Hogan a created darling in training camp, or the real thing?

The beat writers can't have it both ways. If they're going to offer their opinions of players in camp and practices, then they need to take their lumps on Hogan, if indeed Hogan isn't just an HBO-manufactured player.

 

The media has made a few passing mentions of Hogan, but I think there is/was a perception among them that the small college kid was truly a longshot, so he didn't merit as close inspection as some of the others vying for a position on the WR corp. Now that it appears that Hogan has caught the eye of the players and coaching staff more than they thought or knew, I'm sure they'll be looking a bit more closely at him in camp.

 

Yes, we can expect Hogan updates now from the beat writers, at least until the next episode of Hard Knocks.

I expect Omar to trash Hogan. Gotta be different and all that.

 

Hard to really know how good Hogan has been. If he's getting open against 3rd teamers, I can see how the writers would ignore him.

 

At the very practice, he had a horrible, and I mean horrible start, dropped about 3 passes, I looked at my roster guide and said, hmm chris hogan, kind of ignored him for a while, then he started making some plays,mthey weren't extraordinary, but I said to myself, hey, the kid rebounded from a disastrous start, so I noticed that, but, the way they run practice it was very hard to just zero in on fourth teamers at the time with devlin, that's what I noticed, he started horrible, and after, he made me notice his comeback,said to myself.."ole white boy made a comeback"

I don't blame the beat reporters, but now that he's got some pub, he will be easier to evaluate.

 

I'm going to take the Hogan praise with a grain of salt until the cameras show the coaches praising him. I guess they did a little in that episode, but it almost seemed like some of the praise coming from players was a tad tongue in cheek. Not that they were being sarcastic or anything. But maybe more along the lines of how you would praise a kid for learning how to tie his shoes. What I mean by that is maybe other WRs are performing at a higher level, but they are surprised by the things the long shot and thus giving him a little more praise than the other WRs.

 

You have to look at the Hogan and Les Brown Hard Knocks scenes from the proper perspective. The dramatic conclusion to every Hard Knocks season is the final cutdown. The 2 most dramatic scenes so far have been cutting the O lineman in the first scene last week and the cutting of Chad Johnson.

Les and Hogan are bubble players, very likely to get cut. Hard Knocks is planting seeds.

Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what the coaches really think. Keep in mind Hard Knocks editors have access to everything, and they cherry pick. They have all the good plays, and all the bad plays. When coaches sit and talk about players they discuss everything, all the good attributes and all the bad ones. They have good and bad on every player. The editor can make any player look good or bad by focusing on just one side. And they do just that.

With that said, Reggie Bush's observations about him always getting open are likely not cherry picked, I doubt the editors have Reggie Bush talking about every other player. The second Hogan got the 7/11 nickname, he became a featured character. Just like "The Terminator" John Connor with the Jets 2 years ago.

I first heard about Hogan from Omar Kelly's practice reports, he indicated that all 4 QBs leaned on him. Now that Hard Knocks has featured him too, I suspect we'll find out more about his flaws.

 

Right. I'm guessing he's been really good relative to expectations. I don't think he's seriously contending for a starting position - in fact, he's probably more fighting to make the practice squad than the 53 man roster.

 

When receivers are open, it is no fluke. How many Wes Welkers's and Davone Bess's does there need to be before people realize that some players do get over-looked and under-drafted? From what I saw, I'm taking this guy seriously.

Now, he has a target on him. Now, we'll see what he's really made of.

 

Coaches did say he ran great routes.

Honestly, a guy 6'1+ 215+ runs great routes while running a sub 4.5. You keep him. His hand should continue to develop. This is one reason we have kept Moore around so long. He runs good routes, just cant catch the ball. Time is still left, but everything I have heard or read from the other wideouts, Hogan is a guy I would keep on the actual roster if their going to keep 6 WRs.

 

there's some validity to that, but getting open vs Vontae and S Smith is different than getting open vs our backup CBs. The hope is that if he's get that consistently open due to great technique and quickness, then you try him out vs the #1s in a few practices to see if it translates.

 

Here is the thing. You have *hopefully* Hartline, Bess, and Naanee. Then you have Fasano and Clay who will split wide. Then you have the possibility of Bush or Miller splitting wide. Unless there is an injury, for the most part Hogan would be facing back up CBs.

 

I saw the kid burn Clemons (30) and Jones (20)

 

Look at it this way, the prior regime's developmental Wr's are in a make or break situation, no more practice squad eligibility etc.

Hogan can easily be a player who fills Wallace's roll on the PS, or Pruitt or whomever

 

Be hard to hide this guy on the practice squad now.... If he is always open I want to see him on the field even more.

 

By the way, other then the run great routes comment, this is a quote from Sherman on Hogan..

 

Agreed. Another example was Wayne Chrebet, some undrafted guy out of Hofstra. All he did was get open constantly.

 

LMAO that's exactly what I saw. I actually looked down at the media guide to see who he was because he was looking SOOOO horrible. He wound up catching a few balls from Moore and Devlin (17 wasn't in camp yet) that day. I wrote him off as a camp body after that and I haven't seen anything that would make me change my mind. It's a nice story and all but IMO the kid doesn't have a prayer of making the 53, or even the practice squad. And if he can't break in with this sorry ***'d WR group then...

 

Yeah, lots of short and/or slow WRs get overlooked. But a guy who's in the 6'2" 215 range running a sub 4.5 is as likely to be overrated as he is overlooked.

 

That is how it goes, you cannot protect every player that your are interested in developing.

 

Or Riley Cooper, who played baseball for awhile like Hogan played lacrosse.

 

A very good athlete who hopefully can translate to the NFL
He started 4 years for the Penn State lacrosse team
Hogan had a very good pro day
March 8,2011 Fordham pro day

4.47 40 tied for the best 40 time(would have beat 30 wide receivers at the 2011 combine)
4.15 20 yard shuttle was the fastest time of the day(would have beat 22 receivers at the 2011 combine)
6.75 3 cone drill was the fastest of the day(would have beaten 22 receivers at the 2011 combine)
28 bench presses at 225 lbs(would have been #1 of all receivers at the 2011 combine)

Each of those figures would have put him at, or near, the top of the receivers who worked out at the NFL Scouting Combine.

 

We have some WR's that can't get open. No seperation way too often. Hogan needs to get a good look against starters to see what we have. If he was open all game thats a great sign he may have something special, and the timing would be great since Tannehill is also a rookie. Could be a great duo.

 

Have to think Pruitt and Moore have the inside track atm esp after the comments about Wallace not getting separation and having heavy ankles etc.

 

I think several people including in the media are missing the point a little bit.

Fans felt blind sided by the Chris Hogan love on Hard Knocks last night. They didn't feel blind sided because Hard Knocks showed some footage of him getting open and catching balls. They felt blind sided because of how MANY players and coaches were so exuberantly praising him to the point of giving him the most flattering nick name a receiver can have. Chad Johnson says he's always open, other players say Chris Hogan is always open. That's some high praise. Chad wished his teammates would nick name him 7-11 like that. But instead some nobody UDFA lacrosse convert is getting that nick name.

Hard Knocks had tape of just about all the quarterbacks, Reggie Bush, other offensive players, defensive players and even coaches talking about the guy pretty reverently. And if you go back to an interview that Jimmy Wilson did with the Finsiders 2 weeks ago, the following Q&A occurred:

This is not a scouting issue. It's not. This isn't an issue where the guy was getting open and looking good and fans needed a pseudo-scout on the sidelines to recognize how good he is playing, and tell us.

This is a REPORTING issue. This is a guy that clearly has developed a rather expansive following amongst players on offense, defense as well as coaches, a guy getting nick names because of how good he is, a guy that was flat out told to us by Jimmy Wilson in an interview is out there pulling peoples' hamstrings...and the media never talked about him.

Just think about Barry Jackson's sports buzz updates. This is the EXACT kind of thing you'd find in one of those sports buzz updates...direct and summarized quotes from fellow players saying this guy is "always open". You know it. You can picture this exact update in a Barry Jackson piece.

Does Barry Jackson EVER pretend he's a sideline scout? No. Never. Ever ever ever. Off limits to him. Yet this is something you come to expect Barry might have in one of his updates.

That to me says that the problem isn't one where the reporters aren't doing good enough with their scouting evaluations, it points to them not doing good enough with their coverage and investigative reporting of the team. Totally different.

 

He's not a Welker or a Bess though. He's 6'1 and 215-220 lbs. He has the size, strength, speed and quickness to play any WR role. He's more like a Miles Austin clone potentially, to me. Same size, same school, same workout numbers basically.

 

CK, respectfully, I think you overstate his following.
If Reggie Bush called Pat Devlin "Lil Marino" I could string together the 10 best things coaches and players have said about Pat Devlin, show his 5 best throws, and convince an audience he deserves to start.
The most the reporters missed was that Hogan had a nickname. You think Hogan is the only player with a nickname?
Simple, If Hogan was as good as Hard Knocks presented, this WR desperate coaching staff would have him higher on the depth chart.

 

If he doesn't make the team, at least make him a Jonathan Amaya-like in camp trade to avoid him going to a division rival a la Danny Woodhead. The Jets need receivers and could make a play for the guy. Trade him for a clipboard and turkey sandwich if necessary.

 

George,
If the depth chart was an indication of how the coaches feel about the WRs, then why would Wallace be buried on it, but work with the 1s in the absence of Chad? IMO, the depth chart is like a living document that can change several times a day, at a position like WR, which is so up in the air now.

 

Well with all due respect, I think you understate his following. Ryan Tannehill was saying Hogan was "always open" even before Reggie Bush coined the phrase "7-11" to describe the phenomenon. Did you see the scene after the game where the quarterbacks were excitedly talking about how wide open Hogan was on the left side on a play that Devlin actually completed (albeit after a defender tipped the ball) for like 31 yards? That's not a common thing. And two weeks ago Jimmy Wilson labeled him as the guy that is burning him and the defense the most out there. Coaches were talking about him, QBs were talking about him, DBs are talking about him, Reggie Bush is talking about him. It is what it is.

 

I think that's right. You can't tell me that a healthy Brian Hartline is 4th string and ranked somewhere between #8 and #11 out of 11 on the WR depth chart.

 

Depth chart be damned. How many plays has Hogan run with the 1s? Is he 7/11 against anyone but the 3s he lines up against everyday? Hard Knocks didn't illuminate any of this.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

That's an interesting comparison. Hogan looks much lankier than Austin to me, but their listed sizes are about the same. There have been several tall WRs who have similarly fallen through the cracks and went undrafted or were taken very late but who had successful NFL careers, e.g., Dwight Clark, Steve Watson, Rod Smith, Bill Schroeder, etc.

Getting open isn't the entirety of a WR's job, but it is a big part of it. It seems that Hogan may have knack for it that makes the learning curve much easier to overcome. He's certainly intriguing. Les Brown is too, although I wonder if the team should not just focus on his strengths and use him as more of a WR and less of a TE. Both Hogan and Brown seem to have the physical skills and work ethic to become good players. I'm hoping we find a place for them on the roster.

 

I didn't catch the numbers of which DBs he was separating against on HK. I'll be checking that next time. Thanks for giving me that idea.

 

If he's truly not good enough to make this WR corp. then I don't see the reason you need to try and keep him from anybody. However, if he does go to another team, particularly a division rival like the Jets or Patriots, and makes an impact because he's just a flat-out good football player, then that's Ireland and the staff's fault. This WR corp isn't deep or proven enough to let go of football players that can just flat out get the job done.