I agree on both points (concerns about skinny and tough beats strong). In my 20's I was 6'5" 220# and pretty damn strong, but I learned to stay out of bar fights with tough little guys looking to prove how tough they were by beating up a big galoof. Saved me a lot of facial cuts and sore ribs. Now in my 70's and 250+ pounds, I get my ass whipped by 90# senior ladies in my Wednesday senior aerobics class at my gym. I suck wind and they just keep on jumping around like it's nothing.
WIthout looking it up, isn't Tyquan about the same size as Jameson Williams?
Okay I looked it up
Jameson Williams 6'2'' 179#
Tyquan Thornton 6'2" 181#
I'm still glad you asked, but I'm going to ramble a bit here.
I would've been a happy camper if the Pats drafted Jameson Williams, but, since they didn't, I'm excited to see what Tyquan can bring to the table.
We've cobbled together some pretty good passing attacks in the Post-Moss era, but that one struck me as a perfectly balanced group where Moss "took the top off" and
everybody else benefited from the space. Of course, Moss was an otherworldly talent, but, while there is more than one way to cause problems the best way is to show
and use a deep threat successfully.
I was listening to Tom Curran the other day whining because he thought we should have drafted a slot guy and not bothered with wide speed. I think that's a backwards
way to look at it. Good slots are one hell of a lot easier to find than a wide burner that can beat the press, get open long and catch. This doesn't mean that Tyquan will
be that guy, but I happen to think he's got a much better tool bag to TRY to fill that role than anybody else we've had since Randy shot his way out of Foxboro 13 seasons
ago. He's got a chance to force the adjustments that will help everybody else in our offense. The windows will be a little wider for Mac and the box will be a little less congested
for TEs and the running game.
This is not some brilliant X and O scheme I've drawn up in my basement war room, but really just a feeling I've had watching teams lean in on us and daring us to beat them deep
and us being completely unable or unwilling to try.
I think we started to see a little panic here and there when Mac started hitting some deeper routes, but the arrows weren't really in the quiver and he was forced to thread
a lot needles in the short/middle, AKA our predictable breadbasket, to keep drives alive. That is one tough way to matriculate your way down the field and we had a lot of
decent drives that didn't end up producing much.
We've seen what Mac can be like with dominant wideouts and while he did not play with Jameson, he did have a great connection with Devonta Smith, who is another guy that
Thornton resembles quite a bit. Smith was an extremely polished and well-rounded WR despite being about the skinniest WR imaginable, yet he seems to
be able to play tackle football successfully without his shins snapping like matchsticks. Go figure.
Tyquan is no Devonta Smith in terms of his overall skill, but he's two inches taller, more than 10 pounds heavier and quite a bit faster than Smith. I like his chances of developing
a similar collaboration with our QB1 and being a big benefit to his career. I feel certain Mac will be able to work well with him early on and their names will start to become
linked together as a new identity for the Patriot offense.
I don't think this can be a fully realized thing in 2022, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see them starting to put it together within the first half of 2022.
Given reasonable health, I don't believe Tyquan will be a rookie redshirt at all. Bill will see how hard he is to cover in Training Camp and give instructions to work out offensive
packages where he can contribute early on. I mean, shit......how many times did N'Keal line up last year with little chance of him being targeted or drawing coverage? If you're
going to use a decoy then you might as well have one that is the fastest player on the field. The kid is going to play right away is my guess.
There is nothing wrong with dreaming a little in the offseason and the one I keep coming back to is Thornton catching a couple of rainbows behind the D and leaving
everybody in the dust on his way into the Gillette endzone a couple of times. And won't that be some fun shit to see? Cue pandemonium and, eventually, the duckboats.