Poor argument choice here, granted Hill only had 49 career catchs in college, but Sanchez had only started I think 12 or 13 games when he was drafted. Again, one of the knocks on Sanchez prior to the draft was his lack of experience. Kind of the same Knock that's on Hill.
In both cases the Jets imagined a future that was unlikely to happen. Imagination is important in building a team but when it turns into fantasizing you have a problem. The Jets keep fantasizing with these project picks and then reality hits them hard in the face.
I'm not giving up on Hill. Clearly he has a lot of work to do and is a bit of a liability right now, but he's only a rookie who has an incredible upside. If I had Sanchez's ear right now I would tell him to throw the ball high and force Hill to use his athleticism. Right now I would guess that Hill is over-thinking EVERYTHING.
Sanchez is already looking away from Hill in key situations. It's a survival situation for both of them and the rookie isn't going to get the benefit of the doubt when Sanchez career hangs in the balance also. This is what happens when you are loose with your talent evaluation.
My problem with Hill's selection in the second round was not merely where he was taken, but that this was seen as the answer to who would be one of the top three receivers on the team. The notion that Hill would be ready to start was crazy. After Holmes went down, the team was way too thin at wideout. Luckily Schillens has been taking up a bit of slack lately. And I've even seen Gates look better than I excepted from him. But as a group with Holmes out, this is a below average set of wideouts to be sure. Keller is not doing much, either.
They have to find a way to get Hill some opportunities to rebuild his confidence. We are going to need him. Although, I do like that Sanchez is getting Schilens involved.
Good call on Gates. Gates has really gotten involved lately. He's a receiver that from what I've seen runs pretty good routes and has the best top end speed we have so he can be a guy who could stretch the defenses.
Gates did not impress me when he was with the fish. But he's shown promise, imo, with the Jets so far. That would be a big break if he turned out to make real contributions.
Yes I noticed that as well. The was play where Hill was open but MS chose another receiver instead of Hill. Hill may as well be cut as he now has become totally unproductive to the team. That drop in NE 1 was very, very costly. Best take someone off the junk pile that MS will have more confidence in the Hill :sad:
So they need to get Hill some opportunities to rebuild his confidence while also getting Sanchez some opportunities to rebuild *his* confidence? Do you see where I am going with this? Every drop from Hill hurts a weakened Sanchez. Every poorly thrown pass from Sanchez hurts a weakened Hill. That's because the talent levels just aren't there for them to consistently play well and support the others talent in the process. Every drop from Hill and poorly thrown pass from Sanchez hurts a weakened Tony Sparano. It's just a reality-based clusterfuck that starts way above the pay grade of all three of those guys.
Why so he can have more drops like in the NE game? It is a innate problem lack of hand/eye coordination so he has become a total non contributor because of it. Somebody in our R & D dept did not do there homework on this player :sad:
Actually I expected him to have already surpassed Rice by now..... Now can someone PLEASE pass that pipe back to me. I'm losing my buzz. But seriously, I think we all tend to make too many demands of rookies and have standards too high. It is easy to forget that even the best players who've ever played were, more often than not, mediocre/flawed as rookies. It is rare that a rookie comes out of college flying high. In fact, I'd wager that most of those tend to be flashes in the pan instead of long term contributors.
Maybe some WR screens for him would help him and Sanchez out. I think once he just makes some completions he'll start to catch some more
WR screens don't work all that well when the opponents are jamming you at the line of scrimmage as often as Hill is getting jammed. The word is out that if you get Hill off-stride you've already won the battle.
Drafting Hill was not the problem, relying on him to be a major contributor in his rookie year is where the problem lies. Either way its a problem but you guys are choosing the wrong problem to focus on. Anyone who follows the draft knows Hill was as raw as they come. They also know he is as talented as they come. One only needs to look at what D Thomas is doing out in Denver now in his 3rd year, Hill compares very favorably to Thomas in physical ability. All reports I have seen suggest that Hill has a great work ethic, combine that with his physical talent and I'm still very optimistic for his future.
