Michael Jenkins finally emerging for Falcons

[jjflr]

Jenkins plays it pretty straight, especially for an NFL wide receiver — no muss or fuss. At times that means he can blend into his surroundings a little, including the shadow of emerging star receiver Roddy White.

But time after time this season Jenkins has stepped out into the spotlight with big plays – from Matt Ryan’s first pass as an NFL quarterback, which Jenkins turned into a 62-yard touchdown against Detroit, to his last-second catch to set up the game-winning field goal against Chicago.

Michael Jenkins finally emerging for Falcons | ajc.com

[Youngstown Colt]

You know, Jenkins was that guy that I was absolutely sure would be a very productive pro player. It was a shame he was wasted in the Vick years, but now with a good QB, he and Roddy White are showing what they actually can do.

[O Doyle]

Originally Posted by Youngstown Colt

You know, Jenkins was that guy that I was absolutely sure would be a very productive pro player. It was a shame he was wasted in the Vick years, but now with a good QB, he and Roddy White are showing what they actually can do.

Wasted in the Vick years? Did you watch Michael Jenkins play during those years? He was aweful, much like Roddy White was. He dropped tons of passes, ran poor routes and gave inconsistent effort.

Vick got a bad rap passing in Atlanta. He wasn't great but he was never as bad as people made him out to be, especially the last couple years of his tenure. Guys like Jenkins and White who struggled mightily early in their career did ALOT to make Vick look bad. I can't tell you how many Vick games I watched where he was dead on with all of his passes, making great decisions, hitting the right receivers in position to make plays, and putting the ball in just the right spot only to have his receivers drop 7 or 8 easy catches that day and turn what should have been a monster production day into a total yawner. Then there were games when it seemed like White and Jenkins came with no motivation and forgot how to run routes and couldn't gain an inch of separation on their defenders. Vick would be forced to throw into coverage and he'd end up with a low completion percentage.

Good receivers get their numbers regardless of how good the QB play is. Thats been proven time and time again. Vick didn't hold Jenkins back, his own terrible play held him back. Now maybe Vick wasn't the type of personality who inspired the players around him to play better for him, but thats still no excuse for the terrible play and lack of professionalism that Jenkins and White regularly showed on the field during Vicks time there.

OH, and BTW, what was Jenkins' excuse for sucking last year? Vick was gone, and while Roddy WHite was having a breakout season opposite him Jenkins posted another crappy season. Need I also mention that Jenkins isn't exactly having a good season this year either? He's on pace for only 36 catches for 664 yards and 6 TD's. That would equal the 2nd lowest reception total of his career and be the most yards and 2nd most TD's he's ever had in a season. Thats not exactly a "breakout year." Considering this is his 2nd season without Vick, I think we can shatter that "Vick held him back" excuse. Fact is he just isn't a good receiver and if you overrated him coming out of school thats not Vicks fault either.

-O Doyle Rules!

[Texecutioner]

Originally Posted by O Doyle

Wasted in the Vick years? Did you watch Michael Jenkins play during those years? He was aweful, much like Roddy White was. He dropped tons of passes, ran poor routes and gave inconsistent effort.

Vick got a bad rap passing in Atlanta. He wasn't great but he was never as bad as people made him out to be, especially the last couple years of his tenure. Guys like Jenkins and White who struggled mightily early in their career did ALOT to make Vick look bad. I can't tell you how many Vick games I watched where he was dead on with all of his passes, making great decisions, hitting the right receivers in position to make plays, and putting the ball in just the right spot only to have his receivers drop 7 or 8 easy catches that day and turn what should have been a monster production day into a total yawner. Then there were games when it seemed like White and Jenkins came with no motivation and forgot how to run routes and couldn't gain an inch of separation on their defenders. Vick would be forced to throw into coverage and he'd end up with a low completion percentage.

Good receivers get their numbers regardless of how good the QB play is. Thats been proven time and time again. Vick didn't hold Jenkins back, his own terrible play held him back. Now maybe Vick wasn't the type of personality who inspired the players around him to play better for him, but thats still no excuse for the terrible play and lack of professionalism that Jenkins and White regularly showed on the field during Vicks time there.

OH, and BTW, what was Jenkins' excuse for sucking last year? Vick was gone, and while Roddy WHite was having a breakout season opposite him Jenkins posted another crappy season. Need I also mention that Jenkins isn't exactly having a good season this year either? He's on pace for only 36 catches for 664 yards and 6 TD's. That would equal the 2nd lowest reception total of his career and be the most yards and 2nd most TD's he's ever had in a season. Thats not exactly a "breakout year." Considering this is his 2nd season without Vick, I think we can shatter that "Vick held him back" excuse. Fact is he just isn't a good receiver and if you overrated him coming out of school thats not Vicks fault either.

-O Doyle Rules!

Interesting comments here. I agree with some, but then some I disagree Phil.

First off, you're totally right about Jenkins not emerging at all or that he is having any kind of emerging season. He has been awful before this year and and he hasn't been much different. So he has a two TD game with only like 60 something yards and he is emerging? Lol! Please, he benefited from double coverages on Roddy White in that game since White has been the only offensive threat at WR this year for that team. Jenkins hasn't proven anything yet.

Now as far as the Vick thing. I agree that there were games that Jenkins, White, and a few others did drop a lot of passes that were dead on, but Vick did seem to regress year after year in his decision making. He would hold on to the ball to long in many cases and wouldn't know where to go or where to run a lot. Vick's ego got so bad that he thought he didn't need to improve and work on all aspects of his game. He even said it himself in post game conferences when he made comments like how he didn't even want to hear the media or the fans ever criticize him again because he had finally had a 50% completion % or something like that. He began to get very thin skinned when it came to criticisms about his passing and decision making and I believe that was a big reason why he regressed as an over all QB. Just my opinion.

Think back on his first 3 years though. He was so precise with his decision making at knowing when to get rid of the ball and picking running lanes to take off. The guy was great! I remember watching several games of his where I couldn't believe the extra time he would make for him self to find a WR open. He wasn't making near as many of those plays in his last two seasons. You're right that his WR's were playing worse as well and not doing him many favors but a lot of it was on Vick and his failures to work on all aspects of his game. He didn't become a more accurate passer as he got older and decision making seemed to just get worse along with his attitude.

[O Doyle]

I won't argue about any criticism of Vicks demeanor, personality, lack of leadership, or poor media management. The guy was terrible in just about all of those areas, but he wasn't exactly setup for sucess either.

The media treated Vick poorly, especially in post game press conferences. They constantly questioned his accuracy as a passer based on nothing more than low completion percentage statlines and completely ignoring the fact that his receivers consistently led the league in dropped passes. Now, in the case of alot of QB's the drops thing usually isn't such a big deal. Vicks case is different though and letme tell you why.......

Unlike your prototypical franchise QB, Vick only averaged 23 passing attempts per game during his career. Mcnabb averages 31. Peyton Manning averages 35. Tom Brady averages 33. Matt Hasselbeck averages 34. Jake Delhomme averages 34. Marc Bulger averages 37. I could go on, but I think you get the point, Vick averaged far fewer passes than your typical QB per game.

People absolutely ROASTED Michael Vick in the media and in the press for having such a low completion percentage. When you are only throwing the ball 23 times per game and your team is leading the league in dropped passes, there is a problem. Every QB has bad throws. Peyton Manning, playing with some of the best receivers to ever play the game only has a career completion percentage of 64%. His receivers drop passes, but not very many. But when you average 34 passes per game on offense it doesn't hurt you as badly if your receivers drop a few of those passes as it does if you only average 23 passes per game. Peytons still failing to complete over 1/3rd of his passes, which is obviously really good for a QB.

I can't count how many games of Vicks I saw where there were 7 or more dropped passes. Keep in mind that a pass doesn't count as a drop unless the receiver could touch it with a reasonable chance to catch it. I know they averaged no fewer than 4 per game, we'll call it 5. Thats over 20% of Vicks good passes that were being dropped by his receivers on average. Add in the 30-40% that most QB's miss anyway and its not hard to see why Vicks completion percentages consistently were so low. Now would be a good time to mention that, just so you know, Vick held a career 53.8% completion percentage. When his receivers WEREN'T dropping passes, Vick actually completed a high percentage of his passes.

Now if you're Peyton and your receivers drop 5 passes (which his receivers obviously dont), that only acccounts for 14% of his attempts. So if Peytons receivers have a bad day and drop 14% of his passes, and then Peyton misses 33% of his passes on top of that, thats only 47%. He'd still throw for 53% passing that day. Of course we know this is a moot point though since Peytons receivers don't drop that many passes. For Vick though, if his guys go out there and drop 5 passes, for him that number is 21%. Add in the other 33% a QB is going to miss on his own and you get 54% meaning Vick would complete only 46% of his passes or LESS!!!!!!

Like I said, he got a bad rap there for things that weren't necessarily in his control. There were plenty of things he did poorly, but being an accurate thrower wasn't one of them and its the most common thing that people latch onto.

-O Doyle Rules!

[Youngstown Colt]

Why did you quote "breakout year" like I said it? I said he's showing what he can do. This is probably a better suited offense for him than he's played in so far.

[O Doyle]

Originally Posted by Youngstown Colt

Why did you quote "breakout year" like I said it? I said he's showing what he can do. This is probably a better suited offense for him than he's played in so far.

Why does it have to have anything to do with you?

It was more a reference to the deceiving thread title which leads people to believe that Jenkins is actually doing anything special this year. The only emerging that he's doing this year is emerging as a 1st round bust. 5 full years and not even a sniff of a 1000 yard season is enough to declare anybody a bust.

-O Doyle Rules!

[Youngstown Colt]

Originally Posted by O Doyle

Why does it have to have anything to do with you?

-O Doyle Rules!

Starting off by directly referencing what someone said then going off on a tangent might seem to people that you're still referencing them.

And no, emerging doesn't mean someone is having a breakout year, it just means they're emerging.