is a good, solid WR but he isn’t a game changer so his production should be replaceable.
I think we’ll see a bit more 12 AND 21 personnel groups, don’t see why they won’t try AA and KeJo out there together, at least until Riddick comes back. I know there’s a lot of hate on AA, but the guy has speed and can give you something once in awhile. I’d play Blount with KeJo too, or even Blount and AA; IMHO you gotta give defenses as many looks and personnel groupings as you can, that’s how you get mistakes on defense or favorable matchups.
I don’t think we will evolve this yr, Tate was our best weapon overall and losing him doesn’t make us better this year. For the offense to evolve I think we need a TE and believe it will be a target in the off-season.
Tough to reformat an offense mid-season and have success. Riddick and Stafford have chemistry. Riddick has played slot. Riddick is a YAC machine.
The remaining RB’s are all capable receivers out of the backfield, and let’s face it, Riddick is the least effective runner of the bunch.
If he’s not the main guy in the slot going forward I will be very surprised.
@Notfishnsunday I would type my own response but since you said exactly what I was thinking I will just publicly state here that I agree with your post completely. Riddick is the only slot replacement that can pick up the YAC.
Riddick is 10th best in the league at YAC (Tate is 4th). Also, we have a running game now. I’m going to just assume Patricia and Quinn have a plan. Makes it easier for me to get upset at them later …
While I agree, losing Tate is not going to make us any better, I wouldn’t say they are not going to evolve. When JBC took over for Lombardi in 2015, I feel the offense evolved mid season. I am not sure what they evolve to will be any better, but they cannot play the same way without Tate. My best guess is there will be more 2 WR sets to get an extra TE in for blocking the run.
I think it was pretty obvious before the season when they kept Powell on the team that they considered him heir apparent to Tate
Losing to Seattle probably sealed the deal to move Tate before the trade deadline. Getting a third round pick for Tate missing the last half of a likely dead season for us is a solid decision
How the offense evolves from here? I assume they are going to continue to invest in a ground game and probably trying to find a TE or two
More play action and more downfield passes assuming the Oline protects. It’s a young Oline and the stunts Seattle was using seemed to confuse them. But if they can continue to improve Stafford should have the talent around him to finally lead a playoff push. But not this year. And probably not next year either…But who knows really
The Offense has many pieces to work with. The Offense needs several changes as teams know way too much from our tape. Keeping teams on their heals is really what is needed.
I don’t think the evolution will be too drastic. Tate was primarily targeted on short routes as a sort of a pseudo running game. Hopefully this helps us focus on getting Kerryon more touches and Stafford can start looking to Jones Jr and Golladay down field.