Thread: Eddie Royal having a second-year slump for Broncos

Analysis:
By Jeff Legwold
The Denver Post

Posted: 12/15/2009 01:00:00 AM MST


Eddie Royal (Denver Post file photo)A lot of fans have filled cyberspace and the airwaves with "where's Peyton Hillis?" questions, but during the past few weeks, a lot of football people throughout the league have tossed up this question:

What has happened to Eddie Royal?

Last season, Royal finished with 91 catches for 980 yards. Those 91 catches were the second-highest total posted by a rookie in NFL history.

Yet, with three games remaining in the regular season, Royal has 34 catches for 317 yards, a pedestrian 9.3 yards-per catch average and no receiving touchdowns.

The only times Royal has scored this year were on a punt return and a kickoff return in the Broncos' Oct. 19 win over the Chargers in San Diego.

That certainly wasn't expected from a quality route runner who was thought to suit Josh McDaniel's catch-and-run passing offense very well before the season began. Royal has nine games this season in which he has caught two or fewer passes and has had seven games, by my own unofficial review, when the ball has been thrown his way four or fewer times.

Pro personnel executives who have studied the Broncos personnel have a couple of theories. The first is that Royal is getting more attention from opposing defenses. So, instead of giving him some space to work, they are closing the distance and not letting him work free coming out of his breaks.

The other theory is that being a full-time returner, taking punts and kickoffs, and also a full-time receiver is a difficult job in today's NFL as players continue to get bigger and faster in the open field. And with the salary cap restrictions continuing to siphon players off special-teams units each season, there isn't much continuity in the blocking schemes, and returners may be taking more big hits.

The theory is that even the Bears' Devin Hester, who was the most dominant special-teams player in the league before Chicago made him a full-time receiver, has had a difficult time with the two jobs. And the numbers show that.

Hester has had at least 50 receptions in each of the last two seasons, but did not return a punt or a kickoff for a touchdown in 2008 and has not so far this season, either.

In 2006, when he had no receptions and was not a consideration on offense, he had three punt returns for touchdowns and two kickoff returns for scores. In 2007, when the Bears used him sparingly on offense and he finished with 20 catches, he had four punt returns for scores and two kickoff returns for touchdowns.

Seems all the punishment a returner takes, especially on kickoffs, with defenders coming full-tilt and with plenty of field to gather momentum, may impact how they do one job or the other if they are asked to do both.

A couple of personnel executives from other teams have also speculated that Royal doesn't appear "100 percent" to them, but he has said he's fine and has not been listed recently on the Broncos' injury report.

Royal is currently 17th in the league in kickoff returns at 23.9 per return and is one of just 12 players to have scored on a kickoff return this year, while being seventh in punt returns at 11.1 and one of six players who have scored on a punt return.

But of the 42 players in the league who have at least 50 receptions right now, none is a team's primary punt and kickoff returner. The Vikings' Percy Harvin, a rookie, is the closest with 34 of the Vikings' 44 kickoff returns this season — he has two touchdowns — to go with 48 receptions.

But Harvin, who does not return punts, has also missed time with migraine headaches this season.

Not sure there is any definitive answer on Royal in all of that, but it's certainly worth consideration.

Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com


http://www.denverpost.com/premium/broncos/ci_13996031

Orton never throws to him. Ever.

This is what really bugs me about Orton, he goes to marshall to much. If he glances and our guys isnt wide open he will stare down brandon until brandon opens up.


Orton needs to just progress through his reads and hit the open man. I know a lot of our stuff is based off timing, but serioulsy, man give him some passes.

Also- more on coach than anything, if you see a 1 on 1 take it, go deep. I like our WR (marshall, royal,gaffney) against any DB 1 on 1. We have so much serious talent on Offense, there is no reason we should not be lighting it up every week.




Look at the saints, colston/henderson/meachum/moore
Look at us- marshall/royal/gaffney/stokes

Our guys are a lot lot better imo- yet we are nothing and they are dominating! It comes down to QB, but brees, hits the open man, he scans hits the open man, and also throws in anticipation that the wr will be free.

Obviously, I'm not a coach, but if I have only one question of the present
coaching regime, it is about the usage of the personnel, from putting Hillis (a
true RB, IMO) at FB and not using him in short yardage and red zone, to not
putting Barrett on TEs (such as Clark), to running Royal on STs.

I don't pretend to know more than the coaches, but I can't help thinking those
thoughts . . .

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Originally Posted by underrated29

Orton never throws to him. Ever.

This is what really bugs me about Orton, he goes to marshall to much. If he glances and our guys isnt wide open he will stare down brandon until brandon opens up.


Orton needs to just progress through his reads and hit the open man. I know a lot of our stuff is based off timing, but serioulsy, man give him some passes.

Also- more on coach than anything, if you see a 1 on 1 take it, go deep. I like our WR (marshall, royal,gaffney) against any DB 1 on 1. We have so much serious talent on Offense, there is no reason we should not be lighting it up every week.




Look at the saints, colston/henderson/meachum/moore
Look at us- marshall/royal/gaffney/stokes

Our guys are a lot lot better imo- yet we are nothing and they are dominating! It comes down to QB, but brees, hits the open man, he scans hits the open man, and also throws in anticipation that the wr will be free.

I'm not going to place that on Orton. Royal himself said it's like an open
basketball player who has the hot hand: you keep feeding him (in this case,
Marshall) until the defense can stop him. It would have been silly, in the Indy
game, to stop throwing to Marshall, or even slow it down.

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oh no doubt, go with the hot hand always.


But i am not talking about the indy game. I am talking about all games in general. I dont know how many targets eddie has, but it has to be as low as danny grahams. Maybe even lower.

Unfortunately Orton, looks for Brandon more than he should imo. I am a results person, if brandon is open on every play and eats the defense alive, then screw royal and everyone else. However, we have really only seen that a couple times this year.


We have way to much firepower on Offense to just be shooting out sparks. Eddie needs more balls. Not force fed, but give him a chance, let him fight for some balls. Get him in the game early and see if he can go off is all i am saying.

Originally Posted by topscribe

Obviously, I'm not a coach, but if I have only one question of the present
coaching regime, it is about the usage of the personnel, from putting Hillis (a
true RB, IMO) at FB and not using him in short yardage and red zone, to not
putting Barrett on TEs (such as Clark), to running Royal on STs.

I don't pretend to know more than the coaches, but I can't help thinking those
thoughts . . .

-----

Did you listen to McD's press conference yesterday? Larsen got injured very early in the game and Hillis was the only player left on the roster who could play FB. McD wasn't going to risk losing his other FB when he was content giving Moreno and Buck all the carries at RB.

He did say, though, if Buck can't go next week Hillis will likely see extended time at RB. (Once again, probably assuming that Larsen can play too.)

He also said that the way we blocked on short yardage Sunday, they could have put Franco Harris back there and he wouldn't have gotten a first down. Hillis probably wouldn't have converted on any of those short yardage situations that Moreno didn't convert.

Originally Posted by BaileyTheBest

Did you listen to McD's press conference yesterday? Larsen got injured very early in the game and Hillis was the only player left on the roster who could play FB. McD wasn't going to risk losing his other FB when he was content giving Moreno and Buck all the carries at RB.

He did say, though, if Buck can't go next week Hillis will likely see extended time at RB. (Once again, probably assuming that Larsen can play too.)

He also said that the way we blocked on short yardage Sunday, they could have put Franco Harris back there and he wouldn't have gotten a first down. Hillis probably wouldn't have converted on any of those short yardage situations that Moreno didn't convert.

I listened to every word of it. I wrote that post after listening to it.

So, obviously, I stand by what I wrote . . .

-----

Speaking of MIA where the hell has Stokley been? Did he hit an age wall or something?

Originally Posted by topscribe

I listened to every word of it. I wrote that post after listening to it.

So, obviously, I stand by what I wrote . . .

-----

So basically you're saying Hillis is superman and could have overcome 2-3 defenders in his face the second he touched the ball unlike Moreno? Gotcha!

Originally Posted by underrated29

oh no doubt, go with the hot hand always.


But i am not talking about the indy game. I am talking about all games in general. I dont know how many targets eddie has, but it has to be as low as danny grahams. Maybe even lower.

Unfortunately Orton, looks for Brandon more than he should imo. I am a results person, if brandon is open on every play and eats the defense alive, then screw royal and everyone else. However, we have really only seen that a couple times this year.


We have way to much firepower on Offense to just be shooting out sparks. Eddie needs more balls. Not force fed, but give him a chance, let him fight for some balls. Get him in the game early and see if he can go off is all i am saying.

I agree... also, we never seem to run plays for Royal... a lot of the WR bubbles go to Marshall... if you have a guy like Royal so damn dangerous with the ball in his hands you'd think you'd run more WR screens and reverses to him like New England does... I think Orton just isn't accurate enough and is more confident throwing to a guy like Marshall where he doesn't have to throw a perfect pass.

Look at that 3rd down play to Royal... Orton was WAY inside on the throw and missed an open Royal... however, Marshall is so big that he actually would probably have made that difficult catch.

Originally Posted by JDL

I agree... also, we never seem to run plays for Royal... a lot of the WR bubbles go to Marshall... if you have a guy like Royal so damn dangerous with the ball in his hands you'd think you'd run more WR screens and reverses to him like New England does... I think Orton just isn't accurate enough and is more confident throwing to a guy like Marshall where he doesn't have to throw a perfect pass.

Look at that 3rd down play to Royal... Orton was WAY inside on the throw and missed an open Royal... however, Marshall is so big that he actually would probably have made that difficult catch.

That is really interesting because, in his interview with 104.3 The Fan, Marshall
was asked what he attributed most to his 21 catches. He nearly interrupted the
interviewer with his answer: "Kyle Orton," he responded. Marshall went on to say
that he was amazed at Kyle's placement of the ball, where he, and only he,
could get it.

It seems the guy directly on the other end of Orton's passes disagrees with you . . .

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Royal's lack of production has been puzzling. He had a decent preseason (4 catches in each of the first 2 preseason games and 5 catches in the 3rd) which indicated to me he'd be a big part of the offense. This article hits on a few things I agree with:

Royal's invoivement in the return game has hurt him as a receiver. If you ever get a chance to watch the 2008 Bronco highlight film there is a segment with McDaniels at the spring workouts telling Eddie that he's going to get a lot more work on returns this year (2009).

Royal may not be totally healthy as the article hints at - something doesn't seem quite right with him. And I think once he started struggling he started pressing - he seems to be showing frustration more on the field this year (over non-interference calls)

I said to a friend the player that misses Jay Cutler most is Eddie Royal. Royal isn't a big target and he hooked up on some long plays with Cutler last year that were just great throws (the Jets td was one). While I have liked Orton's performance overall, he just doesn't have the arm to connect with the smaller Royal downfield as much as Jay.

In an interview today, Shannon Sharpe said he is absolutely shocked at Royal's
season so far this year. He said he didn't know whether or not the Broncos are
using Royal right, but he said Royal can do everything Wes Welker can do.

Shannon did express that he wasn't necessarily talking about yesterday's game.
He said that, as long as Marshall had the hot hand, he should have gotten the
ball. But he said he believed a team can do better by spreading the ball around.

Sharpe also had kind words for Tony Scheffler as a player.

Regarding Marshall, Sharpe said Marshall is one of the top five receivers in
football today. He then went on to imply that Marshall is one of the top three,
saying that, if Marshall, Fitzgerald, and Andre Johnson were put into a bag, and
he would be stuck with whichever one fell out, he would be happy with any one
of them.

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I'll say it first...

we need a real offensive coordinator.

75 targets for Royal and only 35 catches. No drops for Eddie though. Read between the lines peepz.