Are we worried about our offense?

[mr. tegu]

Being only marginally better than last season? Worthy likely has a higher ceiling and more potential than Hardman but he is unlikely, at least for now, to be a 6-8 target a game guy as an option on the majority of passing plays. Rice is better than Rice last season so that's good. Kelce is probably worst though.

But mostly what I’m fearful about is that losing Brown is going to be a major impediment to the offense being noticeably better than last season. He was likely big in our schemes and philosophy. I know we typically struggle vs the Bengals but as of right now I'm not sure what would make me confident we dramatically improve over last season.

What does everyone think? How can we ensure the significant improvement over last season that it seems we might need?

[-King-]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I'm guessing the long-term loss of Brown kinda caught them off guard.

By all accounts (and from the one play we saw in the pre-season) Brown was going to be an all-level weapon for them. And I think they anticipated having him back by the Chargers game.

So they were focusing on Worthy getting comfortable in the role he'd have long term.

Welp - that's out the window.

So I figure we'll see Worthy get worked into the rest of the offense over the coming weeks. It's gonna take time, but they'll get there.

Just copy paste the playbook we used with Tyreek and Sammy. Worthy isn't Tyreek but he can be a version of him and Rice can certainly do all the things Sammy could do. Just tweak the usage to account for Rice being more experienced and more ready to handle a high volume role.

[pugsnotdrugs19]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I think he'll be back in December as well.

Hell, I think we'll see Pacheco back in early November.

I'm not typically super confident with injuries but for some strange reason I expect us to get both these guys on the lower side of their projected injury timelines (though I guess there's been no formal timeline for Hollywood just yet).

I thought it was odd that initially all the reporting was "most of the regular season", "three months or more", "December"...

And then the big wig reporters start saying January. Where's the disconnect?

If he can play, he's gonna play. Cause I suppose even just a great Super Bowl run may be enough to get him a nice pay day. But damn it I want him here at least another year no matter what as it's pretty obvious he and Mahomes have that mojo, not too different from what JuJu immediately had w/ him.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

I thought it was odd that initially all the reporting was "most of the regular season", "three months or more", "December"...

And then the big wig reporters start saying January. Where's the disconnect?

If he can play, he's gonna play. Cause I suppose even just a great Super Bowl run may be enough to get him a nice pay day. But damn it I want him here at least another year no matter what as it's pretty obvious he and Mahomes have that mojo, not too different from what JuJu immediately had w/ him.

It's a contract year for Hollywood. If there's any way at all for him to get back out there, he's going to try.

He'll go into FA at 28 years old next season. Another 'make good' deal like he just signed puts him back out there at 29.

A 29 yr old speed receiver with a pretty substantial injury history is going to be doomed to 2nd wave of FA status for the duration of his career, IMO.

But if he can get back and put up a solid 3-4 regular season games and then have a big post-season, he's not going to recapture ALL of his earning potential, but maybe enough to get himself a 3 year, $35-40 million deal.

It's not the kind of insane shit others at WR have managed, but it's a pretty substantial chunk of change.

[O.city]

Hell.....if he wants to sign a nice 3 year deal here I'd contemplate that if he comes back and shows well.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by -King-

Just copy paste the playbook we used with Tyreek and Sammy. Worthy isn't Tyreek but he can be a version of him and Rice can certainly do all the things Sammy could do. Just tweak the usage to account for Rice being more experienced and more ready to handle a high volume role.

Jackson/Maclin

I think Rice is closer to Maclin than Worthy is to Hill.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

Hell.....if he wants to sign a nice 3 year deal here I'd contemplate that if he comes back and shows well.

I might be interested - really depends on Worthy.

If Worthy develops over the course of the season to be a guy who's a genuine weapon at all levels, then I think I'd be content to just continue the WR Draft Pick Ladder.

Every year in the first 3 rounds, we grab another guy and then take a flyer on a veteran looking for a bounce-back.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I think he'll be back in December as well.

Hell, I think we'll see Pacheco back in early November.

I'm not typically super confident with injuries but for some strange reason I expect us to get both these guys on the lower side of their projected injury timelines (though I guess there's been no formal timeline for Hollywood just yet).

I think Pacheco is a wait and see kinda deal. Truth be told we have a light schedule in November.

Raiders twice, Panthers and one big game against the Bills that I don’t think they’ll bring him back for. If we’re something like 10-2 going into the Chargers game on 12/8 I’d look to have Pacheco back that game as well as the Texans game 2 weeks after.

I think Hollywood is gonna try to come back to practice sometime in the mid part of December. I think the goal is getting him ready for January.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I think Pacheco is a wait and see kinda deal. Truth be told we have a light schedule in November.

Raiders twice, Panthers and one big game against the Bills that I don’t think they’ll bring him back for. If we’re something like 10-2 going into the Chargers game on 12/8 I’d look to have Pacheco back that game as well as the Texans game 2 weeks after.

I think Hollywood is gonna try to come back to practice sometime in the mid part of December. I think the goal is getting him ready for January.

I think those wins on the road last year in the post-season took a lot of pressure off.

Now they know they can do it.

While I'm sure they'd love the bye and the home playoff games, I don't think they'll take any massive risks to secure them at this point.

[RunKC]

This stretch of 4 games coming up isn’t terrible. The Falcons and Saints will be a pain in the ass. I expect us to lose one game between the Chargers, Falcons and Saints which sounds totally fair.

But man the 49ers are just beat to hell. I’d be surprised if McCaffrey played against us with that injury. Deebo and Kittle are having lingering injuries as well.

Purdy just looks like ass without McCaffrey. He really makes that offense dangerous

[rfaulk34]

Originally Posted by pugsnotdrugs19

Completely agree.

I think Brown was going to lead the team in yards maybe. Not catches - that was always Rice's to have - but yards and YPC.

Nate Taylor said Tuesday that he still isn't sold on him being out the whole year and believes the December return is possible. That timing right before the playoffs could be the ultimate wrinkle.

Brown is all hope and hype. His catch% and success% are bottom of the barrel WR2. Rice is clearly your #1.

[pugsnotdrugs19]

Originally Posted by rfaulk34

Brown is all hope and hype. His catch% and success% are bottom of the barrel WR2. Rice is clearly your #1.

Whatever makes you feel better.

He won't be the first WR that Mahomes and Andy squeeze potential out of, nor the last. He was tearing up training camp and caught a 15-yd pass in his first - and only - live game play so far.

Injury is the only thing preventing his production right now.

[St. Patty's Fire]

Originally Posted by -King-

Just copy paste the playbook we used with Tyreek and Sammy. Worthy isn't Tyreek but he can be a version of him and Rice can certainly do all the things Sammy could do. Just tweak the usage to account for Rice being more experienced and more ready to handle a high volume role.

ive never thought of it before but yea rice is really similar to watkins, hes basically watkins if he wasnt a brokedick and instead just a dumbass

[Valiant]

My concern is the little things Patrick doesn't seem to do as often.

Not going through reads. Locking in on wrs.
Not hard counting as often as before for free plays.

The other which may be attributed to line play. No pumpfake or play action. But knowing Andy. Saving that for second half of season.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by St. Patty's Fire

ive never thought of it before but yea rice is really similar to watkins, hes basically watkins if he wasnt a brokedick and instead just a dumbass

Said it when we drafted him.

I thought Rice was going to be somewhere between who Watkins was in KC and who teams thought he was going to be coming out of the draft.

Which is to say he was going to combine Watkins and his physical play and RAC skills over the middle with some of the downfield ability that Watkins was supposed to have before his feet failed him.

Rice is just such a perfect fit as the X in the Reid system as we have come to know it. That said, while with the Eagles, Reid used DeSean as his X and Maclin as the Z and that's a fine alternative in its own right.

We'll miss Brown. I think we'd be more chagrined by his absence had we actually had him by a few games because we'd have seen what an impact he'd have made on this offense.

Instead, we really never saw it so we never came to appreciate it.

Patrick was gonna eat this year. Without Brown, it's gonna be more of a grind; somewhere between what we got in 2023 and 2022.

[fadeaway]

Some ESPN bozo saying we’re looking to add a reciever before the trade deadline