fallout from Henning getting canned...

damn

or a simple "If you give a shit about what Gantt thinks you should read his blog daily" would suffice.

 

Actually it is characteristic of the philosophy, although some teams deviate if they luck into a special talent (Gates). In this type of offense you're usually going to see the TE be a blocker foremost and then a dump-off option in the passing game. It's true that we could choose to involve the TE more in the passing game, but what would the point of that be? Aside from the Colts, hardly any team with two good wide receivers uses their tight end that way. Really, this all stems from Panthers fans getting spoiled by Wesley Walls and wanting that again. If Walls hadn't played here, there wouldn't be much whining about the TEs.

 

I do miss Walls, but I think my desire to see more TE involvement comes from the Panthers getting destroyed by opposing TEs with regularity.

 

Ah, good point. That's probably an even bigger factor.

 

the opposition knowing that you're going to give away a portion of the field by not using your TE has absolutely nothing to do with it. Just ask Collin, he'll tell ya.

 

SD uses their TE to a big advantage. They have a run first O.

KC, the same.

Speaking of old Os, the Landry era Cowboys, who were big on run, the TE was very important in the passing game. The current Cowboys O uses 2 TEs in the passing game. Parcells says the D can't cover a good TE. The LBs are slow (most of them), and the Ss arent strong enough. Witness Minter bouncing off Cooley.

Norv Turner has always used the TE as a big threat.

 

True Walls is an influence, but I still drool when I see a team that not only has a CATCHING TE, but uses him to abuse the opponent. While we do throw to ours now and then, I don't know that other teams particularly worry about our TEs as receivers on top of the fact that catching is also not a given with our guys. I just sigh when I remember the old days when everyone on the planet knew we were going to Walls, tipped coverage to him and he still got 6. Can you imagine a Walls, Smitty and Keyshawn in the red zone?

 

Hell I don't mind if the Panthers continue to throw to the TEs about as much as they currently do. I just want the damn TEs to actually catch the ball on occassion.

 

It just seems like we are leaving out an option that would generate a lot of easy completions and sustain some drives by not throwing to the tight end.

 

yep, and an effective playaction option. LBs are going to bite on PA. Safeties sometimes bite on PA, and while we don't run effective PA often, most good safeties are going to have time to recover if our PA is a long-developing play to Smith. A LB only needs to freeze for a second to get a TE open in the right spot, and certainly, the TE is a fun mismatch most times anyway.