DMN: Blog: Garrett talks about Crayton

[UVAwahoos]

'People' who don't play with him or coach him or appreciate as fans that he's been a good player for us.

There are so many Cowboy fans out there who don't know what they're watching or why they believe what they believe. It's hard to take their opinions seriously. I'm still arguing with people who don't understand that the didn't quit on his route in the playoffs no matter how many times people involved with the team and with the play go on record saying that's not what happened.

He made it very hard to cheer for him at times last season, but regardless I hope Garrett is correct and that he does well this season.

 

[Mansta54]

He made it very hard to cheer for him at times last season, but regardless I hope Garrett is correct and that he does well this season.

I never have a problem cheering for a Cowboy on sundays or any other days. Are you sure your priorities are in order. I mean, cmon dude, if you're a TRUE BOYZ FAN how could you ever have problems cheering for any of them? You lost me with that one...

 

[Idgit]

He made it very hard to cheer for him at times last season, but regardless I hope Garrett is correct and that he does well this season.

I'm with you that he said some stupid things. Especially when you're a single player--and not a superstar--it's stupid to go way out on a limb making team commitments you can't deliver on. I agree with that. Even if we had managed to meet the Pats in the Superbow, what Crayton said would have been dumb.

But there's no way in my book that stuff takes precedence over all of his hard work, his very good hands, and the pleasant surprise he's been for this team. I'll cheer for guys like that any day of the week.

Meanwhile, we have players on the team who more or less keep their mouths shut, but they spit on other players and other people off the field, and there's very little condemnation of those guys. Because they keep their mouths shut in the press. That's backwards.

Here's what kills me. All the guy does is get better with each year he's played, he's known for the best hands on the team, he's made clutch 3rd down catches for 1st downs numerous times, he's even caught the game winner before, then his OC comes out and says what a hard worker he is and a delight to have on the team but some fans still want to focus on what he said last year. Now that's amazing!!! :bang2:

I'm with you brother. I wouldn't mind seeing the WR position upgraded, but there just aren't a lot of players better than Crayton available in any given year.

 

[DaBoys4Life]

I think we are going to be better this year than last year. The playoff lost left a sour taste in our mouth and we are hungry.

 

[ABQcowboyJR]

Since when was speed the biggest criteria for a #2.

Productivity > Speed

Its not really about Crayton getting the yards and catches. Its about opening up the offense up to do more things. If Crayton were faster and made defenses use a safety on him you make them pick there poison. Witten or TO.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

So you can be critical of someone while also being supportive? Right.

just 'fess up, you're a huge Crayton hater

I've never hated Crayton, I was extremely pissed off at him because of his performance though, but I've gotten over it

it's like having kids, you get so pissed at them, but you still support them, admittedly you wouldn't call them losers, but still

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Do you mean like how TO dominated the Commanders and the Giants in those games last year when the safety could not get over in time?

The offense is designed to be TO first, Witten 2nd and the #2 WR 3rd. Witten takes care of the safety or To takes care of the safety depending who is option #1 in the play. It worked very well last year. Crayton is the 2nd to 3rd option on most pass plays. When TO went down it is probably as much Romo's issue as it is Crayton's as far as productivity.

This has nothing to do with who is designated the primary and secondary option in any given pass play. This speaks to how traditional offenses are set up from a personnel standpoint. If you look back at our offense last year, I think you might find that teams were having success defensing our offense before TO got hurt. Doesn't really matter. If you have speed at the 2, it's much harder for defenses the other receivers. If you don't, then it's much easier for defenses to cheat a safety. Thats just how it works. Crayton is not speedy and no amount of arguement is going to change that fact. Because of this, it's easier for defenses to cover us.

 

[aikemirv]

This has nothing to do with who is designated the primary and secondary option in any given pass play. This speaks to how traditional offenses are set up from a personnel standpoint. If you look back at our offense last year, I think you might find that teams were having success defensing our offense before TO got hurt. Doesn't really matter. If you have speed at the 2, it's much harder for defenses the other receivers. If you don't, then it's much easier for defenses to cheat a safety. Thats just how it works. Crayton is not speedy and no amount of arguement is going to change that fact. Because of this, it's easier for defenses to cover us.

Please name examples of teams where the #2 has great speed which gives them great success getting it to the #1 more than we are able to get the ball to TO.

The fact of the matter is that #1's usually get safety help period. If Crayton had speed he would be another #1 IMO because he has great hands, runs good routes and knows how to find soft spots in coverage. He is just not a deep threat. You are saying that your #2 has to be a deep threat and your #1's are more of the possession guys which I don't think is true at all.

Teams last year had to pick a poison, TO or Witten, they did not have much success other than that. Would we be better if we had another #1 opposite TO? Sure we would, but Witten serves the purpose of drawing coverage away from T.O.

 

[AbeBeta]

I've never hated Crayton, I was extremely pissed off at him because of his performance though, but I've gotten over it

it's like having kids, you get so pissed at them, but you still support them, admittedly you wouldn't call them losers, but still

I would say that calling a player a loser and sporting an avatar that proclaims this is clearly an indication that you were not supportive of Crayton. Using your analogy, a supportive parent would not be one who called a child a loser.

 

[Romo2Dez4six]

crayton has great hands, but he needs to keep his mouth shut. he is doing what every good reciever does gets better year after year

 

[AbeBeta]

crayton has great hands, but he needs to keep his mouth shut. he is doing what every good reciever does gets better year after year

You can say that. But when I read that Garrett says "Has a confidence about him that really conveys the whole group" it tells me that the coaching staff are fine with his talk and it gets the other WRs pumped.

 

[Romo2Dez4six]

You can say that. But when I read that Garrett says "Has a confidence about him that really conveys the whole group" it tells me that the coaching staff are fine with his talk and it gets the other WRs pumped.

yeah your right i just didn't like the promises he was throwing out last year that is just bad karma

 

[Doomsday]

I don't really have a problem with Crayton dropping passes in the playoffs or not completing his route. Would I have rather seen him catch the ball and finish his route? With out a doubt. However, young players take time and I see that, like Romo in Seattle, as part of the maturation process. The real problem I have with Crayton is that fact that I do not believe he has the talent to be the #2 WR. I just don't think he can create the miss match down field that our offense lacks. JMO.

Well said, I couldnt agree more. I dont think most fans want to run Crayton out of town as much as we just want to have some more explosive at the position.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Since when was speed the biggest criteria for a #2.

Productivity > Speed

I guess you'd have to ask the guy who devised this offensive scheme. That guy would be Sid Gillman. Unfortunatly, Coach Gillman is no longer with us so that will introduce another layer of difficulty with respects to the actual discussion.

Look, I'm not saying Crayton is not going to be a decent WR. Over time, he may turn into a good WR but he doesn't fit the traditional #2 WR role because of his lack of speed. We run a traditional offense. Not WC, not RedGun, etc. Speed kills and we have a lack of that in our WR corps right now IMO. Speed balances out the offense.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Please name examples of teams where the #2 has great speed which gives them great success getting it to the #1 more than we are able to get the ball to TO.

The fact of the matter is that #1's usually get safety help period. If Crayton had speed he would be another #1 IMO because he has great hands, runs good routes and knows how to find soft spots in coverage. He is just not a deep threat. You are saying that your #2 has to be a deep threat and your #1's are more of the possession guys which I don't think is true at all.

Teams last year had to pick a poison, TO or Witten, they did not have much success other than that. Would we be better if we had another #1 opposite TO? Sure we would, but Witten serves the purpose of drawing coverage away from T.O.

Wow! I can't even believe your asking this. All you have to do is look to the early 90s teams. The Cowboys spent years trying to balance the offense by bringing in Speed WRs opposit Irvin.

Yeah, your #1 WR will get doubled unless you can balance the field. That's the whole point. If you have speed (deep threat) opposit, that prevents the double downs and makes the safety play heads up. If the defense elects not to play the safeties even, then they run the risk of getting beaten deep, which translates into more TDs, which either opens up the running game even more or eventually forces the defense to play the safety honest. Carolina did this a few years ago when they had Smith and Mohammed. Tampa Bay does this same kind of thing with Galloway. Cleveland is trying to do this with Stallworth this year. Philly is trying to do the same thing with Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown. This is not new. This formula goes back a very long time. I guess I just don't see why there is so much push back on this.

This is not about how many times you get the ball to TO. This is about creating miss matches. Preventing defenses from scheming TO or Witten. To say that nobody had success stopping our passing game last year is not all together correct. In fact, teams did have success against us. That's a true statement.

 

[cowboys2233]

I guess you'd have to ask the guy who devised this offensive scheme. That guy would be Sid Gillman. Unfortunatly, Coach Gillman is no longer with us so that will introduce another layer of difficulty with respects to the actual discussion.

Look, I'm not saying Crayton is not going to be a decent WR. Over time, he may turn into a good WR but he doesn't fit the traditional #2 WR role because of his lack of speed. We run a traditional offense. Not WC, not RedGun, etc. Speed kills and we have a lack of that in our WR corps right now IMO. Speed balances out the offense.

Agreed, it is our one glaring weakness heading into the season. I keep trying to convince myself that having guys like Felix Jones can offset some of that in the passing game, but it's not working particularly well.

If we lose Owens, we're ****ed and that's all there is to it.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

I would say that calling a player a loser and sporting an avatar that proclaims this is clearly an indication that you were not supportive of Crayton. Using your analogy, a supportive parent would not be one who called a child a loser.

I think I said that, but Crayton is not my kid

it seems that you can't differentiate between being critical of a player and outright hating them, they're not exclusively one and the same...

now if I've said some crap about Crayton needing to earn my support, then you have a point

 

[ddh33]

Depending on what happens with Glenn, I would guess that your leading receivers are:
Witten, TO, Crayton, Barber, and Felix Jones.

 

[Ben_n_austin]

you gotta like that endorsement

It's true. It's like people forget you're a human being when you wear the star. I understand the pride and integrity associated with the boys. They're my team. But the Crayton Hatin' © got entirely out of hand. You could go back to that game and find 100 mistakes, but no one will get called out on it by fans unless it occurred at a turning point or more "memorable" play. (And we know about memory, don't we?)

Had the other players made less mistakes, surely we would have been up by more points and not been in that situation.

Last time I checked, 53 people comprise and contribute to the Dallas Cowboys when it's all said and done.

Crayton, along with Romo, was a big reason why we went a shining 13-3 with home field advantage into the playoffs.

Give it up for the underdogs.

 

[starfrombirth]

I disagree that Crayton doesn't have the talent to be anything more than he is. There have been numerous WR's who have gone to Pro Bowls on similar talent. Parcells compared Crayton to Hines Ward physically. Like Crayton Ward is about 6'0 205, and doesn't have great speed. He gets open because he's super smart, has good quickness out of his breaks, runs great routes, has great instincts for the position and and willing to do anything asked of him. Ward had a non-descript rookie year as he made the transition to his new position, then put up a couple of mediocre seasons of 40+ catches for 600 yards and before breaking out in his 4th year. This is Crayton's 4th year in the NFL, and he's done nothing but improve every year from the year before. We'll see if the progress continues or if he plateaus.

Ok, can we give Austin and Hurd 4 years to have a breakout season as well? I see everyone (not literally) jump on them and how they aren't that great after 2 years but Crayton gets a flyer? Double standard much?