mostly slants and crosses, before it was all the White receivers ran were "screens and drag routes." The routes he ran are are what most of what wide receivers run in the offense and its what they asked him to run and he excelled. You want to throw most of the route tree in there and discredit it as well? He ran a variety of routes, more variety the typical college receiver because Boise has a complex offense.
What do you want? it all to be go and post routes? Offenses don't work like that, you can't get by running the same routes. Only Jordy Nelson and DeSean Jackson have gained 1k by mostly doing this, and Jackson will continue to decline if he is afraid to get hit, Nelson ran a variety of routes his first few years and isn't afraid to get hit, and even ran a more variety last year, just made killing on post routes, so its basically DeSean Jackson who is the only one who didn't run a variety of routes and gained 1k, and they broke his seasons down, he gets more yards from busted coverage than anyone in the league, he will become a gimmick decoy like Devery Henderson, run a few times a game to stretch the d.
Do you even know the difference between a drag route and the middle and deep crossing routes Shoemaker was running? (and no thats not all he ran), the shorter routes only continue to keep working like they did time after time if like Boise ran you have someone to run deep, you can do this by outmuscling someone or by speed. Last year Shoemaker was the deep threat and he used speed.
And before you go and discredit the receivers that run mostly underneath stuff "the screens and the drags", it works both ways, its a balancing act no different than saying a passing game needs a running game. Welker was the perfect compliment to Moss and helped him out, it worked both ways. Last year they actually switched up who the deep threat was, sometimes it was Gronkowski, sometimes it was Welker, but I guess since tight end is the more appropriate position for Whites you chose Rob as the "real threat" and Welker as the beneficiary. You can't have your tight end be the main deep threat.
As far as slot receivers, why discredit them? I see many of those routes no different than a runningback receiving an extended handoff, you really think teams can just pass way more than they run without balancing it out some way? the shorter routes do that, an extension of the running game, and in the old wco days they had the backs run these concepts (underneath receiving threats). Do you know how many receiving yards Roger Craig had? almost 5k, 4500 with San Fran on 500 + catches, one season with 1k receiving. Were they useless yards? he still had to catch the ball, make people miss, weave in and out of traffic. Marshall Faulk expanded on this role, were his receiving yards useless as well?
Bill Bellicheck was obsessed with Marshall, and probably where he got Welker's role from, he could take handoffs if they wanted, but I am guessing he came up with the idea, why motion the back out to the slot and only have him run screens etc, when you can just put a guy with the ability of a runningback permantly in the slot and throw receiver concepts in there as well? (versatility is key, he merged many concepts together) and still have a back line up as running/recieving threat. Before this slot recievers would run the same basic routes, usually to the sticks and get smashed by a linebacker or safety, and teams didn't always have 3 receiver sets for the majority of the game, now its a staple. Its an important role but I guess when White guys do it instead of black ones, its not as important?. Do you realize how Bellicheck defeated the Rams? he realized the offense ran through Marshall, keyed in on Marshall and defense was the main key for the Pats.
Now teams have to balance it out, Martz didn't make the in game adjustment. But I am sure you will find a way to discredit a deep threat who is White saying he is helped by the underneath stuff, and a White guy who runs the underneath stuff by saying he is helped by the deep threat, or in the case of Welker where everyone is White, like I said, you chose the more appropriate position for Whites, the tight end and gave him props. However, the best way for it to work and keep balanced is your deep threats need to be able to run some shorter routes and your underneath guys need to be able to run some deep routes, Welker is capable of both, Moss looked average running shorter routes but still did it, got lazy after a few seasons though.
The difference with Shoemaker is the underneath guys were not that special last year for Boise, just enough to make do with.
Its safe to say in the case of the Patriots that the offense runs primarily through Welker, at least since 2007, when he hurt his knee Woodhead took over some of the concepts from the runningback spot and lined up in the slot as well. Edelman filled in before but is more of an outside guy and struggled to average more 10 or more ypc in the same role.
Its a copycat league and plenty of teams try to run something similar to what Bill does, but no one has done what Welker has done. Bess has come the closest but still isn't as consistent, which is evident by his lack of 1k seasons. Some teams still use the back in this role with no true slot receiver that consistently catches the underneath stuff, the Eagles with LeSean McCoy with Avant in the older slot receiver role that simply asks to move the chains with little yac. The Bears with Matt Forte etc. or you can be like the Jets and be old school smash mouth football and just have more runs, or you can be like the Saints and have a mixture of guys doing it with no guy excelling in one area, although in 2011 Sproles was used as the underneath guy quite a bit they mixed it up and he didn't have a role like Welker (before it was Reggie used part time) 2011 Sproles had the role Woodhead should have when he is healthy. Even the backs used in this role haven't consistently put up as many seasons as Welker as underneath threats, many fluctuatations.I would say Marshall came the closest as an underneath threat, 5 seasons with 80+ catches, but only 1 1k season, Welker has had 5 80+ catch seasons, 4 are 110+ catches as well as 1100+ but of course more concepts of a wideout thrown in.
The reason you don't see it as much is because you need a guy that can do the things a back can do after the catch but also be able to do the things a receiver can do. We have many White players versatile enough for this. Not as many black ones. Takes talent. Recognize it, appreciate it. I call it the dirty work since they do work hard like both a back and a receiver but don't get the props of either position. Its just a shame we have many guys that aren't used to their fullest ability (look at Welker last year when they let him run more deeper routes, his best season yet) and many others pidgeonholed into the role when they would be better suited as a protoytpical number 1 or number 2. I would say out of blacks the only one that could have done what Welker did is Marshall Faulk and he is one of the most talented to play the game.
With the Shoemaker highlights, its all game footage. Young ran alot of the same routes with a ton of screens thrown in, stuff you bash White receivers for, half of the youtube footage on him, I can't tell what route he is running because of some weird angle, but Ive watched Boise for the past 4 years. He has some highlights against the same competiton , one post route against Wyoming and he is the next DeSean Jackson? I wonder where you got that idea, probably because at the beginning of the video it flashed "the next DeSean Jackson", subliminal messages must work easily on you, which is probably why you are so brainwashed in the first place. One go route against Brandon Hardin, and I don't really put that on Hardin because that ball was perfectly placed, Hardin was on him the entire time like glue, it wasn't athleticism that was the problem there, more of an awareness problem which can be fixed, he came close to knocking it out but he maintained possession while being pushed out of bounds. If Hardin was truly a not athletic enough to play corner in the league, then he wouldn't be able to stay with Titus Young on a go route, a guy that is now an NFL receiver.
The Shoemaker hl is much longer, more to dissect, maybe it doesn't stand off the page because its not flashy, as in fancy camera angles, because I don't have access to that. I wish I did, put some stupid rap song, cut the highlights down to 4 minutes, 1 min talking about how great the guy is flashing stats everywhere, then you just see the ball floating in the air and the receiver come down with it. However, I would still make it similar, the reason to make it like that is because people will say I am trying to hide something. You get to see it how it is. Its not coaches film but college cameras do see more of the field than NFL. I don't see any hard teams on Young's highlights except Oregon State, and that was one catch and a return. I already explained the go route against Hardin. The only other go route looked to be against an FCS team, maybe they were FBS. Just checked, Idaho? The only top team they really played that year was Virginia Tech, they limited his big plays but he ate them up with screens for 80 yards (apparently a bad thing that you can just write off that takes no talent whatsoever), only 2 other games with reception going lower NEW MEXICO STATE, UTAH STATE and UTAH. Only Utah and VTECH have somewhat tough defense out of all the teams they played in 2010. Btw, Moore rarely throws it into double coverage unless you have a mile of separation because of weak arm, Young benefited from having Pettis and vice versa to help maintain single coverage, not to mention Shoemaker was there as well.
Like I mentioned Shoemaker didn't have anyone great to do this, maybe the guys they have will develop into something special, because I remember a time when I thought Dane Sanzenbacher was nothing special back when Brian Hartline was playing, he developed nicely. Back to Shoemaker, he beat double teams quite a bit on tape but Moore checked down to someone with single coverage and most of his downfield passes have to be in the middle because its harder for him to reach the outside, obviously because it has to travel much farther, the exception were roll outs etc which is why all 3 of those guys had mostly deep passes on some type of route that called to be closer to the middle.
If you want to break it down by competition you can do that for any receiver. Who does Oklahoma St really play? Big 12 doesn't have any tough defenses. Nebraska used to be the toughest defense and the fell off the last year they were there, and they are big 10 now. Blackmon still had 4 games with under 10 ypc. Only 2 with it significantly higher, one was Louisiana Lafayette with 18, and the other was Stanford with 23 ypc, who don't have corners who can cover worth a crap because they refuse to recruit Whites at the position and all of the black kids who meet academic requirements can't cover worth a damn. I remember in 2009 when Notre Dame they literally held every deep play just to get 15 yard penalties (in college its 15 I am sure you are aware, not a spot foul), this was when they had Tate and Floyd. Speaking of which who did Michael Floyd play against? yeah Notre Dame plays a few tougher teams but Floyd had FIVE games last year with a ypc under 10, with a 6th one sitting right at 10 against Maryland. He boosted it up by having 20 ypc against NAVY.
Do Young's highlights stand out? yes, anymore than Shoemakers? no. Do Pettis highlights stand out? yes but he draws some red flags, I still think he can be a solid number 2, you probably only said they didn't because he failed to do much last year. He had to use physicalness to gain separation too much which drew the red flags which will lead me to the next receiver. Do Justin Blackmon's highlights stand out? yes, but he relies too much on physicalness as well (although against a little tougher competition) to get separation, whether it be outmuscling a db to get a jump ball or stiff arming a guy after a short route, or just fighting off a db when running deep, he often has to use his hands to slightly push off, the amount of the times he did that, he should be waiting until the pros to being doing it at that level and reserve it for the tougher dbs. We saw Michael Crabtree, he was much more physical in college and he has struggled in the pros. I would say Blackmon is a poor man's Mike Hass, and that isn't dissing him, Hass had the tools to be a great receiver if given the chance, he relied less on outmuscling guys (although he could) and more on speed and quickness and don't try to analyze some youtube hl of Hass, you won't find any with decent angles, and don't act like you have seen him in a game in college. I have some old tapes that I gathered and will put some clips together when I get some time one day.. I would say Blackmon has more speed and quickness than Pettis though. Who stands out the most? Michael Floyd, but he gets lazy in his route running and and has off the field issues, I would have him ahead of Blackmon. Shoemaker stays in the top 5.
Shoemaker has the speed, quickness, he can use physicalness to gain seperation if he has to, this was evident mostly in the redzone when he ran out of real estate, and he does hold Boise's single season td record. He had some drops but not enough to draw a red flag. His route running is better than Young or Pettis, Moore had more trust on where he would be and there was just better timing there, which is so many accurate passes, he would throw the ball well before Shoemaker made his break. There were a few times he had to slow down to catch the ball/make adjustments though, usually the deeper it got. (usually the deeper routes were more in the middle of the field to keep it easy on Moore). In the NFL he will have a qb that can let it rip. Will he get the chance? past experience says no, but I try to remain optomistic. Nelson finally got his chance, Welker got his. Cooper shined for a little bit, hopefully he gets a real chance as well, as well as Durham etc.
