http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2013/05/jets_wr_zach_rogers_stood_out.html Jets WR Zach Rogers stood out among deep class at Tennessee Zach Rogers works out with Jets receivers coach Sanjay Lal. (USA Today Sports) Print By Conor Orr/The Star-Ledger on May 25, 2013 at 5:00 AM Foursquare Email NFL teams with equity firm to add to revenue playbook Jets WR Zach Rogers stood out among deep class at Tennessee Brett Favre settles lawsuit with two former Jets massage therapists Jets RB Mike Goodson will report to practice Tuesday Jets RB Chris Ivory: 'I want to win, but along with that, I want the touches' All Stories | Throughout the offseason, we'll be looking at some of the under-the-radar players that will be competing for roster spots during OTAs and training camp. Today, we're highlighting wide receiver Zach Rogers out of Tennessee. His college position coach, Darin Hinshaw, was kind enough to help us understand how he might fit into an NFL offense. Darin Hinshaw had countless scouts in his office at Tennessee last season asking questions and watching film on Cordarrelle Patterson and Justin Hunter. As the Volunteers' wide receiver coach, it was easy to say nice things about two NFL-ready wideouts with first or second-round grades on them. But after sharing the tape, Hinshaw said everyone would leave asking more about Zach Rogers, the 6-0, 172-pound slot receiver who posted 32 catches for 491 yards and seven touchdowns his senior year. He wasn't surprised. "After you watched the games, they all wanted to know about Zach," Hinshaw, now the passing game coordinator at the University of Cincinnati, said by phone Friday. "And everybody said it: You got two good ones here, but Zach Rogers -- I don't want to say he's going to be the best one -- but the Jets are really going to like having him." He added: "You can always count on Zach Rogers. The only reason he's not super big-time is, he's 180 pounds and -- you know, he was just as fast as the other guys -- and honestly, it's because he's white." He said this part with a laugh. The curiosity surrounding Rogers ballooned last week when Rex Ryan pegged him as one of the early risers in rookie minicamp. Spotlighting prospects without pads on is a fickle, and often worthless, exercise but Hinshaw saw it coming after watching Rogers operate in his pro-style offense at Tennessee. The Vols' passing game drew from both the Patriots and Packers offenses. Rogers would be primarily used in the slot, but could split out to expand the offense. Opponents ran plenty of two-high safety looks against Tennessee to counter Hunter and Patterson and that's when Rogers would bump out wide. "He's so fast, the South Carolina game last year he played against some really good defensive backs and tore them up for three touchdowns," Hinshaw said. "But he can split out, we split him out to run the deep post and take the top off the defenses." The easy, and incorrect, way to pigeonhole a wide receiver like Rogers would be to compare him against current slot receivers of a similar body type: Danny Amendola, Wes Welker, Victor Cruz, Eddie Royal, Jordan Shipley. "He's not Welker, Wes is a little squattier and has a lot of strength and is really, really quick," Hinshaw said. "Zach is very quick but doesn't have the strength Wes has. He's a little bit faster." Except for one similarity. "But he's definitely like those guys in that you can see him playing 15 years in the NFL," Hinshaw said. Rogers was fourth on the Volunteers in receiving (second in touchdowns) last season and played in all 12 games. He does have a history of injuries -- concussion, ankle, shoulder, triceps -- but that didn't stop a few draft analysts from labeling him as one of the top sleepers in the class.
Funny but when we signed him I said he would be our Victor Cruz. I think that is a good comparison in a few ways,
:beer: LOL, good one. Seriously though, Patterson and Rogers were the only offensive bright spots in the last season of Dooley( :breakdance: ). Zach will be a good WR, I predict.
Yes, very. Chrebet was not very fast or quick, he just understood defenses and ran good routes and always found holes. Rogers is much faster and quicker than Chrebet and will be able to spread defenses vertically and horizontally. He was a really good UDFA pick up.
You think he has his agility? IMO thats what makes Cruz so great... He can get separation from just about anyone. Edit: Looked up their combine/proday stats and they ran very similar 40's, 3 cone drill and 20 yard shuttle. Cruz did much better Vertical jump and broad jump... So maybe we can conclude that they have similar agility and speed? Rodgers probably does need to bulk up some being that Cruz has 20 pounds on him.
It took Cruz a year to come into his own. So even if he makes the team we can't expect instant contributions.
Dolphin fan here, don't usually chime in, just like to read up on you guys situation, but Im a draft nerd, and in watching all of the reps of our third round pick Dallas Thomas, I started studying Zack Rogers, be thankful you folks didn't fall for the Cordarelle Patterson hype, that guy may be able to run after the catch, but it's what's above the waist that is a serious concern, as in hands and brain.. Rogers may be slim but I really like him as a player, he plays the game like lance Moore who I think is tremendously underrated, Rogers is wiry strong and very smart on the field, absolutely understands coverage and how to anticipate where the holes will be, good route runner, good hands, there's really not much to not like, he was as good as any receiver on a team that had hunter and Patterson, most consistent, and don't let that word consistent fool ya, he's got talent, he's just very lean..fun player to watch and will be in your rotation and lock up that slot position eventually imo.
He's been intriguing to me since watching tape on Bray (Still don't understand how he went undrafted, but I digress..) because it's such a best of times/worst of times themes with him. He has the talent to put up better numbers than he did. But he also had the talent around him to get him 1 on 1 matchups with the 3rd CB or even LBs on the other team. Tennessee ran a vertical pass system with two outside playmakers, so Rogers was marginalized as a slot WR, but he also had plenty of room to work in the middle because the safeties had to play off. He fits in well in a WC system, and hopefully he does well. I wouldn't mind seeing Holmes, Hill, Kerley as the main 3 options, and then having Rogers and Davis as the 4 and 5, with White on the practice squad. It's obviously not a deep squad, but we need to develop the middle tier WR to create depth for us. No point in signing back older guys who may only contribute at best for one year or so.
Tennessee was a whole clusterfuck last season... I do think he could have contributed more, but he seemed to be underutilized there. I like Patterson a lot and Hunter is a very good player, so even with the talent that people are saying Rogers has, its hard to get a lot of targets your way. Bottom line is, we absolutely need some WR to step up. We need to find out diamond in the rough. If someone doesnt step up, whoever is playing QB is going to have some trouble. I hope Rogers can be that guy...
That offense was pretty talented, and would've been one of the best in recent memory if D'drick rogers wasn't an ass, and Bray actually cared. Just on pure talent, that's one of the better offenses I can think of, if they had that 4. I wonder if that could be the reason Bray fell, because maybe scouts felt like the sheer amount of options he had there really masked his mechanical flaws actually costing him. I was sure Bray was getting picked atleast in the mid rounds because the arm talent was just too high. He threw for 13 more TDs, 1 less INT than Tyler Wilson, and I unless I'm going blind, had a much better arm than Wilson, yet he dropped all the way off means scouts atleast had to dislike some of his gameplay. Assholes get drafted all the time, if they have talent, and mechanical flaws can be fixed. They had to see something that showed, he wasn't nearly as good as his numbers showed. I believe they had a pretty good TE in Mychal Rivera as well as far as receiving goes atleast. Yeah, Patterson and Hunter were great enough that Bray really didn't check down all that often to Rogers. Yeah, we need to hit on one of these random WRs to be good. I'm not even saying, lets find the next Welker, because that can be pretty rare. But atleast a consistent guy that can be good. I like Davis, Rogers and White to have a shot.
Yep he was good, too bad Oakland got him. Was hoping maybe we would address a need in the latter rounds.
When we first signed him i didn't know a lot about him ... so i studied and studied looking at ANY kind of tape i could find,found it very interesting he fell out of the draft and a team with ehh.. NOT the best look up at draft players got him. but i was glad we got him,because ironically he is wearing #15 and can do away with the shame that once inhabited that jersey haha. but no... i like this guy he could be VERY solid. a #4 WR right now though.
Maybe after pre-season game #3 Tom Coughlin will tear a page from Rex Ryan and say "Who the hell was that kid tearing us up for 3 TDS?????"
We very possibly could have a pretty good set of 2 and 3 Wrs. What we really need is Hill to cure his case of the dropsies as he is the only one with legit #1 potential.
I think one day he could develop into a very solid slot WR. We just have to give him time and the necessary reps.
