It was surprising to see Wilson be so invisible for half a season after he had a good camp. I didn't expect him to all of a sudden become a starting WR, but he'd been slightly more useful than Jakeem Grant and on par with Preston Williams so far. I think part of the issue has been this - he's a speed guy and we've been dialing up all of schemed up plays to get the ball to Waddle. Waddle (while he has settled in running nice routes and having solid hands, getting better ever week) hasn't proven to be able to shake defenders when he hasn't gotten the ball in space. It made sense, as Waddle has basically been the only reliable actual wide receiver we've had for all but a handful of moments. But, especially given that Waddle isn't that great at shaking defenders, it hasn't proven to open up much big play opportunity, primarily because with the guys we've been fielding, the last thing the defense is going to do is lose Waddle (or Gesicki) in coverage.
Wilson actually got the motion routes tonight, and he did a good job generating yards on the shorter passes. On that late game catch and run, that was a great play to run with Wilson as there is NO CHANCE the defense let's that happen if that is Waddle.
It would be really beneficial to continue using Wilson like this and stop trying to forcefed the offense to Waddle short. We can get positive dividends with Wilson there and Waddle has a downfield acumen that he has really only hinted at with catches against the Patriots and Ravens that would bring more to this offense than always having him run predictable short routes where the defense hones in on him.
BTW I think Wilson was caught by the defender because he was primarily focused on not getting pushed out of bounds. You can see the way he is peering to the side at the defender instead of gunning for the goaline. Yeah a score would have come close to putting the game on ice but him getting pushed out of bounds somewhere far short of the score would have dramatically changed the game.
Wilson actually got the motion routes tonight, and he did a good job generating yards on the shorter passes. On that late game catch and run, that was a great play to run with Wilson as there is NO CHANCE the defense let's that happen if that is Waddle.
It would be really beneficial to continue using Wilson like this and stop trying to forcefed the offense to Waddle short. We can get positive dividends with Wilson there and Waddle has a downfield acumen that he has really only hinted at with catches against the Patriots and Ravens that would bring more to this offense than always having him run predictable short routes where the defense hones in on him.
BTW I think Wilson was caught by the defender because he was primarily focused on not getting pushed out of bounds. You can see the way he is peering to the side at the defender instead of gunning for the goaline. Yeah a score would have come close to putting the game on ice but him getting pushed out of bounds somewhere far short of the score would have dramatically changed the game.
