Grant Cohn: Crabtree not a Diva

[Ray_Dogg]

Anderson is not better than Smith. Anderson had one fluke season. Hell Anderson is worse than Smith and it's not even close.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

A lot of it has to do with attitude (perceived), and practice attendance. Another thing is how terrible Crabtree was at the beginning of last year where all the passes around him were being volleyball set to the defensive backs or dropped.

If Crabtree was able to practice consistently, or make big plays the blame would be shifted. And I don't really think that's true in the first place. Alex Smith already gets the blame for most everything, even the Crabtree interceptions/drops.

The first paragraph is spot-on!

However, I think the statement in bold is intriguing. While I tend to agree with the syntax of the bolded statement, I think I may disagree with the implication of it. Theoretically, and to a point logically, we can assume there has been a mutual negative impact.

Your emphatically stated ("There is absolutely no doubt...") makes me think you feel Smith is more responsible for holding Crabtree back. Is that an accurate statement and if so, why?

I think Crabtree bears a lot of the blame for his own struggles, especially early in the year last year. However, I think that the offense we ran last year and the QB play held Crabtree back. I have said before that I think Smith last year was a particularly bad QB for Crabtree. He lacked the accuracy to hit Crabtree in stride regularly, and wouldn't take a chance throwing to Crabtree in coverage. Now, Crabtree bears some responsibility for that. He didn't put the time in to build chemistry with Smith, and he dropped some tough balls early that turned into INTs, so Smith was reluctant to throw at him. But Crabtree is quite dangerous when he gets the ball with a head of steam, and we didn't take advantage of that this year. Thus far, in the preseason and regular season, Smith seems to have improved his accuracy to an extent. And Crabtree has no one to blame but himself - albeit due to injury - for not taking advantage of an offense this year that should really suit his talents.

I'm certainly not ready to write off Crabtree at this point, but there are a lot of flags with him right now.

 

[Thepatty13]

I completely agree with what you wrote crimson. 100%...

 

[MW49ers5]

I think Crabtree bears a lot of the blame for his own struggles, especially early in the year last year. However, I think that the offense we ran last year and the QB play held Crabtree back. I have said before that I think Smith last year was a particularly bad QB for Crabtree. He lacked the accuracy to hit Crabtree in stride regularly, and wouldn't take a chance throwing to Crabtree in coverage.

Now, Crabtree bears some responsibility for that. He didn't put the time in to build chemistry with Smith, and he dropped some tough balls early that turned into INTs, so Smith was reluctant to throw at him. But Crabtree is quite dangerous when he gets the ball with a head of steam, and we didn't take advantage of that last year.

Thus far, in the preseason and regular season, Smith seems to have improved his accuracy to an extent. And Crabtree has no one to blame but himself - albeit due to injury - for not taking advantage of an offense this year that should really suit his talents.

I'm certainly not ready to write off Crabtree at this point, but there are a lot of flags with him right now.

"a lot of the blame", okay, a lot of the blame. I agree our offense was fairly anemic last year, but, we did produce more passing yds/gm than in '09. Morgan & Gore were more productive (yds/rec) and V.Davis had the highest yds/rec for all TE's in the league.

That said, Crabtree did put up Miles Austin type #'s with T.Smith at QB. So do you think T.Smith is the type of QB that Crabtree needs?

As for Crabtree being "quite dangerous when he gets the ball with a head of steam", I think nearly every receiver in the NFL can put that on their resume; however, the bigger point here is this, other than this particular scenario, Crabtree isn't very dangerous at all.

Regarding Smith's apparent completion % improvement, don't be too quick to buy it. Although he did complete 15 of 20 passed (75%) this past Sunday, of those 15 passes, 5 were thrown behind the LOS and seven were completed between the 1 and 7 yard line. The average distance from the LOS for 12 of his 15 completions was a whooping 1.58 yards.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

"a lot of the blame", okay, a lot of the blame. I agree our offense was fairly anemic last year, but, we did produce more passing yds/gm than in '09. Morgan & Gore were more productive (yds/rec) and V.Davis had the highest yds/rec for all TE's in the league.

That said, Crabtree did put up Miles Austin type #'s with T.Smith at QB. So do you think T.Smith is the type of QB that Crabtree needs?

As for Crabtree being "quite dangerous when he gets the ball with a head of steam", I think nearly every receiver in the NFL can put that on their resume; however, the bigger point here is this, other than this particular scenario, Crabtree isn't very dangerous at all.

Regarding Smith's apparent completion % improvement, don't be too quick to buy it. Although he did complete 15 of 20 passed (75%) this past Sunday, of those 15 passes, 5 were thrown behind the LOS and seven were completed between the 1 and 7 yard line. The average distance from the LOS for 12 of his 15 completions was a whooping 1.58 yards.

Crabtree had pretty good YAC numbers last year, as did all our receivers. For his size. I think Crabtree has very good short area quickness and great instincts; better than the average WR. I also think he has better than average hands when he focuses. He has some talents, we just didn't make stellar use of them last year.

Re: Smith's accuracy, I wasn't factoring in his completion percentage, but the actual throws he made. There's no doubt - at least based on the preseason and one game - that he's doing a better job of putting the ball in the right place than last year, and maybe better than any time I can remember in his career. We'll see if it lasts once the pressure starts getting to him.

 

[MW49ers5]

Crabtree had pretty good YAC numbers last year, as did all our receivers. For his size. I think Crabtree has very good short area quickness and great instincts; better than the average WR. I also think he has better than average hands when he focuses. He has some talents, we just didn't make stellar use of them last year.

Re: Smith's accuracy, I wasn't factoring in his completion percentage, but the actual throws he made. There's no doubt - at least based on the preseason and one game - that he's doing a better job of putting the ball in the right place than last year, and maybe better than any time I can remember in his career. We'll see if it lasts once the pressure starts getting to him.

Crabtree's YAC were on par with Davis & Morgan, but what I found to be most interesting were the #'s he put up with T.Smith:

Rec----Yards----Yd/Rec----TD
17------317------18.6------4

I have a theory as to why this happened, but I am interested to read your thoughts.

Gotcha on the accuracy point. I have discussed Bradfords accuracy the same light, in that he was more accurate than his comp% would have you believe.

As for Smith, you will have your first glimpse of Smith under pressure in less than 48 hours.

 

[NinerSickness]

183 of those yards came against the Rams. Most of those yards were when the Niners were playing catchup in a loss against 'em.

Either way I can't stand his face.

 

[MW49ers5]

LMAO!!!!!!!!!...Someone needs to edit Crabtree's face into that video!...