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WR Braxton Miller (B1G POY, National Champion)

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cincibuck said:
I have one concern - the loss of Devin Smith. From my limited POV, it takes someone like Devin or TG Jr. to be the instant score threat from anywhere on the field that forces defenses to concede space in an attempt to insure protection against the deep threat that makes everything else work. e.g. as I watch the MSU, Wisky, 'bama and Oregon games, it seems to me that it is the threat of Smith that opens up the middle to Marshall and the run game.

Brax has shown the ability to score as a scrambling QB, but I'm not sure that correlates to being a wide out that forces defenses to play deeper.

I'm sure it creates problems of some sort, but I'm not sure it forces the safety's deeper or the corners out of blitzing or coming up fast on runs.
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I think the threat of JT Barrett's ability to find the open man and pick apart defenses helps a lot. Wisky, Bama and Oregon were threatened with the deep ball from Cardale, but MSU and every other team had to defend every inch of the field with Barrett. Barrett hardly used Smith as a deep threat in the same way and we were still very effective. Braxton will be most special in space in 1 on 1 situations against a S or LB, that will be a fun mismatch to watch. And if they want to blitz or cheat up, let them, Thomas and Smith have some of the surest hands!
 
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pnuts34 said:
I think the threat of JT Barrett's ability to find the open man and pick apart defenses helps a lot. Wisky, Bama and Oregon were threatened with the deep ball from Cardale, but MSU and every other team had to defend every inch of the field with Barrett. Barrett hardly used Smith as a deep threat in the same way and we were still very effective. Braxton will be most special in space in 1 on 1 situations against a S or LB, that will be a fun mismatch to watch. And if they want to blitz or cheat up, let them, Thomas and Smith have some of the surest hands!
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I could not disagree more. Smith led the country in ypc by over 4 yards...he was a consistent deep threat throughout the season. He had 11 catches of 32+ yards during the regular season, e.g., from Barrett. Here are the receptions:

Navy 80
VT 58
Kent State 50
Cincinnati 34
Illinois 32, 32
MSU 43, 44
Rutgers 42
Indiana 33
Michigan 52

That's 11 of his 26 regular season catches going for 32 yards or more.
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
I could not disagree more. Smith led the country in ypc by over 4 yards...he was a consistent deep threat throughout the season. He had 11 catches of 32+ yards during the regular season, e.g., from Barrett. Here are the receptions:

Navy 80
VT 58
Kent State 50
Cincinnati 34
Illinois 32, 32
MSU 43, 44
Rutgers 42
Indiana 33
Michigan 52

That's 11 of his 26 regular season catches going for 32 yards or more.
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Wisconsin 39 44 42
Alabama 40 47
Oregon 45

With JT: avg 1 per game
With Cardale: avg 2 per game

Devin was always an important part of the gameplan, but he definitely played a bigger role with Cardale.

cincibuck said:
I have one concern - the loss of Devin Smith. From my limited POV, it takes someone like Devin or TG Jr. to be the instant score threat from anywhere on the field that forces defenses to concede space in an attempt to insure protection against the deep threat that makes everything else work. e.g. as I watch the MSU, Wisky, 'bama and Oregon games, it seems to me that it is the threat of Smith that opens up the middle to Marshall and the run game.

Brax has shown the ability to score as a scrambling QB, but I'm not sure that correlates to being a wide out that forces defenses to play deeper.

I'm sure it creates problems of some sort, but I'm not sure it forces the safety's deeper or the corners out of blitzing or coming up fast on runs.
Click to expand...

Contrary to popular belief, Oregon and Alabama didn't give up on defending the run even with Cardale->Devin connections. Both dared Cardale to throw -- and he proved he could.
I think Oregon gives a good example of why I'm not too worried about having a true deep threat regardless of QB. Their defense couldn't cope with Urban's unbalanced set -- send Jalin in motion threatening jet sweep to the left, threat of screen to the left due to unbalanced formation, and then run Eze on a counter to the right. How do you defend all 3 of those? The read is made presnap by the QB counting numbers (proving Cardale can run Urbans offense w/o the read-option)
JT has the added ability to run read-options after the snap that puts even more pressure on a defense in several directions.
The other reason is that arm strength going deep is over-rated imo... it's good (but it's still a 50/50 gamble). As others have pointed out where arm strength really shines is in the intermediate passing game. Zipping balls into tight spaces and before the defense can react. Additionally, being able to throw sideline to sideline opens up the entire field. We saw that a lot with Cardale -- but for whatever reason it hasn't been focused on.
 
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kujirakira said:
Wisconsin 39 44 42
Alabama 40 47
Oregon 45

With JT: avg 1 per game
With Cardale: avg 2 per game

Devin was always an important part of the gameplan, but he definitely played a bigger role with Cardale.
Click to expand...

To me that's too small of a sample size to be using per-game stats as a basis for comparison.

If we insist on it though, it's worth noting that Barrett played all of his games outdoors while Jones played all of his indoors.

I don't know what any of this has to do with Braxton Miller though.
 
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jlb1705 said:
To me that's too small of a sample size to be using per-game stats as a basis for comparison.

If we insist on it though, it's worth noting that Barrett played all of his games outdoors while Jones played all of his indoors.

I don't know what any of this has to do with Braxton Miller though.
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Having a deep threat opens things open for others on the team, Braxton included.
 
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BigJim said:
Having a deep threat opens things open for others on the team, Braxton included.
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OK, but that's hardly the direction the discussion was heading in.

Let's talk about that though. Or more specifically, instead of talking about whether or not somebody will open things up for him, let's talk about whether or not he can be that guy. Theoretically, he could get open. He'll be a better athlete than any defender that lines up against him. He should be able to put on a killer double move. People seem to think he's better for his lateral quickness than his straight-line speed, but he's still probably one of the top 3-5 fastest sprinters on the team. He has the size to get physical and position himself for jump balls. I have no doubt that Meyer and Warinner are going to move him around and get him matched up on NBs, LBs and safeties that he should be able to torch.

Why isn't anybody talking about him as a possible deep threat? Is it just because he hasn't shown what he has as a receiver in a game? If that's it, the same is really true for everybody not named Michael Thomas or Jalin Marshall.
 
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Oh boy. Thanks for the pictures, @jwinslow
CMYIEGmUwAAl8qp.jpg

CMYIELjUAAAQHGz.jpg

CMYIEK8UwAAhI3l.jpg
 
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kujirakira said:
Wisconsin 39 44 42
Alabama 40 47
Oregon 45

With JT: avg 1 per game
With Cardale: avg 2 per game

Devin was always an important part of the gameplan, but he definitely played a bigger role with Cardale.
Click to expand...
I was keying on where pnuts said "Barrett hardly used Smith as a deep threat in the same way", key word "hardly". Smith was used as a deep threat all year, it just got exacerbated in the Wisconsin game.
 
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Anyone who can run like Braxton is a "deep threat" just based on that. He is strong enough to take contact and get position, and a great enough athlete to control his body and leap. In the video I've seen, he appears to snatch the ball out of the air naturally. So, all of the elements are there. He just needs to do it. But I think Dixon or someone will also give us something similar to what Smith gave us to enjoy. It's going to be fun to see who steps up to provide that threat. With this team, it could be 3 or 4 guys.

But Braxton at the H give defenses another big thing they must account for in addition to: Elliott, Barrett run/pass and/or Jones run/pass, TE, WR's. Too many threats to account for. VT and others will probably focus on RB, H, and QB run and take their chances with the passing game. If the Bucks can run any way, they will be able to do anything they want on offense - and that will be a ton of fun to see.
 
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Dryden said:
Yeah. With Braxton's skill set you don't need to over complicate things and add a bunch of window dressing. Give him a full head of steam parallel to the LOS and catch the push pass on the fly sweep. Braxton on that play is going to do ridiculous things to the QBs yard per pass average.
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Fake it to braxton on the jet sweep coming from the weak side and then hand off to zeke running the inside counter pulling a tackle.... I think I just got too excited.
 
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jlb1705 said:
Why isn't anybody talking about him as a possible deep threat? Is it just because he hasn't shown what he has as a receiver in a game? If that's it, the same is really true for everybody not named Michael Thomas or Jalin Marshall.
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Isn't that exactly what we're talking about?
Only I think it's not necessary - for Cardale or JT - to have a Devin Smith 2.0. It helps.
But the run/screen gameplan is to stretch the field horizontally, divide the defense into smaller units, obtain a local superiority in 1 of those, and get the ball to a playmaker there. It seems everyone agrees JT can do that. Cardale has proved he can do that as well.
And obviously Braxton will be a big piece of the puzzle as one of those playmakers.
 
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