Take Ryan Izzo, according to Player profiler he ranked 58th in receptions (13) and 49th in yards (199). They listed his targets as 70% catchable and gave him a 92.9% true catch rate. Izzo was also listed with a target separation rate of 1.7.
Izzo was targeted 20 times and caught 13 of those passes.
There's a saying that bad weapons can hurt a good quarterback. Well the same is true for good weapons with a bad quarterback. Cam Newton if looked at majority of the rankings finished between 28th and 32nd, depending on the list. It's been said that the Patriots' weapons were ranked 27th by pff.
This is not to say that the Patriots shouldn't upgrade their weapons but to say if the Patriots do not make an upgrade at quarterback, even elite pass catchers are gonna have a bad year in 2021.
PFF had Izzo tied for 56th in targets, tied for 58th in receptions, and 49th in yards. With a ranking of 51.9. And ESPN Fantasy ranked Izzo as the 64th best tight end in 2020.
Going back to the Denver game, analysts had started saying if people went and looked at the coaches tape, they would see each of the pass catchers getting open a handful of times a game, and the quarterbacks just couldn't get them the ball.
Analysts would repeat that the rest of the year. Analysts would repeat that the rest of the year.
(The coaches tape shows the full field instead of just what the television wants you to see.)
A handful of times, to myself means 3 to five times a game. Maybe others view the numbers associated with a handful differently, I don't know.
That would mean the pass catchers this season we're open 48 to 80 times each. Izzo only played in 12 games so that would be at minimum 36 times he got open and only had 20 targets, that's bad. We saw several times, he was thrown the ball while in coverage.
That means there were several times he was open and who ever was under center, which majority of the time it was Cam; didn't see or ignored him.
There has been a lot of complaints from the NFL media and from the fan base about Newton's accuracy and decision making. About the same amount as the complaints that the pass catchers cannot separate.
The problem with the pass catchers is the same problem with the quarterbacks who were on the roster in 2020. They had no consistency. Once analysts started saying that tape was showing open receivers, and not the tape the networks airs. The blame came partially off of the pass catchers.
There was talk that the Patriots offense didn't need new pieces, that the answers were in the locker room. They were right; they needed consistency from the guys signed to play offense. The coaches failed to get it from the offense.
Speaking of coaches, McDaniels didn't do the best play calling but I'm glad that he didn't change the passing aspect of the game to fit Newton's style. Teams would've been running a cover 4, waiting for Newton to throw the deep ball, knowing he struggles on the short and intermediate passes. Without the patriots having the receivers to run those routes, turnovers would've been high.
Schemes can be made for the cover 4 to stop the run, so The option runs and running game would've been able to be stopped. Thus the Patriots must do a better job of coaching production out of their players on offenses.
It was only a short time ago that Chad O'shea was the receiving coach and Brian Daboll was the tight end coach. However, Jedd Fisch didnt look like he got much out of the Patriots quarterbacks. Maybe along with retooling the roster, the offensive coaching staff should also get an overhaul.
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