I looked at cbsdraft top 200 receivers or so, and decided to sort them by position on the field and where they will be effective, to be able to have a quick look at who is available to replace who on the Dolphins roster. Here is what I came up with: At X, which I will consider the left boundary, weak side of the field sorted by draft round: 1.Cordarrelle Patterson 3. Aaron Dobson 3. Stedman Bailey 6. Aaron Mallette 6. Ace Sanders 7. Marquess Wilson At Y, slot receivers sorted by draft round: 1. Tavon Austin 2. Deandre Hopkins 2. Markus Wheaton 3. Da'Rick Rogers 3. Ryan Swope 4. Kenny Stills 4. Cobi Hamilton 5. Conner Vernon 5. Josh Boyce 6. Corey Fuller 7. Denard Robinson At Z, which I will consider the right boundary, strong side of the field sorted by draft round: 1.Keenan Allen 2. Quinton Patton 2. Terrance Williams 2. Justin Hunter 3. Marquise Goodwin 3. Tavarres King 5. Chris Harper 6. Rodney Smith
Well, there are three types of slot receivers: small nimble guy like Welker, fast slant guy like Jennings, and strong big Wr to take the pounding in the middle like Boldin. (The key is really that the receiver is the third receiver, and not good at playing the boundary full time--he's a liability and waste there) I consider DaRick to be a slot guy like Boldin. He does have the size to play outside but that in itself is not enough, I feel he would be misused outside and would prevent a team from getting a real outside WR. In other words, I feel that if you play Rogers outside, soon you will need to replace him. If you play him inside, you are getting a beast to abuse LBs and nickels. Sorry to confuse you. lol. Interesting that you see Swope as weakside WR. I see him as Z primarily, or strong side at times.
Neither Boldin or Jennings are slot receivers though. Boldin often motions to the slot but the figure has been mid twenties for the last three seasons. If he plays more out of the slot as he gets older its for that reason; age. Jennings played more from the slot in 2012 and had a terrible year even when he was injury free. If he's coming to Miami it's not to play from the slot. Rodgers, with that size and 4.4 speed isn't a slot receiver.
DaRick Rogers is best used as Z primarily imo. If you feel he is an X, that's fine, but I disagree for the reasons I posted.
Just for terminology sake, the X and Z are typically your outside receivers while the H and Y are typically our slot guys. The Y is typically the tight end, or the player that is the closest to the quarterback on the inside. The H receiver is a pure slot guy, in some cases a hybrid guy hence the term H. Different teams call this a different position. I think Green Bay uses the term ZEBRA for this position.
lol, I knew this would be confusing as people use different terminology, which is why I tried to define what I meant by X, Y, and Z.
As far as the receivers in the draft and where they will likely play: 1. Cordarrelle Patterson - X and Z 2. Kennan Allen - X, Z, and H 3. Tavon Austin - H 4. DeAndre Hopkins - X 5. Terrence Williams - Z 6. Quinton Patton - X, Z, and H 7. Ryan Swope - H, Z, and X 8. DaRick Rodgers - X and Z
I think the Y is always going to be on the line. Whether tight or split. If one is split that's the X like you say and the tight end is the Y. But even if you split him he'd still be a Y I believe, based on being on the line. Pro Football Weekly this year separated the WRs by being either a Z, X, or F. They say the "Z" position is most commonly associated with the West Coast Offense, featuring greater size to fend off the jam, and strength to work across the middle and run after the catch. They say those best suited for the Z-WRs are Patterson, Allen, Harper, Hopkins, Dobson, Rogers, Patton, Davis, Boyce and Mellette in that ranking order. The "X" position works mostly outside the numbers and does the most damage down the field. Those best suited for the X-WRs are Williams, Hunter, Wheaton, Bailey, Hamilton, Goodwin, Fuller, King, Goard, and Wilson in that order. The "F" position makes a living dependably working the short passing game. Those best suited for the F-WRs as Austin, Sanders, Woods, Vernon, Swope, Collins, Stills, Robinson, Lemon, and Bonner. Players who can line up at multiple positions are stacked where they figure to fit best as pros.
I don't agree. The X and Y are on the line always, split and/or tight. The flanker on the strong side would be the "Z" IMO
Okay we can forget that if you like but that still isn't making the Z a slot receiver. That would be your Y
The Y is the on the line tight end. When he lines up as a wing and is able to motion he is an H. http://football.calsci.com/Positions6.html
I'm just going by what was said in this article: http://www.espnmilwaukee.com/common/page.php?feed=2&id=336&is_corp=1
Yeah, Zebra is 11 personnel. He's saying it's made up of Z, X and E, which is able to be moved around akin to chess pieces because of the receivers' versatility. There's not much universal terminology in football but Zebra is pretty near to that in the pros. You can find it littered throughout playbooks.
I guess the animal code name for 12 personnel is Tiger. I wish we had two really good tight ends so that could be our base offense most of the time. I'm envious of the Pats and want us to have our Gronk & Hernandez pairing too.
Some go by "Ace". Personally, I think when one discusses it with fans, you're better off going numerically. It is simply info overload when codes are used. It's why I try to just avoid it and go with numbers.