Lets try this again: An open letter to Ginn

My reply to Armando:

"Ginn will be fine. He is coachable and has enormous potential. His ability to create plays could one day make him our top threat for the big play. Pennington may yell at Ginn when he makes a mistake, but he also gives him a "high-five" on a big run or catch.

...and we all like "High-Five's" right?"

 

I don't recall any plays other than one or two where I disagreed with his going out of bounds. He isn't a guy who is going to break a tackle unless he has a good angle and lowering his shoulder would probably result in more injuries than yards after contact.

 

How much contact does Steve Smith take? I'm seriously asking this question, cause I don't know. Ginn needs to watch a lot of Steve Smith film and do whatever that guy does.

 

I personally am a big believer in what I see, not what I hear. What do I see with Ginn?

2007 34 Rec 420 Yrds 12.4 Avg 2 TD

2008 48 Rec 669 Yrds 13.9 Avg 1 TD


Looks like an increase in production across the board to me except for TDs and thats with 3 games left to. Most WRs do not really hit their stride until their 3rd year anyway. Besides, its not like Ginn has been Hagan, dropping balls everywhere and rarely getting on the field.

 

I can certainly agree that Ginn has consistency issues. And maybe there have been a couple plays where he shied away from contact when we needed a first. But I've also seen him break tackles, finish a play with his shoulder, catch balls over the middle, and do some other things.

Overall, Ginn is improving. Let's not forget he's a WR in his 2nd year. Last year he had something close to 450 right? This year he's already approaching 700 right? Sorry, too lazy to look up exact stats. What more can we ask for? My expectations of Ginn this year were around 800 yards. He's on pace. Some more TDs would be nice. I think we should all wait and see what Ginn does in year 3 before judging him one way or the other.

And there is absolutely no need for a call out by the media. Classless. Armando is a real asshat.

 

More TD's would be nice but our offense as a whole isn't scoring lots of TD's. When we get closer to the endzone we run the ball or throw to the TE's. Combine that with the fact that we don't really take too many shots down field except on post patterns and the lack of TD's don't bother me.

 

Think you quoted the wrong post

 

He sometimes plays soft and sometimes end's his route to soon.

Last week on our 1st 3 rd down he gave up on his route and we didn't get the 1st down.It doesn't happen a'lot but it does happen, and it happens more then it should but he's young and will get better.

 

He's hit more than one of his teammates, I'm sure of that. He punched a guy when he was still just mainly used as a punt returner.

 

It's handed in. Muck has to do his magic and then it will be here.

I can always email it to you if you wish, although CNC might get jealous.

 

He does still shy away. Not always, but it still happens more often than not. Pennington just openly admitted that he stopped going to Ginn in the Buffalo game becuase he stopped on one of his routes over the middle and let a 3rd down conversion go by. So there's some proof right there. But more importantly, I can still sense that he's very uneasy on KR by virtue of the fact that on almost every single return I've seen this year he catches, revs up the wheels, and then as he approaches the wedge he downshifts and starts moving sideways. EVERY GOD BLESSED TIME! Breaking tackles and being afraid of getting hit are two different things. One takes physical strength, while the other takes mental strength. If he would shed his fear, go for broke on those KR, he would be averaging 35 yards per kick return and 4 or 5 TDs per year. But, until he stops this BS of putting on the breaks at the wedge versus just busting into and through it, he's going to continue to harbor deep seeded sentiments of fear and it will show in every aspect of his game.

I like Ginn alot, so part of the reason I'm bustin his chops is because I know he can do so much more if he would only shed the fear that lives in the back of his mind.

 

Is it going to be longer than "if we lose against DeShaun Foster, I'll eat Boomer's leg live on the internet"?

 

Smith is a much fuller frame with much biggerlegs, bubble and arms. If Ginn is losing ground and not fighting on 3rd down or for the goalline, then it's an issue. But taking on a Jon Beason or a Troy Polamalu or Jerod Mayo to appease Highfivo Salguero? Please. I want him be on the field to make plays rather than be on IR because he tried to gain an 1/2 yard on 1st and 15.

 

He's trying to find Con's Keys for his House.

 

It's not so much that Smith takes alot of contact as it is that he plays with a reckless abandon.

During last night's Bears/Saints game, Gale Sayers was being interviewed by the NFLN cast and they were discussing the apparent demise of Hester. Sayers offered the opinion that Hester, having been introduced to a new role as WR, was starting to think too much during the return, that he had lost the single most important characteristic to a top notch KR, and that's having a total lack of fear for bodily harm. He could see how Hester was hesitating, double moving and reversing when he didn't need to, whereas before he just gunned it up to 100% speed and ran for the nearest shred of daylight.

This is what Ginn lacks. Reckless abandon. He's playing with too much fear in between his ears and it's slowing him down.

 

I only have a basement. But yes I can't find my keys........I live under my laptop. Just call me Golum.

 

Meh, just a few thousand words. I know I'm long winded, and I love when guys come and sum it up in 5 bullet points.

It is great to poke fun at it.

 

The one issue I have with Ginn - and it's well worth discussing whether that's his fault or Henning's fault or a combination of both - is that he simply doesn't produce yards after the catch. 4.1 is a lousy number for a receiver who supposed to be a nightmare in the open field. Yet, for some reason, we can't get the ball to Ginn in the open field and that's, in my mind, a bigger problem than Ginn preferring not to be knocked silly by a safety. I've seen Ginn making quite a lot of strides in the course of the season but the one issue I keep noticing is that he just isn't quick enough in his cuts and coming of the route. In some instances, this lack of quickness has been the difference between a shoelace tackle and a homerun. Now there's also the issue of Henning simply not calling too many such plays but bottom line is, we absolutely have to find a way to get the ball to Ginn in the open field and Ginn himself has to improve on the crispness of his cuts. A receiver like Ginn has no business having a lousy YAC number.

 

Pennington's inability to air it out and let Ginn go get it has to be in there as well. It is part of the equation. Your point/question is valid.

 

He's short armed a few and he's gone down a few times in order to avoid a big hit. Admittedly he's not built to take those hits so thats not such a big deal, but it does have a psychological impact on the other team, his teammates and his fans. I get why he does it, but it still looks like a ***** move. Probably a decent tradeoff for keeping him healthy though.

On the other hand short arming passes and going down short if he's in a position to get a 1st down will become an issue if it continues and it will a lot more than just psychological.

 

IMO Ginn is progressing nicely. He does have to be reminded to remain aggressive but I think that's better done by his dad, coaches and his team mates than by the media. I see this article as just another opportunity for Armando to criticize.

IMO Ginn will never be Steve Smith. The frame and attitude simply aren't there. But he could be Marvin Harrison or Joey Galloway. Those guys had similar demeanors and builds.

 

Let's think about the type of routes Ginn is getting called his way when he has it thrown to him. Square in's, Outs, Hooks, and Curls mostly. Those are the worst in terms of yards after the catch. If we want Ted to have a chance to run after the catch in full stride, we need to throw him slants, drags, Posts, Fades, Screens, and Seams. Calling the types of routes we have been is really limiting Ted IMO. They don't need to stop doing those routes to him, but they do need to get the ball in his hands more on the other stuff. Especially the post, slant, drag and seam. He's deadly with that kind of space.

 

Excellent point Mike. The screen always worried me as a play call for Ginn as he doesn't stop and start well. He's a strider, not a phone booth style player much like Bess is.

 

Definitely. That's why I mentioned Henning in the original post. But as much as it makes sense to get Ginn more involved on these kinds of routes, it does also beg the question: Why don't we? It's not as if Ginn's talents in the open field were astrophysics - they are rather obvious. And yet we're mostly calling his name on plays that don't make use of these qualities. Short of calling the staff incompetent it seems sensible to ask: what's Ginn doing - or not doing - for his coaches not to call his name on the plays he's supposed to be deadly at? I have offered one reason - a lack of quickness and crispness - but I'm curious to hear other ideas. One thing, for instance, I keep wondering about is his field vision. I look at his returns up to this point - bad blocking notwithstanding - and I simply don't see good field vision, unfortunately.

 

Thing is, a lot of his catches are on comebacks right in front of the corner or on crossing patterns on the sidelines. When he HAS had the chance to make yards after the catch, he's generally made them. I know a lot of that is also based on creation of YAC, but that has certainly improved this year.

 

But the question is still in some part; can the ball get to him wher he is the most effective all of the time. Pennington has his issues, and I'm not saying it is all of his fault, but there is not point to running tons of routes that you and the defense knows you'll never see the ball come to you. Thats got to be part of it to. The one deep ball in the Buffalo game, Ginn had to hold up for rather than run under it.

 

Very true. But does this really explain why we didn't get the ball to Ginn on the routes that Mike mentioned? The screens (did we even run a proper WR screen all year long? With a guy like Ginn out there?), the slants, the seams? I'm absolutely with you on that Pennington's physical limitations don't allow Ginn to shine on the longer routes and cause the defense to play closer to the LOS limiting open space but most games, we're not even trying those shorter to intermediate routes with Ginn. We're giving it to someone else.

 

I was disappointed early on but it soon became clear that Sparano is far more geared up to making defensive co-ordinators work. Each week the focal point has been Brown or Fasano or Williams or Ginn or Bess or Camarillo or Cobbs; game planning is much, much harder and it's why this team, IMO will never sign a big free agent WR because they usually don't fit into that ethos. I think Ginn specifically has become a much better route runner and he's added weight. He's clearly working hard and accepting his place in the offense. I think he's something of a confidence player and after that big showing against the Bills, he had a strut. I'm not sure he'll ever grow into what you expect from the 9th pick in part because of the aforementioned way in which we're set up.

I'd like to see him break a return or two and I'd like to see him on punts but he's getting better in the fundamentals of the position.

 

I think Boomer's saying he's a guy who has to have confidence in himself in order to play well. He has to be riding the belief that he does in fact belong in this league. Happens many times where a guy has to believe he belongs before he shows what he can do.

 

I guess I can understand, to some extent, the argument that Ginn shies away from contact. We've all seen that a little bit this year.

I think we're doing a fine job getting Ginn the ball this season. His progression has actually been pretty impressive. He's on pace for 59 catches and 823 yards receiving. Not all world but still, that's more than the second year totals of Lee Evans, Reggie Wayne, Roy Williams, or Santana Moss.

Pretty good for a guy who is still honing his skills. And it also illustrates that his style of play isn't effecting his numbers.

 

You should have signed this response like this....

signed:

Marvin Harrrison


Seriously though, Ginn has improved a lot and especially running his routes, using double moves and making his cuts more square, and he's getting better off the line. Does he need to improve? Absolutely but I do see improvements. I would like to see him take just a little more toughness into a game, but absolutely 100 percent agree with you that he should not be the one taking on bigger players to gain a half a yard...

 

Dumb article. Just for hits. Mando would probably get knocked down by an agressive female high schooler talking about an NFL player. Let him get hit like that dude on average joe by Ricky Williams. Then he can talk. If he could talk after getting rocked.

David Martin probably told Ginn not to get hit. Chad's laid him out several times this year already.