Josh Cribbs: Quietly our best player once again.... and best WR

Flugel · #13 (**permalink**) 01-07-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sez.EJ

I have been hard on Cribbs (and the whole WR corpse (pun intended).. Cribb made strong progress this year; especially in the 2nd half of the season. It's year 7or 8 for him...

The was funny about the pun. Cribbs looked good last year too. People wondered why he was better at taking a direct snap for good rushing yardage than running routes without ever considering what he did over his entire college career in the MAC. He took direct snaps and rushed for good yardage so it was where he was best trained to the extent of it feeling as natural as breathing.

Some just preferred to run with the "he sucks at WR so don't waste time." Well, as a rookie - he had the experience volume of 1 reception so that wasn't decent training. In fact, because Northcutt was a 32nd pick overall - we never leapfrogged an undrafted QB turned WR ahead of Northcutt in the slot. I'm not sure being in the scout offense for our defense in between practice reps on STs returns and coverage units had him as well prepared to take the position change by storm.

In any event, remember back when Northcutt got injured and couldn't return punts for us so we tried Cribbs for the first time? It was pretty much a disaster from somebody that had zero experience at punt returns. Everybody said just let him stick to kickoffs only to the extent of hearing some say Northcutt was not replaceable as a punt returner. All it EVER took was a willingness to see what this guy offers in work ethic and competitiveness to make worth training the guy worth our while. He not only upgraded Northcutt as a punt return guy but he became a Pro Bowl return man.

I see this as a special player that can succeed at ANYTHING he is given a reasonable chance to do so with. I never understood why people couldn't wait to slam him as often as they found the opportunity to do so. I don't think you did that as much as wanting to see him utilized where you felt he was strongest Sez.

PlaygroundLegend · #14 (**permalink**) 01-07-2012

Cribbs was used as a decoy all year. The problem with that is that if he's always the decoy... he's really not a decoy. I was mad we doesn't throw more pa bubble screens, he gets 10 yards every time, plus he's the only guy who seems to fight towards the first down marker.

He should be running ins outs screens and flys all day from the slot

SoCalBrownsFan · #15 (**permalink**) 01-07-2012

Love Josh.

jblackmon81 · #16 (**permalink**) 01-07-2012

D-Qwell, Joe Thomas, Phil Dawson, Jabaal Sheard, Joe Haden (off the top of my head) all easily had a better year than Cribbs..

I dont expect cribbs to do well with the new regulations but no kick returns with a 25 yard avg.. and 1 punt return. A so-so wide reciever, usually nonexistent.

TheBestPlayersPlay · #17 (**permalink**) 01-08-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by jblackmon81

A so-so wide reciever, usually nonexistent.

Maybe, but the best WR on the roster. Also, you can't blame Josh for getting rid of all of our great ST players and the best ST coach in the NFL. He's not super human, he still needs some basic, run of the mill ST blocking out of the guys in front of him ...unfortunately he didn't get that at any point this past season.

He should also be getting more looks out of the back field.

Not impressed with DQ, Phil Dawson is a kicker, Sheard looks good on one side of the line, and lets see how he looks now that there is tape to study on him, and Haden had a worse year than his rookie season. Again, our players generally regressed across the board due to poor coaching ...however to discount what Josh Cribbs is capable of with even an average coach and ST players is asinine.

Don't get me wrong, I like the players you listed, I just feel DQ is average, Dawson is a kicker who shouldn't be on that list, Sheard can not be anointed yet, and I love Haden ...but our coaching or lack there-of showed in his regression this year.

jblackmon81 · #18 (**permalink**) 01-08-2012

Haden had 18 bat downs, more than last year, with a knee injury that made him miss a game, and play not as well for the 3 following games.

There was a reason why we had the #2 secondary!

We didnt utilize Cribbs enough, but he didnt do much when he did play..