Calvin ?

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wreckingball

Varsity Lurker
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Is it arguable that Calvin did not improve much from his freshman year to his junior year? Don't take this wrong..he was all universe all three years. Is poissble he was as good as a freshman as he was when he left?
 
Hard to improve when there's not much room for improvement. The one area he did improve on was playing more physical, since the refs weren't going to call interference when DBs grabbed him.
 
His route running got a lot better. Not something everyone would notice. Including his quarterback.
 
Hard to measure WR improvement when the QB regresses.

On a seperate note...I'm really dissapointed that Calvin got stuck with the Lions.
 
MaconGTfan said:
Hard to measure WR improvement when the QB regresses.

On a seperate note...I'm really dissapointed that Calvin got stuck with the Lions.
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That's how the NFL works. The best players go to the crappy teams, in hopes that the crappy teams will get better. All about trying to produce parity. Just be glad he didn't go to Oakland.
 
MaconGTfan said:
Hard to measure WR improvement when the QB regresses.

On a seperate note...I'm really dissapointed that Calvin got stuck with the Lions.
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They've already matched their win total from last season and he's working for one of the best offensive minds in the NFL. Doesn't seem all that bad to me.
 
Well I mean bad from a "what is good for calvin" point of view. His numbers would be much better in any other offense, even at Oakland, where he would be the #1 WR, as opposed to the #2 WR in an often times 4-WR set.

It just seems like the Lions have a little "overkill" at the WR position. He needs to be in an offense that revolves around him (like GT's was), but w/ a competent QB (unlike GT's). Hell, he'd probably even be doing better with the Falcons! At least they'd make every effort to get him the ball. I just think he is that good.

I was praying for the Bucs to trade up to get him.
 
Yeah, I see what you're saying but it's rare that a rookie WR will step into the NFL and thrive as "the" guy. Even one as talented as Calvin. With Roy Williams on the other side taking one the opponent's no. 1 corner (and all of the expectations), Calvin can "lay in the weeds" a little - well, as much as a guy with his size and ability can.
 
I have him in my fantasy league, and they seem pretty high on him:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/players/8256/news

Oct 21 Johnson had two catches for 37 yards and ran once for a 32-yard TD in Sunday's win over the Bucs.Recommendation: Jon Kitna only threw for 147 yards, so the 37 yards was a team-high receiving total. As long as Johnson's back holds up, he has plenty of upside in the coming weeks.
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Oct 16 Philip Zaroo, of Mlive.com, reports Detroit Lions QB Jon Kitna said during an interview with WDFN-AM Detroit that WR Calvin Johnson should get the football more. "Like I said, it's a complex system, and so the more you can have guys that have been in it, the better. But the fact remains with Calvin and his skill set, we need to find ways to get him the football a little more, and give him a chance to take advantage of how talented he really is," Kitna said.
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MaconGTfan said:
He needs to be in an offense that revolves around him (like GT's was
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Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa!!!!

I don't know what team you watched the last couple years, but our offense DID NOT revolve around Calvin.

Our offense revolved around Reggie Ball. It was designed with his inadequacies in mind. Calvin was just an amazing wide receiver being handicaped by that horrible system.
 
ContactBuzz said:
Yeah, I see what you're saying but it's rare that a rookie WR will step into the NFL and thrive as "the" guy. Even one as talented as Calvin. With Roy Williams on the other side taking one the opponent's no. 1 corner (and all of the expectations), Calvin can "lay in the weeds" a little - well, as much as a guy with his size and ability can.
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Randy Moss had 17 TD's and 1,200 yards his rookie year. I beleive that Calvin is every bit as good as Moss, relatively speaking in terms of physcial abilities and experience.

Hell, Dwayne Bowe is having a better year than Calvin! No way that should happen.
 
"But the fact remains with Calvin and his skill set, we need to find ways to get him the football a little more, and give him a chance to take advantage of how talented he really is," Kitna said.

Replace "Kitna said" with "Patrick Nix and Chan Gailey said" and you have a synopsis of Calvin's last year or two on the flats. Remember the heat that Nix got last year for our inability to get Calvin the ball? Its starting already in detroit...

http://www.mlive.com/lions/index.ssf/2007/10/marinelli_has_testy_exchange_w.html
 
3rdGenJacket said:
Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa!!!!

I don't know what team you watched the last couple years, but our offense DID NOT revolve around Calvin.

Our offense revolved around Reggie Ball. It was designed with his inadequacies in mind. Calvin was just an amazing wide receiver being handicaped by that horrible system.
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Didn't Calvin account for something like 50% of our passing, if not all offensive TD's? Our offensive gameplan was to get the ball to Calvin, we just couldn't because of Ball.
 
MaconGTfan said:
Didn't Calvin account for something like 50% of our passing, if not all offensive TD's? Our offensive gameplan was to get the ball to Calvin, we just couldn't because of Ball.
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True. But the plan was to throw the ball to the outer 15% of each side of the field, regardless of who our WRs were, because our QB was a castaway from a midget wrestling league.

We were fortunate enough to have a WR good enough to catch balls that the defense knew were coming.

Or I guess we were fortunate that Gailey convinced Calvin Johnson to come to Tech ?
 
nedleeds said:
Or I guess we were fortunate that Gailey convinced Calvin Johnson to come to Tech ?
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Or that Calvin's mom wasn't a money grubbing mother just trying to get a pay check out of her son...she wanted him to have an education.
 
wreckingball said:
Is it arguable that Calvin did not improve much from his freshman year to his junior year?
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Based on his receiving stats, he improved greatly his junior year. He had 15 TDs in 2006 (in 14 games), compared to 13 in his previous 24 games. The number that I think should have improved more is receptions per game. CJ had 4 grabs per game as a frosh, improving to ~5.43/game last season.
 
It's different with the Bowe statistics. Calvin doesn't play as much as u guys think. He's the #2 guy ideally, but he's really the #3 guy on the field. R.Williams and M.Furrey start, then when Martz goes 3 and 4 wide he brings in Calvin and S.McDonald, it's usually in the 2nd half of games that Calvin is actually in any 2 WR sets.

I bought Sunday Ticket just to follow Calvin, I haven't missed a single down of Detroit Lions football this year, believe me, I'm on the couch begging for Calvin to be on the field more.

I think we'll see more of him very soon. Plus, he's been injured and missed time.
 
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