I wasn't going to respond to this tom foolery, I guess i'm just weak. Enough! How can someone complain, blame, flame and defame [and bitch-rant] Adams without mentioning Adams' actual play? I dont get it. And citing Total Packers as a source? Really, how desperate is this? Charlie Sly is more reliable.
Analytics!?!?...LOL. Reminds me of when the civil rights legislation was passed so Blacks could no longer be targets of discrimination; so they started instituting racist policies by targeting inner city low income people instead of "Blacks." MM said stats are for losers; so now they started calling stats "analyitics." sheesh. "Analytics" are for losers!
4 things must be realized: (1) a WR does not throw the ball to himself; (2) players are evaluated by how they play,and often stats don't accurately reflect a players' ability to play; (3)GB's passing offense is the most complicated in the NFL and most difficult for young receivers to be effective; and (4) Buckeye said this the other day..."it's 2016."
Young guys ascend, old guys decline, let's see what he's doing THIS YEAR. Bradford is a different guy this year, what he did in 2015 dont matter. According to Starr's "analytics" from the mid '60's, he should be starting this year. Take off the ridiculous opinionated "analytics" bath robe and break down ONE, just ONE mistake or less than perfect play by Adams in the SF game...JUST ONE!!!! Because this is how evaluation of a football player is done.
Okay, past performance has some predictive value of future performance; BUT ANALYTICS are a small piece. Grading a player's plays is what determines value. A great WR catches 5-6 balls a game on 6-7 targets; what's he doing the other 50-60-70 plays? "Analytics" misses 90% of what a WR does, and of this 10% that "analytics" covers, half is about QB play.
Per the link in the story Total Packers did their typical Adams bitch-rant-flame on his "worst" game last year. The Detroit game in GB. Adams had 21 targets and 10 catches. But Adams played a great game, it was the QB that absolutely sucked, a QB that had ideal throwing conditions [effectively no wind, dry and 55 degrees].
10:51 1Q Adams runs a 2 line in and is "wide open" according to Aikman [by 4 yards to me] and , Rodgers bounced the ball in. 100% bad pass by Rodgers and there was a little pressure.
10:21 1q Adams on 3rd and 2 does a stop an go and has CB beat by a full step, Rodgers overthrows the pass and had ZERO pressure. There was no one within 5 yards and all DLman were stopped. There is no excuse for an above average QB missing this pass.
8:20 1Q Adams fakes a slant and does a deep fade, he is open by 2 yards. Adams ran his route to sufficiently freeze the safety and Rodgers again had absolutely no pressure, no one within 5 yards, no one even progressing toward Rodgers. Rodgers just had to sit back and loft that ball in and he missed Adams by 5 yards. Again this is a pass that Sanchez competes 65% of time and an upper tier QB will hit this 80-85%, MVP QB will hit this 95%.
In 1st half, Adams caught 7 passes on 10 targets...If Rodgers played as good as Sanchez, Adams would have been 10 of 10, a TD and 150 yards. So Enough!
And here's Adams' first target/INC of 3rd Q, an identical play to one in 2016 discussed subsequently. It's instructional because very often great WRs are given route assignments where separation is not expected. But the physical WR keeps himself between the CB and the ball.
3rd Q 12:58. 3rd and 8. Adams runs a perfectly timed out curl at 9 yards. He has CB secured on left hip; Rodgers throws to right hip; only problem is that pass was over Adams head. Adams has to jump and got 1 hand on ball. Pocket was firm, though it was collapsing a bit, Rodgers threw off his back foot with no one within 3 yards like he was afraid of the rush.
Now let's go to 2016, what did Adams do v. Oakland:
10:59 1Q, 3rd and 6. Just like above Adams runs a perfectly positioned, perfectly timed out curl of 7 yards. The CB Smith ran thru Adams for a clear PI; but Adams still caught the ball even though being hit early. This play was successful, where the former play was not ONLY because of the ability of the respective QBs to throw accurately.
On the Cook slant [9:37, 1Q], Adams was lined up on the opposite side, he challenged the CB and as the CB turned his hips Adams ran a curl in and was open by 3-4 yards at the perfect time for Hundley to go there with his 2nd read.
At 11:06 1Q Adams ran a go and CB had inside position w/ Safety cheating toward Adams and Hundley threw INC as Adams was covered. Hundley after the play told Adams he expected him to cut off route. They were not on same page.
A few plays later [2Q 13:11], Adams ran the same route, a go and CB had inside position w/ Safety cheating toward Adams; This time Adams cut off the route and got a 31 yard completion.
Bottom Line: Adams will be on this team until at least 5 other guys can learn and do this stuff better or until he gets too expensive on a 2nd contract; not because of any stupid analytics.