Some Clarification is in Order: Royal, The Slot and Worth

He’s not sexy, and because of that, and his current role in our offense, people often times just see the stat line only and not the context for them.

If he’s not a good player, who was that guy wearing 19 who made all those catches in 2008?

And it is a tough situation.

At 1-5 I’m really surprised more players didn’t ask for a trade. Players will either buy in or not in a coache’s plan. Lloyd knew his time was coming and Royal fears the same. The game plan was spread the ball around and pass, pass, pass. Today it is more of a run first system. Wideouts are going to want to leave to a team that throws the ball around. Plain and Simple

he’s happier now that lloyd is gone. Not because of a dislike for lloyd, but just because of it meaning he’d get more looks.

Slot receivers and caught most of his passes. His low targets in 2010 was due to being in the slot, and unless you are the beast Wes Welker, not often do slot guys catch a huge number of passes. While I do agree Orton and Royal never had the chemistry Orton and Marshall/Lloyd had, it has a lot to do with starting his career in Chicago where he almost never used a slot guy.

I also hope that Tebow develops with Royal, but I don’t see that happening since one of Tebow’s biggest issues is the mid pass game, especially across the middle. The biggest reason for this is his accuracy at this range tends to lead his receivers into contact and for slot guys, you don’t want that. What makes a good slot guy is a QB who can lead the receiver away from contact, Orton was good at this, Tebow has other strengths, the screen for one, but for a slot guy, you want accuracy from your QB, and while Tebow has many skills, accuracy is not one of them. Decker and DT could put up some good numbers from Tebow though.

I once had a post that was sidetracked by burritos so Tacos is completely fine. Plus they are delicious.

Royal is younger, and not about to enter the decline of his career. The second is that Lloyd would demand a contract of a Pro Bowler while Royal would just want a new contract, similar to his rookie one or a slight increase in pay, not nearly what Lloyd would want. Lastly Royal’s contract would be more likely to be played out while Lloyd would either retire or take a pay decrease before his 3-4 year contract expired.

But not nearly at the level of DT, he has only missed a handful of games in these past three seasons. And at the end of the season, I do see him getting resigned, unless Xanders plans on draft a WR. But if we do resign him, he wouldn’t be asking for the monster contract Lloyd would ask for. He might ask for a pay raise from his rookie contract up to the standard for slot WR’s, currently he is making $550,000 and to see a raise to about $1 million would be very reasonable, even more so because we are so far below our ceiling.

Is coaches misusing him, he isn’t going to succeed on the outside, 2009 proved that, especially since we are going to be throwing it less and less. I do remember the interview, which took place during TC in 2010, did say it was hard, but he was very successful in the slot. And like I mentioned in the article, his 2008 stats can largely be attributed to a massive focus on the pass game and Royal and Cutler’s connection. Royal’s catch rate, yards after the catch and most other major statistics were lower on the outside, no matter what year.

I do agree that he could be similar to Steve Smith, but even Smith has said countless times he hates being a #1 WR and doesn’t like being near the sideline since he lacks the size. Just watching Royal play and comparing him in the slot versus the outside, I can’t see him succeeding on the outside. But we are all entitled to opinions, and that’s what makes being a fan so fun.

Really all that matters is the #1 WR and slot WR. After that guys are interchangeable. On some teams the #2 WR is the slot guy while on other teams the #3 WR is the slot guy. Though technically most of the time the slot guy is the 3rd WR on the field. The NFL is split on the use of the slot WR, like you said, some teams, like Chicago use their fast guys (Hester, Knox) outside while they use their possession guy (Bennett) as the slot. Other teams, like NE or Indy use small, fast guys in the slot (Collie or Welker). Not a lot of teams use big guys in the slot unless they are trying to create a mismatch. This is mostly because big guys are more valuable on the sidelines in 1 on 1 coverage there they are able to just get over the CB. Also if you want a big guy in the slot just move your TE just before the snap.

You are also correct in that Royal, like most slot guys, needs an accurate QB, which he had in Cutler and Orton, and that accuracy is key so he doesn’t have to adjust and get nailed by a LB or safety. That is one reason that Royal might struggle with Tebow because Tebow struggles in that area, so we will expect more passes away from the middle.

As for Decker being in the slot, it comes down to how Fox and McCoy (McFox?) want to use the slot. In Carolina they had a guy like Edddie Royal in Steve Smith who liked to play the slot. To maximize talent I’d use Eddie in the slot since Decker is talented enough, and has the size, to play outside. Royal can’t match up well against a physical CB like Decker and DT can, let them take the outside, and Royal in the slot. I’m not saying Decker can’t play in the slot, I think he can, but Royal is much more specialized, and we would be playing to their strengths. Also Decker has the size and speed to break deep plays, and while he could play in the slot, we need more down field help, we have enough underneath guys in Royal, Fells and Thomas.

At least not close to DT’s level.