The Good, the bad, and the ugly.

[Blue In BC]

Wheatfall hasn't proven anything either. At least Johnson has stayed healthy.

Wheatfall only played in 2 games. 3 catches for 111 yards. Johnson 7 games and only 117 yards. I'd say Wheatfall proved more than Johnson.

Wheatfall was added to the roster before Johnson. Hard to say what would have happened if he had not gotten injured in his 2nd game. However we also lost Schoen and then Woli as well.

So the combination of receiver needs may have changed. Lots of comments about Johnson being valuable as a blocker. Getting Lawler back and adding Whitehead also changed the skill level of our receiving group and Wheatfall was not added.

That may not change this week either. I wouldn't mind seeing what he could do with a longer look but don't want to rock the boat either.

[theaardvark]

Wheatfall only played in 2 games. 3 catches for 111 yards. Johnson 7 games and only 117 yards. I'd say Wheatfall proved more than Johnson.

If stats are your only metric, fill your boots.

If you're looking for the Bailey replacement, stats are not the metric.

4th or 5th WR on the tree is expected to not have to make 100yds in a game, he shouldn't be in that position.

But he is expected to do the muck work in the trenches, and make other players jobs easier.

I haven't watched Johnson personally, but it seems other have (including our coaches), and the consensus seems to be that he has made signing Bailey redundant.

Wheatfall is a completely different player, and fills a different role, which affords the opportunity for big plays, hence production.

They are not directly comparable.  Stats aside.

[Jesse]

Wheatfall only played in 2 games. 3 catches for 111 yards. Johnson 7 games and only 117 yards. I'd say Wheatfall proved more than Johnson.

Wheatfall was added to the roster before Johnson. Hard to say what would have happened if he had not gotten injured in his 2nd game. However we also lost Schoen and then Woli as well.

So the combination of receiver needs may have changed. Lots of comments about Johnson being valuable as a blocker. Getting Lawler back and adding Whitehead also changed the skill level of our receiving group and Wheatfall was not added.

That may not change this week either. I wouldn't mind seeing what he could do with a longer look but don't want to rock the boat either.

Wheatfall has a single catch on his resume that Johnson doesn't. It was a 77 yard broken play where he was wide open. He then took a terrible angle and was chased down instead of getting what looked to be an easy TD.

Wheatfall may still turn out to be a good player, but his "100 yard game" followed immediately by getting injured doesn't mean much to me, personally.

If stats are your only metric, fill your boots.

If you're looking for the Bailey replacement, stats are not the metric.

4th or 5th WR on the tree is expected to not have to make 100yds in a game, he shouldn't be in that position.

But he is expected to do the muck work in the trenches, and make other players jobs easier.

I haven't watched Johnson personally, but it seems other have (including our coaches), and the consensus seems to be that he has made signing Bailey redundant.

Wheatfall is a completely different player, and fills a different role, which affords the opportunity for big plays, hence production.

They are not directly comparable.  Stats aside.

You can say they're using him for blocking, or you can say he's blocking because he can't do anything else. He's on the field, we can directly compare him to any other receiver, imo.

[Blue In BC]

If stats are your only metric, fill your boots.

If you're looking for the Bailey replacement, stats are not the metric.

4th or 5th WR on the tree is expected to not have to make 100yds in a game, he shouldn't be in that position.

But he is expected to do the muck work in the trenches, and make other players jobs easier.

I haven't watched Johnson personally, but it seems other have (including our coaches), and the consensus seems to be that he has made signing Bailey redundant.

Wheatfall is a completely different player, and fills a different role, which affords the opportunity for big plays, hence production.

They are not directly comparable.  Stats aside.

Did you even read my post?

[Blue In BC]

Wheatfall has a single catch on his resume that Johnson doesn't. It was a 77 yard broken play where he was wide open. He then took a terrible angle and was chased down instead of getting what looked to be an easy TD.

Wheatfall may still turn out to be a good player, but his "100 yard game" followed immediately by getting injured doesn't mean much to me, personally.

You can say they're using him for blocking, or you can say he's blocking because he can't do anything else. He's on the field, we can directly compare him to any other receiver, imo.

That means he had 34 yards on the other 2 catches so he made an impressive debut with only 3 catches. As to getting injured, Lawler didn't last to the end of game 1 and Schoen didn't last 3 full games.

I posted that our situation has changed, so we may need a different skill set that we get from Johnson. Or it may have been that Wheatfall wasn't game ready after coming off the 6 game IR.

We'll see if they make a change this week. I won't be upset if they do and I won't be upset if they don't. It was a rhetorical statement.

[Pete]

Johnson isn't a Bailey replacement, he's 5 ft 11 181lbs, he's a different type of receiver, relying more on speed, that's why Buck has mainly used him on quick out patterns , unsuccessfully, unfortunately.
He's in the line up because O'Shea is once again enamored with his attitude and effort not talent or results, we've seen that act before. It's often frustrating to us as fans, and maybe it's fine if he's only utilized as a 4th receiver but if there's an injury and he has to step up I don't think he's got as much potential as Wheatfall especially based on his body of work so far.
  Id much rather keep Lucky as a full time receiver and continue to utilize Case as a returner or find another returner.
If Wheatfall isn't the answer then bring in another receiver. I wonder who Mtrl will bench with Mack returning

[blue_gold_84]

He's in the line up because O'Shea is once again enamored with his attitude and effort not talent or results

[CITATION MISSING, NONEXISTENT]

[TecnoGenius]

[CITATION MISSING, NONEXISTENT]

MOS has said it a couple of times in pressers (like the in-week practice ones).  It's his main point when asked about Johnson.  So Pete isn't lying.

[TecnoGenius]

I haven't watched Johnson personally, but it seems other have (including our coaches), and the consensus seems to be that he has made signing Bailey redundant.

Wheatfall is a completely different player, and fills a different role, which affords the opportunity for big plays, hence production.

No idea about the Bailey tie-in, but Aards is 100% right you have to look at the total mix of receivers.  Wheatfall definitely is intended to be the Lawler out-open home-run type.

Johnson is definitely supposed to be the clutch and YAC guy, which, yes, is much more like a Bailey.  He may not be as beefy as Bailey, but it's still his role.

Forget Bailey, though, the better question is who fills in Schoen's role.  Johnson and Clercius migth be that.  Wheatfall, not so much.

If we start Lawler, Pokey, Wheatfall, Lucky, then we have an overload of speed/homerun guys, and a shortage of Woli/Schoen/Bailey punishment/clutch guys.  Therefore we can expect never to start Lawler, Wheatfall, Lucky, Demski.  Heck, even starting any 3 of that same type might be a stretch (as we've seen with making Lucky the backup).

[J5V]

If we start Lawler, Pokey, Wheatfall, Lucky, then we have an overload of speed/homerun guys, and a shortage of Woli/Schoen/Bailey punishment/clutch guys.  Therefore we can expect never to start Lawler, Wheatfall, Lucky, Demski.  Heck, even starting any 3 of that same type might be a stretch (as we've seen with making Lucky the backup).

I couldn't agree more. The best combo I recall was Lawler, Demski, Bailey, Woli with a mix of AH33/BO. I think either of Pokey or Lucky are durable/flexible enough to fill in for the loss of Bailey.

[Pigskin]

We've had some pretty good combo's.

2021: Lawler, Demski, Bailey, Woli, Adams, AH33/BO20.

2022: Schoen, Demski, Bailey, Woli, BO20.

2023: Lawler, Schoen, Demski, Bailey, Woli, B020