Darren Rizzi says Jakeem Grant is disappointed and working hard in the offseason | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Darren Rizzi says Jakeem Grant is disappointed and working hard in the offseason

kcbrown said:
Can we at least, maybe, THROW him the rock once or twice a game..maybe a screen or two....just get him out in open space.
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There again lies the problem....he has to catch the football first. Not sure i want to potentially waste a down finding out if he can.
 
Goin` Deep said:
And how many muffled punts/kickoffs? I know he had a streak of 4 miscues in 3 weeks.
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Fielding punts and catching passes aren't the same thing. As I said earlier Jerry Rice had trouble fielding punts. Concentrating on a ball that's been in the air as long as punts tend to be while 10 defenders are rapidly closing in on you can be a lot more unnerving than catching a bubble screen or drag route. I'm not saying Grant doesn't need to get better in that area to make the 2017 53 man roster, but fielding punts in the NFL after not doing it all in college isn't easy.
 
How many drops did Jerry Rice have in his rookie year? Now he's the goat. You have to give some players time to develope. As CK rightly pointed out, the kid didn't do punts in college. So give him last year to get his footing, and yes he will have another drop, so will Landry and every other punt returner. None of them are perfect.


Goin` Deep said:
And how many muffled punts/kickoffs? I know he had a streak of 4 miscues in 3 weeks.
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gregorygrant83 said:
Fielding punts and catching passes aren't the same thing. As I said earlier Jerry Rice had trouble fielding punts. Concentrating on a ball that's been in the air as long as punts tend to be while 10 defenders are rapidly closing in on you can be a lot more unnerving than catching a bubble screen or drag route. I'm not saying Grant doesn't need to get better in that area to make the 2017 53 man roster, but fielding punts in the NFL after not doing it all in college isn't easy.
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You said it before, and better than, I could.
 
All I said said in my original post, was that he needs to show that he can "catch" the football before I'd want to see us use him in the passing game. Nothing more.

Yeah, returning punts isn't the same. Hopefully, he can catch a punt consistently first and then we'll go from there. Baby steps
 
he is explosive and elusive. it's a roster spot for the punt returner.

he's a extremely small for a WR. it's hard enough seeing downfield let alone throwing to the guy from game of thrones. just about any DB can take him down with one hand on him.

string might make his spot interesting
 
Listening to Christensen, if he has any vote at all, I think Grant is making the 53 unless he completely wets the bed. He was talking like it was a foregone conclusion. If so, it's entirely possible we keep six receivers.

The reward with Grant is so immense, he's worth using a spot on. IMO
 
Run a couple a fly sweeps every couple of games, maybe getting hit can break that mental block. Make him a better returner without thinking.
 
Fix those hands so we don't have to put Jarvis out there on returns anymore. Then again it seems like they only put him out there when we need a fair catch.
 
If for nothing else he can be used as a decoy.
 
ckparrothead said:
He muffed punts and he needs to work on that. He'd not done it in college. That's what people forget. He was a kickoff returner in college, never punts. Jarvis Landry hadn't done it in college either, and when the Dolphins had him do it in the NFL he also dropped some punts and kickoffs. And Devin Hester of course muffed a whole bunch of them his rookie year.

People never want to hear that it may take some time. They want to make snap decisions. He sucks. Get rid of him. He's never going to do anything.

Darren Rizzi pointed it out, there were a couple of big returns Jakeem Grant had called back on him that were on questionable penalties. Two against Seattle for 23 yards. One against the Jets for a 57 yard touchdown. Figure those into the mix and Jakeem had 245 punt return yards on 23 returns, with 2 TDs. That's outstanding.

As it his, his 23+ yards per return on kickoffs was already outstanding. One of those kickoff returns against the Jets only went 19 yards, but took 13 seconds as he slipped tackle after tackle, tiring out the entire Jets coverage team. Calvin Pryor for example went limping off to the sidelines. When the play was flagged and re-kicked, this time to Kenyan Drake because the Jets wanted NO PART of Jakeem Grant anymore, Kenyan Drake had it easy. Took it for a big score. People want to solely credit Kenyan Drake for that but the simple fact of the matter is that 96 yard kick return TD doesn't happen without Jakeem Grant's 13 second serpentine romp tiring everyone out, and every COACH knows that to be true.

I am reminded somewhat of 2009 when the Dolphins got Cameron Wake from the CFL and the coaches stuck him behind Jason Taylor and Joey Porter, hardly ever played him. I think he got like 300 snaps that year. Because he hardly played, generally speaking here on the message board and elsewhere, everyone just assumed he sucked. They said things like, he's not a starter, I can't imagine him being anything but an pass rush specialist, he only has one move, he sucks against the run, etc. They let the circumstances dictate the perception of the player, instead of a well contextualized evaluation of what the player was actually doing on the field.

If people would stop to actually look and evaluate what Jakeem Grant was doing on the field last year, granted when he wasn't muffing punts lol, I think they would easily see why the coaches would like this guy to nail down our return spot for the next decade...or at least, however long his tiny body gives him. And they would easily see why they're working to incorporate him into the offense, too.

THIS is what Clyde Christensen is referring to when he says that Jakeem Grant is "scary" in one on one coverage:
https://youtu.be/-36bKZ5SoD0?t=93

That's Tre'Davious White. He just went in the 1st round. But when Jakeem Grant went up against him, Jakeem made him look like a total slapd-ck.

And it very nearly happens again here (watch the regular view then stick around for the field view):
https://youtu.be/-36bKZ5SoD0?t=142

Imagine if Patrick Mahomes's offensive line weren't a leaky sieve there. Because let me tell you. That corner, Jalen Mills, who played 700 snaps on the Philadelphia Eagles this year and is a genuine NFL player, was BEAT. Like a drum. If Mahomes had the pocket to read the play and launch that ball, only question is how accurate the throw is, because Jalen Mills was beat within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. I mean, Mills gave him 9-10 yards of cushion and Grant beat the hell out of him anyway.

This one might be my favorite though:
https://youtu.be/-36bKZ5SoD0?t=213

There are two NFL players trying to cover Jakeem Grant on this play. Jalen Mills who like I said played nearly 700 snaps for the Eagles this year has man coverage on him. And he's protected over top by the 1st round pick Tre'Davious White, who has taken the role of deep safety on the play. The throw isn't where it needed to be but you will notice that Jakeem Grant has beaten the hell out of Jalen Mills (again), and even though Tre'Davious White as a deep safety read the play and seemed like he had proper timing to come over for help, Jakeem had him beat as well. If that ball is on target then Grant just blew the top off a defense that tried whatever it could to make sure that didn't happen. LSU had made a scheme adjustment because of the previous plays I showed where Grant was easily getting open deep against even their best players in one-on-one. So they adjusted to make sure that would not happen. Nearly happened anyway.

This one is another favorite, because this is something the Dolphins have in mind for him:
https://youtu.be/-36bKZ5SoD0?t=263

Again, two NFL players converge on the kid. That's Jalen Mills who is practically a starter for the Eagles, and LB Deion Jones who was very nearly DROY for the Atlanta Falcons and made PFWA All-Rookie team. He embarrassed those two NFL players.

If you really watch that game all the way through, the only player that could hang with Jakeem Grant all day was Jamal Adams, because he's so good. But even he had to take his medicine at times, because Grant is just too quick:
https://youtu.be/-36bKZ5SoD0?t=336

And here is where you just start to feel sorry for LSU. Did anyone else play backyard football like this, where you had one guy fielding a punt and one guy trying to tackle him? For Jakeem Grant, that's like no guys trying to tackle him. Or once again, in the words of Clyde Christensen, one-on-one with Jakeem Grant is "SCARY":
https://youtu.be/-36bKZ5SoD0?t=584

Still, people are like, I don't imagine him ever contributing on offense. Really? Based on him dropping the one ball he was thrown in 2016?

I don't get it. People are anxious to get Jakeem Grant off the roster, to replace him with someone else. I'm anxious to get him the damn football some more, and I think the Dolphins coaches are too.
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great post. The drake TD - I forgot about the re-kick. You are so right. That happens A LOT on a re-kick because the coverage team is tired - and normally they aren't covering a 13 second return.
 
Seeing that Landry, Parker and Thomas might lead the team in targets, maybe they should put Stills back there to get their money's worth. :lol::lol:
 
A wr that can't catch or field punts? Pass. Deep enough at wr to let him go. Put one of the rbs there and Landry in clutch spots.
 
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