Lou Brock played left field because he had trouble tracking the deep ball over his head; but when he was in front of the ball was hit at him, he was as good as any at tracking it. This is Janis’ problem. The 2 long throws he caught v. AZ he was barely moving, he was able to basically square up and go get the ball, which he did brilliantly. But his over the shoulder problems were not solved by week 7 as MM suggests in the article. In week 13, at Detroit at 7:53 1st Q, Janis looked liked like one of Jerry’s kids trying to run under a ball deep on left sideline. He might be like Lou Brock, he will probably never develop proficiency in this area if this is all he can do 1.75 years into his pro career. Incidentally, this was a knock some scouts put on Montgomery, we’ll need to see how he responds.
Blue Leopard’s video does seem to contradict this; of course you’re only going to get highlight video of a catch. But this throw was not real deep or high and Janis has an angle to view the ball in, as it was thrown from within a yard of right hash to half way between the left numbers and sideline.
Compare Davante at 8:50 4th Q in T-giving game v Bears and Janis 2:10 2nd Q of AZ playoff game. Each route was design to pressure the CB deep and to stop on 2.5 lines and curl out. Adams got 3 yards of separation on the break and Janis only got 1 yard as Janis just doesn’t have “the feel” of when to make his false moves and he doesn’t sell his false moves very well. Also, Janis got caught a little too close to sideline giving AR a smaller window to throw.
Even when Janis does run his route correctly he is like a tone deaf violin player that is technically running his bow over the strings correctly; as opposed to Anquin Boldin who runs his routes with a touch and feel that compares to making his violin sound much more full and rich as if being played by Itzhak Perlman.
Janis has great value on STs and as he continues to learn to run routes correctly and better [IMO he’s still ascending] he is/will be a serviceable as a #5/#4. He is/will be the Jarrett Bush of WRs.