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Monday, July 31, 2006
Need for better receivers is critical
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Flowery Branch — It says something about the Falcons that Brian Finneran became, over the past four seasons, their best wide receiver. Finneran is a good player and a fine fellow to be sure, but on how many of the NFL’s 31 other teams would he have been the go-to guy on third-and-8?
It says something about recent Falcons history that Finneran’s knee injury is being treated as a Major Blow. As Jim Mora said Monday, “It’s hard to underestimate what Finn did for us. A lot of his catches were significant catches, and now somebody [else] has to make those catches.”
And that’s the greater point. For the Falcons ever to throw the ball half as well as they run it, they must develop better receivers than Brian Finneran. This franchise has devoted a disproportionate allotment of resources — trading for Peerless Price, signing Dez White, burning first-round picks on Michael Jenkins and Roddy White in consecutive seasons — to upgrading the position, and to date the Falcons haven’t been able to improve on an undrafted free agent from Villanova.
That may have been about to change anyway, but with Finneran’s loss it has to change now. This was already being targeted as the season of arrival for Jenkins and Roddy White, but we’ve been expecting a No. 1 receiver to emerge since Michael Vick was a rookie, and nobody has. Price was a dud. Dez White left no imprint. Jenkins and Roddy White weren’t ready. As a result, every third-and-8 became the same old song: Look first to Alge Crumpler, and then throw it high for Finn.
“It’s going to be hard to replace [Finneran],” Vick said. “You just don’t find good receivers, natural receivers, possession receivers.”
The Falcons haven’t so far, but hopes remain high for Jenkins and Roddy White. Much has been made of their heightened rapport with Vick, who had clearly come to prefer Finneran among the wideouts he worked with professionally. “We’ve been working hard in the offseason,” Jenkins said. “With Finn being out, it gives us a chance to pick it up even more.”
More than an opportunity, bigger seasons from the two No. 1s have been rendered mandatory. Said Mora: “It has to accelerate things. … It puts the onus on younger guys to step up. It’s a lot more definitive that they have to make an immediate impact.”
It’s hard to know where the blame for the Falcons’ continuing inability to throw the ball downfield rests. On Greg Knapp for trying to plug Vick into an ill-suited scheme? On Vick for being inaccurate? On the receivers for their inability to get open? Whatever the cause, the effect has been apparent: The Falcons could run but they couldn’t throw. They had the NFL’s sixth-worst passing offense last season, and their most productive wideout — Finneran, who had 50 receptions — didn’t crack the league’s top 30 in catches.
A team with two first-round picks at one position shouldn’t be so limited. As Jenkins said, “People want to see first-round picks perform and perform well.” And Rich McKay, who oversaw the selection of both Jenkins and Roddy White, is considered a shrewd judge of personnel. Neither player has yet justified his lofty draft status. One or both has to make a great leap forward this fall.
“We’ve had time in the system, with the same quarterback,” Jenkins said. “There shouldn’t be any excuses.”
There can’t be. So long as Finneran was on the active roster, he gave the Falcons a safety net. No matter how underwhelming the latest imports might be, he’d make more than his share of plays and thereby lend the receiving corps a semblance of professionalism. He won’t work again until 2007, and in his absence somebody has to provide the catches Finneran would supply and the ones — the speed plays — he wasn’t capable of making.
Somebody has to act older and play bigger, maybe two or three somebodies. That safety net just got ripped away.
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