The Case for TJ Houshmandzadeh

[RuthlessBurgher]

Hines did the Ickey shuffle in the same game and Ickey had not played for a decade plus.

Where was the outrage then?

I would sign the Shoe tomorrow and send El on his way. El's washed up.

I agree on El. Last year I watched him play with the skins and he was not impressive in any way.

El's not a starting calibre WR anymore (which the Redskins were paying him to be), but he still caught at least 50 balls in each of his last 3 seasons in Washington. That's more than he caught in any of his 4 seasons in Pittsburgh the first time around (his most catches as a Steeler were 47 in his rookie season). There's enough in the tank to serve as a #3 at this point in his career. And if I'm wrong and there is not, we'll still got some impressive looking rookies to fall back on (plus Arnaz Battle, who also has multiple seasons with 50+ catches in the NFL...granted, his were longer ago than ARE, so Battle is more of a special teamer at this point whose skills as a WR should only be needed in case of emergency).

[steelblood]

Hines did the Ickey shuffle in the same game and Ickey had not played for a decade plus.

Where was the outrage then?

I would sign the Shoe tomorrow and send El on his way. El's washed up.

I agree on El. Last year I watched him play with the skins and he was not impressive in any way.

El's not a starting calibre WR anymore (which the Redskins were paying him to be), but he still caught at least 50 balls in each of his last 3 seasons in Washington. That's more than he caught in any of his 4 seasons in Pittsburgh the first time around (his most catches as a Steeler were 47 in his rookie season). There's enough in the tank to serve as a #3 at this point in his career. And if I'm wrong and there is not, we'll still got some impressive looking rookies to fall back on (plus Arnaz Battle, who also has multiple seasons with 50+ catches in the NFL...granted, his were longer ago than ARE, so Battle is more of a special teamer at this point whose skills as a WR should only be needed in case of emergency).

The problem with El is that he is really a slot receiver only and we have plenty of those. Hines does really well as the slot receiver in multiple sets. Brown and Sanders physical sets are really best suited for the slot. Furthermore, El's quickness is slipping every year. I just feel that he is an unnecessary redundancy.

But, I hope he proves me wrong.

[RuthlessBurgher]

Hines did the Ickey shuffle in the same game and Ickey had not played for a decade plus.

Where was the outrage then?

I would sign the Shoe tomorrow and send El on his way. El's washed up.

I agree on El. Last year I watched him play with the skins and he was not impressive in any way.

El's not a starting calibre WR anymore (which the Redskins were paying him to be), but he still caught at least 50 balls in each of his last 3 seasons in Washington. That's more than he caught in any of his 4 seasons in Pittsburgh the first time around (his most catches as a Steeler were 47 in his rookie season). There's enough in the tank to serve as a #3 at this point in his career. And if I'm wrong and there is not, we'll still got some impressive looking rookies to fall back on (plus Arnaz Battle, who also has multiple seasons with 50+ catches in the NFL...granted, his were longer ago than ARE, so Battle is more of a special teamer at this point whose skills as a WR should only be needed in case of emergency).

The problem with El is that he is really a slot receiver only and we have plenty of those. Hines does really well as the slot receiver in multiple sets. Brown and Sanders physical sets are really best suited for the slot. Furthermore, El's quickness is slipping every year. I just feel that he is an unnecessary redundancy.

But, I hope he proves me wrong.

In the present, Wallace is the split end, Ward is the flanker, and El is in the slot. The kids provide depth at this time. They may offer more than that be season's end, but for now, we don't need any rookies running wrong routes resulting in interceptions for touchdowns in these vital first 4 games of the season.

In the past, when Wallace was our #3 WR, we moved Ward inside to the slot when we went 3-wide because Wallace and Holmes were better on the outside.

In the future, I expect to see Wallace as the split end, Sanders as the flanker, and Brown in the slot.

But that's the future. While we give the rooks some seasoning, ARE is our best option out of the slot in 3 WR sets at this point in time.

[steelblood]

Hines did the Ickey shuffle in the same game and Ickey had not played for a decade plus.

Where was the outrage then?

I would sign the Shoe tomorrow and send El on his way. El's washed up.

I agree on El. Last year I watched him play with the skins and he was not impressive in any way.

El's not a starting calibre WR anymore (which the Redskins were paying him to be), but he still caught at least 50 balls in each of his last 3 seasons in Washington. That's more than he caught in any of his 4 seasons in Pittsburgh the first time around (his most catches as a Steeler were 47 in his rookie season). There's enough in the tank to serve as a #3 at this point in his career. And if I'm wrong and there is not, we'll still got some impressive looking rookies to fall back on (plus Arnaz Battle, who also has multiple seasons with 50+ catches in the NFL...granted, his were longer ago than ARE, so Battle is more of a special teamer at this point whose skills as a WR should only be needed in case of emergency).

The problem with El is that he is really a slot receiver only and we have plenty of those. Hines does really well as the slot receiver in multiple sets. Brown and Sanders physical sets are really best suited for the slot. Furthermore, El's quickness is slipping every year. I just feel that he is an unnecessary redundancy.

But, I hope he proves me wrong.

In the present, Wallace is the split end, Ward is the flanker, and El is in the slot. The kids provide depth at this time. They may offer more than that be season's end, but for now, we don't need any rookies running wrong routes resulting in interceptions for touchdowns in these vital first 4 games of the season.

In the past, when Wallace was our #3 WR, we moved Ward inside to the slot when we went 3-wide because Wallace and Holmes were better on the outside.

In the future, I expect to see Wallace as the split end, Sanders as the flanker, and Brown in the slot.

But that's the future. While we give the rooks some seasoning, ARE is our best option out of the slot in 3 WR sets at this point in time.

WR is the easiest position for a rook to learn. If we would have created a competition for the slot between ARE, Sanders, and Brown and really let the kids learn that position first, I'm not so sure ARE would be the guy. But, as it is they taught the rooks the outside positions first, so ARE is the only option (unless you slide Ward down and put a rook on the outside).