WTF? Keller doesn't have the speed to be feared? I'm not sure if you say shit just for the sake of saying it or you are actually retarded? Keller is only probably the fastest TE in the game today.
We will still have to establish the pass and the down field pass for the run to be as successful as it was last year.
The down field pass should be covered by Clowney as long as he stays healthy. Then again, Clowney's problem over his whole career has been staying healthy so I'll agree that's a large question mark. If he does stay healthy though, he'll see a lot of playing time, and he'll force defenses to back off. As pointed out earlier in the post, Keller will cause defenses to have to game plan for our offense slightly different than most other offenses. Teams will be forced to utilize a safety rather than a linebacker to cover him, and in general will keep the field open for the rest of the receivers, forcing them to see less double coverages, and allowing them to be more successful than if we had some average TE here.
Don, I know you have limited brain capacity, so I will make this as easy to understand as I can. Dustin Keller is too fast for the linebackers to cover, and too big and strong for the d-backs to cover. He's a matchup nightmare for pretty much any team we will face, and it's why he was our most effective receiver last year.
Oh, and your simplistic little mind thinks that is how teams will cover him? Really? You talk like he is Fitzgerald or Moss. Is that what you really think? Don't embarrass yourself.
If Don's real last name happened to be Dokken.....i think I'd start to cry as I reluctantly burn my album collection.
I didn't bother reading 4 pages. TJ has no trade value. He is a 31 year-old running back. If the Jets don't have a need for him, what NFL team does and what would they really give up for a player that might have a year or two left? The Jets might get a bag of footballs for him at this point. And that doesn't mean I think he can't play. It just is the reality of the NFL.
I was referring to the wideouts. Imo, in any event, Keller has a lot of potential, but he hasn't really shown much yet. The larger point is that among Keller, Cotch and Stuckey, with Leon out of hte backfield, none are deep threat burners. That's the type of receiver the team most needs to open up the running game. Clowney is a burner, and I would love to see him step it up big time. Maybe he will. Can we assume that will happen? Nope.
I wouldn't say he has NO trade value. No need to get into overstatement. But I do think he's more valuable to the Jets than anyone else right now, or more accurately he's of no more valuable to anyone else.
Keller has shown me that he's very tough to bring down, he fights for yardage, he's faster than the vast majority of TEs, he runs excellent routes, he's got great hands, and he is very difficult to cover. I don't see how you can say he hasn't shown much. He was Favre's security blanket last season. He will be directly responsible for opening things up over the top so that a guy like Clowney can look good in single coverage. I think that if Keller stays healthy this season, he's going to the Pro Bowl.
I'm basically going on last season, and have a slightly different take on your point about defending him. But first let's look at last season. I think we can agree he did not become a presence until mid season. Before that he was pretty much a minor presence. But from the ninth game on, I see two different players: 10 11/09 STL W 47-3 6 107 17.8 54 1 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 11 11/13 @ NE W 34-31 8 87 10.9 20 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 12 11/23 @ TEN W 34-13 6 42 7.0 16 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 13 11/30 DEN L 17-34 7 77 11.0 20 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- In those four games, three of which the Jets won, Keller averaged just under 7 catches a game. He only caught as much as 4 twice before this run. Total yards - 313, or 78 per game. Ypc I will not do the math on, but it's in double digits. (over 11 yards) Next four: 14 12/07 @ SF L 14-24 2 14 7.0 9 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 15 12/14 BUF W 31-27 3 35 11.7 20 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 16 12/21 @ SEA L 3-13 1 2 2.0 2 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 17 12/28 MIA L 17-24 2 24 12.0 15 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Jets won 1 of 4. Keller averaged 2 catches a game. Total yards was 75, or @18 yards per game. ypc <10. So, who's the real Keller? I know, I know, Favre fell off, too. So, is it really all his fault? Well, if you compare to, say, Cotchery, you do not see the same drop off by any means. I would say there was no drop off at all in his case. Even Coles put up two of his three best games for total yardage as the season wound down. So, why did Keller do so much worse in the last four games than the preceding four? It just might be that other teams figured out how to defend him. Or he got tired. Whatever the reason, I am concerned about what happened with him last year.
I don't really have the time to go back and look over the final 4 games to try to explain what happened in your box stats, but I am sure it's a combination of factors. Teams were doubling Keller a lot late in the season because they knew how much Favre loved to throw to him. It opened up Coles and Cotchery much more against Buffalo and Seattle and they benefited. This is what I mean by Keller opening things up for the wideouts. Also, there's that fabled 'rookie wall' that may be cliche but I don't think is entirely a myth. I expect a lot more from Keller this year, and that's saying something considering he excellent rookie campaign. It also cannot be ignored that the fall off of Keller's stats directly coincide with the collapse of the 2008 NY Jets. Do I know for sure who the 'real Keller' is? About as much as any other fan. But I saw what I needed to see to know that this guy has the tools to be an elite receiving TE, and also that he is going to be a vital part of the development of Mark Sanchez as an NFL QB. He's going places.
