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Part two of this series looks at the F and Y back roles in Dallas' attack, and the excessive work Jason Witten currently gets at both spots.
In the '90s, the Cowboys had an ideal pair of interior receivers. Jay Novacek, while only an adequate blocker, was a down-field threat. His F-back counterpart, Daryl Johnston, provided a necessary and rare combination of powerful lead blocking between the tackles and decent speed and hands. As I pointed out in part one of this series, Johnston's receiving skills were very important to the passing game.They look very different from modern duos like Gronkowski and Hernandez, but Novacek and Johnston were a true two-tight end package, from a receiving standpoint. Johnston was a near equal to the Y in half of the Cowboys prime years, as these receiving stats show:
Much has changed since Johnston retired. Fans have wondered why the team continues to spend high draft picks on tight ends. The reason is that the Cowboys have hoped to convert those tight ends into the next Johnston. Thus far, that experiment has failed. Anthony Fasano, Martellus Bennett and Gavin Escobar have have shown flashes as receiving targets, but all failed in the role of lead blocker. That has led Dallas to rely on a strange hybrid: high pick TEs who can block on the edge, and no-hands sluggos like Oliver Hoyte and Lousaka Polite to handle the dirty work on inside runs.
Dallas' inability to get consistent production from the F-back puts a greater burden on Jason Witten. The F and the Y averaged 93 combined catches in the '90s, and 113 over the course of Witten's career. That's an 18% increase, but the current Cowboys throw about 16% more passes than the Triplet's squads did, so the number of passes going to the Y and F are about the same.
What's changed is the size of Y-back Witten's pie. Jay Novacek averaged 60% of the balls that went to him and to Daryl Johnston. In three seasons between '91 and '96, their catch totals were almost identical. These days, Witten gets three of every four passes that goes to interior targets. He's also doing much of F-back blocking on the edge and inside, as I showed in this December piece, and he's making all the big, downfield catches for the F-back position as well, as part one showed. .
Witten right now is the F and the Y for the Cowboys, which makes little sense given his age and the high picks Dallas has spent to find him a sidekick. Here is where new tight ends coach Mike Pope can earn his money.
Read the rest: http://www.cowboyszone.com/2014/02/the-pope-dividend-part-2-taking-weight.html
In the '90s, the Cowboys had an ideal pair of interior receivers. Jay Novacek, while only an adequate blocker, was a down-field threat. His F-back counterpart, Daryl Johnston, provided a necessary and rare combination of powerful lead blocking between the tackles and decent speed and hands. As I pointed out in part one of this series, Johnston's receiving skills were very important to the passing game.They look very different from modern duos like Gronkowski and Hernandez, but Novacek and Johnston were a true two-tight end package, from a receiving standpoint. Johnston was a near equal to the Y in half of the Cowboys prime years, as these receiving stats show:
Much has changed since Johnston retired. Fans have wondered why the team continues to spend high draft picks on tight ends. The reason is that the Cowboys have hoped to convert those tight ends into the next Johnston. Thus far, that experiment has failed. Anthony Fasano, Martellus Bennett and Gavin Escobar have have shown flashes as receiving targets, but all failed in the role of lead blocker. That has led Dallas to rely on a strange hybrid: high pick TEs who can block on the edge, and no-hands sluggos like Oliver Hoyte and Lousaka Polite to handle the dirty work on inside runs.
Dallas' inability to get consistent production from the F-back puts a greater burden on Jason Witten. The F and the Y averaged 93 combined catches in the '90s, and 113 over the course of Witten's career. That's an 18% increase, but the current Cowboys throw about 16% more passes than the Triplet's squads did, so the number of passes going to the Y and F are about the same.
What's changed is the size of Y-back Witten's pie. Jay Novacek averaged 60% of the balls that went to him and to Daryl Johnston. In three seasons between '91 and '96, their catch totals were almost identical. These days, Witten gets three of every four passes that goes to interior targets. He's also doing much of F-back blocking on the edge and inside, as I showed in this December piece, and he's making all the big, downfield catches for the F-back position as well, as part one showed. .
Witten right now is the F and the Y for the Cowboys, which makes little sense given his age and the high picks Dallas has spent to find him a sidekick. Here is where new tight ends coach Mike Pope can earn his money.
Read the rest: http://www.cowboyszone.com/2014/02/the-pope-dividend-part-2-taking-weight.html
