Stephon Heyer
by Draco on Jan 25, 2010 6:46 PM EST
25 comments
I am sure that I am the only one who thinks so but I believe that a guy who has been a starter for 2 years for us on both sides is an extremely valuable guy. He had his struggles this year but he also played with 4 different guards on the right side and at spent some time on the left side for a few games. I think with the zone scheme we are implementing stephon will be a valued member of our line. As bad as our season was I think that we should not give up on young players like Stephon and Will Montgomery who showed promise and at least have experience in the NFL as opposed to having to rely on a rookie like an Anthony Davis or Russel Okung to come in and have a Michael Oher type of season. Anybody else agree?
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I think Heyer....
has value. I know a lot of people get down on him…..and most of the time deservedly so…..but I don’t think it would be bad to keep him around just in case. I would expect, as long as the price is right and Shannahan thinks he can fit his blocking schemes, Heyer will be back. He is a serviceable back-up with starting experience. It will be hard this offseason to build a complete line….with the uncapped year taking many FAs out of the picture without significant compensation in the form of draft picks. I am not sure….but don’t remember the Broncos and Shannahan mortgaging many picks to build his lines. I am just going to put my hopes, prayers, and trust into Shanny’s ability to build quality lines with relative nobodies.
agreed
I dont want to see him starting.
by JeanBaptiste on Jan 26, 2010 3:34 AM EST up reply actions
I guess
He’s not worthless. He’s probably one of the 50 or 60 best tackles in the NFL. He’s young, so he’s probably in the top 30 value-wise. He should not be cut. There’s like, what, a 50-50 chance or so that a top-3 tackle prospect doesn’t come in and out-perform him right away.
One of the 50 or 60 best tackles in the NFL?
There are about 64 starting offensive tackles in the NFL. Some teams are transitioning younger players by giving them some playing time. These players are generally better than Heyer. Free from Dallas and Beatty from the Giants come to mind. There are others that finally made good starters this year like Justice for the Eagles. On the other hand the guy the Redskins cut played for the Cardinals after Gandy got injured and some of their fans thought he outplayed Gandy. Yet I suspect that many of the 32 teams have backup players better than Heyer.
by Jefferson1935 on Jan 25, 2010 10:19 PM EST up reply actions
ok, I'll bite. Where would you guess he stands?
32 teams, each one employing 4-5 tackles, so about 150 in all.
Heyer wasn’t the absolute worst tackle in the league to get a starting job. That honor probably goes to Jonathan Scott of the Bills, or maybe Brandon Albert of the Chiefs. I suppose it’s charitable to say top 50-60, though. A better guess of where he ranks might be around 70?
I’m just trying to put into perspective that a top prospect has a good chance of performing better out of the box. Heyer is barely a replacement-level player, to use baseball jargon. There are more than a few “bust” 1st-rounders who are still performing better than heyer, albeit at huge costs.
by sofutomygaha on Jan 26, 2010 12:17 AM EST up reply actions
You are not the only one using baseball jargon.
It is not as easy to quantify linemen’s performances as it is some other positions. Sacks allowed and penalties are a few things quantified for individuals. Football Outsiders has divided line performance to different points on the line which somewhat points to players in those positions for rushing information. Heyer did not do well as a left tackle when it came to sacks, but he did do better at right tackle in the 2nd part of the 2009 season. Neither you or I is in much of a position to appraise the offensive tackles in the NFL. That would be a full time job. Rich Tandler while probably not as much of an expert as a coach or scout gives his opinion and I’m agreeing with him. I doubt that Heyer would get much action if he was in the free agent market.
The talent imbalance – http://realredskins.com/2009/10/the-talent-imbalance/ – Oct 15th, 2009 by Rich Tandler.
“Here is how I broke down the Redskins talent level yesterday, looking at the 22 starters, special teams performers, and key role players:
Above replacement: (12) Samuels, Moss, Cooley, Portis, Sellers, Haynesworth, Orakpo, Fletcher, Landry, Hall, Rogers, Smith
Replacement: (11) Dockery, Rabach, Golston, Griffin, Carter, Tryon, Suisham, Horton, McIntosh, Daniels, Doughty
Below replacement: (9) Rinehart, Heyer, M. Williams, Kelly, Randle El (WR), Campbell, Cartwright (KR), Randle El (PR), Betts”
Yet J. Bridges who was cut by the Skins played significant time with the Cardinals (G 16 GS 4). If the opinions were mutual on the part of the Skins and Tandler, Bridges would have been below replacement. So there is no proof one way or another.
by Jefferson1935 on Jan 26, 2010 11:12 AM EST up reply actions
hehe
profootballfocus.com rates him 71st based on this year’s performance!
by sofutomygaha on Jan 26, 2010 10:39 PM EST up reply actions
Heyer
I can’t see him as any more than a third stringer, kept only because he can backup (maybe just barely adequately) both tackle slots. But man, we ought to be able to do better!! Heyer only played because Joe Bugel loved him, right from the start – his “local boy” project. In fact, he’ll be a test case – if he stays, the line is still weak.
He can be a servicable backup in time of need.
He can play both right and left tackle, and is still young. He needs to remain on the team for depth. He looks much better with solid starters around him. When he is the best of the worst, it makes him look pretty below average, but if he is inserted into a veteran o-line, he doesn’t stand out at being all that bad.
I believe the biggest criticism of Heyer is his slow feet
Doesn’t sound like a good quality to have in the zone blocking scheme, but I’m sure he’ll at least be on the roster because we don’t have many alternatives.
That was my first thought
reading this post. Heyer was acceptable in run blocking but not pass protection in our system. The obvious reason? His feet just weren’t fast enough for him to get in his pass set. If his feet really are as slow as they seem to be, then he probably lacks lateral quickness and would have no value in a zone blocking scheme.
Well
I can see a variance of responses and that was the point. i still believe Heyer will be a valuable asset to our O with the new scheme. Also I think we should give Ganther a chance
I'm suddenly more interested in Casey Rabach, actually
… it’s become conventional wisdom to say that Rabach is the one solid piece on our line. I imagine this as being true because he is a holdover from a day when we had some adequate protection and a pretty darn good running game.
If the center is the quarterback of the offensive line, though, what the heck was he doing this year? Was he helping the rooks? Was he reading and calling out blitzes?
Heyer
Back when he was battling Jon Jansen for the starting RT job, Jon was considered better at run blocking, Stephon at pass blocking. That also suggests he won’t be great at zone blocking. And if he’s not acceptable at pass blocking – what’s left?
Are you nuts?
A breakdown of Heyer’s season shows he was slowed by injury late in the season. I’ll give him a pass for his production after the bye.
Before the bye he looked terrible. He was consistently beaten off the corner in passing plays and had little to no push during rushing plays. They consistently ran to the left. Bugel said that he had bulked up in the off-season. If so, it didn’t translate into a better performance on the field. Heyer is a good fill-in/backup player. He is not starter material.
Least we forget, he was undrafted. So what? To say he was an adequate replacement or an upgrade from Jansen is a joke. They should never have cut Bridges; he would have done better then Heyer.
We have to think that Bugel knew what he was doing.
I trust Bugel, it seems like he knows his stuff.
At this point
we need to remember that having 97 different starting configurations is going to make everyone look bad. We had an ungelled O-unit last year to say the least. I’d say, bring ‘em all back with a slew of rookies and an FA or two and let the Shanny’s make the call. Every one of our O-linemen could have looked like matadors dancin’ the hula on any given play last year.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Scott, joe bugel was a yes man. It is no way possible that if he is a great O-line coach that he should not have been able to see the writing on the wall.
I blame Bugel because like I posted before you can not tell me He should not have been Like EF Hutton " when he spoke people should have listened. So either he did not voice his opinion about our line situation or he is senial and did not know we had a situation.
by LETJASONPASS on Jan 27, 2010 1:50 PM EST up reply actions
Bridges
Yes – cutting Jeremy Bridges – their only experienced backup – was a huge mistake. I wonder if it was Joe B or Jim Z who did it. I know that almost all the fans were stunned. Joe Bugel played favorites with disastrous results.
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