Did anyone else hear the Ref announce a Tackle Eligible for #75 when we were on offense? #75 is Nate Garner! Are we going to start adding Tackles as receivers in the Red Zone?? Couldn't hurt.
If a player with an ineligible number comes in to play on offense he has to report. Garner was lining up as an extra lineman on offense.
this. and get used to it. if our line continues to play like a sieve they'll be trying the 6 man o-line a lot. they've already done it quite a few times
They used him a few times in the back field in an H-back type role. The plays I saw were all runs where Garner went in short motion and then attacked the hole. Basically a way to get an extra blocker at the point of attack. Given this, he had to report as eligible. I'd be more than slightly surprised if they ever threw him a pass.
Its fairly common to hear reporting eligible in the nfl now. The increase is mostly due to the extinction of the fullback. 49 and below are eligible numbers. 80's are eligible numbers. So if any other number is to align as the end man on the LOS or off the LOS he will report as eligible. There are a ton of formations/plays where you would want a big body in those positions. I think the increase is less about creativity and more about the only fellow left with an eligible number (the TE) is at a size disadvantage against just about everyone he would be asked to stone or worse - MOVE.
Garner was used both in the running game and to help pass-block on surprise, surprise, Marc Colombo's side.
Because our T can't pass protect and why would we want to send TE's out on pass patterns anyway? Not like TE's in this league are making any difference.
Having to use 6 lineman to try and move the ball is an f-ing joke. That is frickin busch league right there. That is Ireland and Sparano saying, we do not have the personnel to move the ball in a conventional way so we are going to take a reciever off of the field to try and move the ball. Remember all of the max protect last year with the TE. This is even worse. Common Man..... I would rather take a page out of the patriots book. 2-3 TE set one in backfield lined up as fullback. You can either run the ball or send them all out on passing paterns. It is so much harder for a LB to cover a TE coming out of the backfield. P.S They have been doing this all season. You know how awesome DT would be in the spread......
Why not line up Garner as a tight end? We used Soliai as a full back. Maybe next week we line up Starks as a half back and Odrick as a WR?
Not that our T has issues in pass protection , since Tony decied to keep the staus quo , and have Garner play third tackle the last 2 games , we have had ONE completion to a TE , and that was on a nice play by Henne where he was forced to scramble. But the lack of offense is on 7 predominantly of course. The REAL issue is the head coach and the GM . Unfortunately it is next year time , again , and it is rebuild time , again , and it is another new regime time , again.
You do realize the Patriots quite frequently have done exactly what we're doing here, right? I'm not talking about their long history of using a DT at fullback, or a LB at TE...they literally line up with a backup Center as an eligible receiver. Last year. Against the Dolphins. And lord knows the Patriots can't be wrong or inefficient.
As Sparano's testicles shrink, he shrinks the Offensive footprint, and that brings more defenders into the box, which makes it hard to run and gives them more and better opportunities to disguise blitzes, and makes those blitzes more effective because they are lined up closer to the QB. Garner was Tackle-eligible on about 1/3 of the Offensive plays because our TEs suck *** blocking. Aren't you glad we didn't upgrade the position the last two seasons?
