Will Dez ever be elite again?

Chuck 54

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Dez has always struggled to get open against the top CBs and against double coverage; he's big and strong and fast for his size, but he's just not quick enough or precise enough to create separation versus the best or double teams. He's a bigger, stronger, faster version of Keyshaun Johnson. You have to throw it to him when he's covered and put it where he can battle for the ball.

However, he will abuse average starting CBs, which is what most teams have, up and down the field. When he's double teamed, someone else should be open. When the other team's best corner, an elite corner, anyone like Norman, Sherman, Revis, etc. is on him, he's going to lose the battle on more plays that he wins, but that's why we have other options.

Even at his best, he will not win consistently like Julio Jones, AJ Green, or Antonio Brown...not even Beckham with all his warts. That's just not the type of receiver Dez is. He's not Michael Irvin who won against every CB in the league and devoured double-teams with the slant.

He is what he is, which is a top 10 receiver, just behind some of the guys mentioned, but he is also unique and brings something to the table they don't. Accept it; he never was and never will be a guy who leads the team in receiving every week or who can be expected to be the guy on every critical down, but our offense is seriously less effective when he's not out there despite the wins we have without him. He is at least 3 times better than any other receiver on our team, and defenses do have to plan for him.
 
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Proof

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Maybe I haven't been paying attention these past couple years, but do players get named to the all-pro team, or make the pro bowl by being the decoy that allows other players to get wide open for TD's? You can't keep making excuses for Dez because of what he's done in the PAST. Dez will have one good game out of every 4 or 5. That's not elite folks. Elite WR's do not disappear in games. Michael Irvin didn't. And why were guys replacing Dez making more plays than Dez does now? As for Beas, he has more than proven that he does not need Dez to help him make plays. Stop with the Dez excuses already. He's getting paid waaaaay too much for what he's doing.....

You can't create a point and argue against it. No one is suggesting he be a decoy. Period. What's been said is that currently even if he's not playing to his elite resume, he commands enough attention that it's still extremely valuable.
Thats on top of production. That admittedly isn't where it should be yet, but a couple hundred yard games and critical TDs in a down year is encouraging to me.

Elite receivers disappear all the time. Every one of them. Antonio Brown is the most consistent and gold standard, but literally every other marquee, elite wr Julio, Odell, AJ have had piss poor games this season. Julio is arguably the best receiver in the league on one of the most potent offenses and has a 1,2 and 3 catch game already.
 

DandyDon52

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Elite receivers disappear all the time. Every one of them.
True, but are they being thrown to ?? Are they dropping balls?? Are they running the routes the way they should??
Thing is Dez in this last game didnt run his route, and was not primary target, but dak came back to him, but dez
had taken the play off, so dak just ran it out of bounds.
JG got on to dez about it after the play.
Dez getting paid changed him, and not for the better. he may have some good games, but I doubt we ever see
the 2012-14 dez again.

Jerry wont like admitting he paid a guy and then didnt get what he paid for, so he orders more targets for dez, and now says
he is doing great as a decoy.
 

Bullflop

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For whatever reason, Dez hasn't quite retained the abilities that he had in his younger days. I think the various injuries that he sustained during his career compromised his effectiveness to some extent, although gaining separation has never been his forte. Nevertheless, he still manages to make just enough impactful plays to sometimes cause defenses to be forced to double cover him. He's still pretty dangerous, imho.
 

Toruk_Makto

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you cant watch what he did in philly and say dude fell off
He has a 200 yard 3td game in Philly if Romo had been the QB (or Dak had been accurate).

You can't in good faith argue otherwise. And if he had we wouldn't be having this conversation today. It is what it is though.

We need Dez at his best this Sunday.
 

lane

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They need to throw Dez the crossing pattern... like he did against Washington on thanksgiving a few years back that got us back in the damn game after being humiliated in the first half .

Terrance and Dez would thrive in that pattern.

Especially Terrance...he has one of the prettiest,fluid gaits after he catches the ball.Very Jerry Rice type after the catch gait.
 
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