Should Knox Be Getting More Action?......

Bears need to throw more to Knox

Team's most talented receiver has been ignored far too often this season

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/...1/66044478.jpg Johnny Knox hits the ground after a kickoff return against the Eagles in the third quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. (José M. Osorio, Chicago Tribune / November 8, 2011)

Dan Pompei On the NFL 2:32 p.m. CST, November 12, 2011


The Bears offense undoubtedly is progressing.

But it could progress faster if someone would take the Maserati out of the garage.
Johnny Knox is averaging 18.1 yards per catch, seventh best in the NFL. But he has only 20 receptions, which ranks 110th in the NFL.

Isn't there something wrong with this?

Knox is the Bears' most talented receiver and he has been ignored far too often this season.

The year began with Knox losing his starting job for no reason. Halfway into it, he is on pace to have 25 percent fewer receiving yards than he had last season.

Against the Eagles on Monday, he was thrown to one time. For the season, the Bears have thrown him 36 passes, according to STATS. That's 13 fewer than they have thrown to Devin Hester and only one more than they have thrown to rookie free agent Dane Sanzenbacher.

You can't pin this on Knox, either. Scouts and coaches I've spoken with assure me he is running his routes well, creating separation and getting open. He has dropped only 2.8 percent of the passes thrown his way, the lowest percentage of any receiver except Earl Bennett.

Maybe the Bears should give Knox more opportunities to run the types of downfield routes he runs best, and give him fewer of the short routes that favor bigger, more physical receivers. Just taking a few shots deep with Knox every game has value, even if the passes aren't complete.

Certainly, the Bears could get him on the field more. Knox has been sharing snaps with Roy Williams at the split end, or "X" position. He subsequently has taken 84 fewer snaps than Hester, according to profootballfocus.com.

The Bears are going to need Knox to get to where they want to go. And they are going to need him Sunday against the Lions. After Bennett's outstanding performance one week ago, he's going to be drawing a lot of attention from the defense.

As long as Lovie Smith, Mike Martz and Jay Cutler understand this, there is no reason why Knox should not have a big day against the Lions.

Comprehend the trend: Forte as Favre

When Brett Favre was in the middle of his 253-game run as the starter for the Packers, the team used to keep track of how many quarterbacks had started for other teams during his streak.

The Bears used 21 quarterbacks over that 16-year period, from Henry Burris to Peter Tom Willis.

Forte is not likely to get to 297 straight starts, as Favre eventually did after he left the Packers. Nor is he likely to get to 184 straight starts, which is Walter Payton's team record with the Bears.

But so far Forte's availability has been as impressive as his ability. Forte has started every game of his Bears career, 56 straight. No running back in the NFL has as long a streak going.

Among running backs who entered the league over the last 30 seasons, only Eddie George and LaDainian Tomlinson have started more consecutive games from the beginning of their careers. George started 130 straight; Tomlinson 63.

Since Forte's streak began, 210 other players have started an NFL game at either halfback or fullback.

The Packers have started four halfbacks.

The Lions have started four halfbacks.

And even the Vikings of Adrian Peterson have started three.

It's easy to take durability for granted. Sometimes, it's only noticed when it's missing.

Numbers game: Timeout totals

Although 11 teams have used more timeouts than the Bears this season (including timeouts burned on challenges that were upheld), no team has used more timeouts in the first quarter, according to STATS.

The Bears have used seven first-quarter timeouts. Only three other teams have used more than four. Twenty-two percent of the Bears' timeouts have come in the first quarter.

Of the seven first-quarter timeouts, two have been called by the defense.

The Bears also have used five third-quarter timeouts. Only one team, the Dolphins, have used more. They have used six.

Most teams try to save their timeouts for the second and fourth quarters. The Bears rank 17th in fourth-quarter timeouts used with 12, and they rank 31st in second-quarter timeouts used with seven.

Front-office chess: Garza's gold

When the Bears signed Chris Spencer in training camp, some thought it might mean the team would let Roberto Garza walk as a free agent after the 2011 season. Teams often look to replace 32-year-olds.

But the Bears recently approached Garza about a new deal and signed him Monday to a two-year contract extension worth $6.55 million, with $2.6 million guaranteed.

What's interesting is Spencer's presence actually might have worked in Garza's favor, for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is Spencer, who has been a center for most of his career, has settled in nicely at guard. If Spencer had struggled to play guard, it's likely the team would have been looking to move him to center, Garza's position, next season.

The second reason Garza benefited from Spencer is the Bears paid Spencer $3 million per year. The market for veteran centers last year was between $2 million and $2.5 million per year.

The Bears gave Garza an average of $3.275 in part because Spencer was making close to that.

It's a win for the Bears because they were able to reward a good soldier, retain a leader and do the right thing. What's more, they were able to count $2.6 million of Garza's contract against their 2011 salary cap.

dpompei@tribune.com

Twitter @danpompei

Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune
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I don't know where he comes off calling Knox the Bears "most talentred receiver". He's not. Earl Bennett is a far more polished receiver than Knox. Fastest, maybe or best long ball threat, probably but most talented, no. He's been sharing snaps with RWill and Hester has been sharing with no one so that would explain why Hester has played more snaps and gotten more balls thrown to him.

We all knew this would happen Dan. Are you just coming to realize it now?

Now that the pass protection is better I would like to see Cutler go after a big score at least twice a game and between him and Hester I believe he is the better deep ball threat. If that's how he'd gonna be used thought he has to do a better job of going up to fight for the ball and also how to adjust to back shoulder throws. He doesn't do either well.

I would rather see Knox instead of Hester. I'm kinda done with Hester at WR, he does jack shit. Even the deep threat aspect of his game is really just a myth. There is no game to his game. Bring him in sparingly but keep knox / Bennett in as the starters

The only time Hester is effective in the deep passing game is when he is used like a dart board. What do I mean by this? Simple. Think back to the Jets game last year and that deep touchdown pass by Cutler to Hester. Hester essentially was standing in the spot that Cutler wanted to throw to, wide open. As a result, Cutler's "dart" hit the "board."

Whenever you watch Hester go long on a deep route and Cutler passes in his direction, Hester usually drops the ball. In that instance, he's little better than Roy Williams. Hester plays with the hands of a corner back, which is what he originally played. Hester is talented player, but he's just like Josh Cribbs: he gets his notoriety from his fantastic kick return skills. The truth is, Hester has a very limited set of skills that are useful to this team. He isn't even scoring as many touchdowns on kickoffs as he did. Granted, he has two already this season, but I won't be satisfied with his performance until he gets at least a couple of more down the line.

Personally I think one reason that Hester gets some much playing time is the value of his contract. The fact that Angelo keeps lableing as a #1 WR because of what he pay him rather because of his skills has gotten to be a standing joke around here.

Hester isn't a complete failure as a WR but he isn't even close to being a #1. Knox is closer that he is and that's not all that close. Now that Bennett has returned and will most likely start in Hester's place wisdom would dictate that we keep him there, give him the most snaps and move Hester into the slot where the only people who don't see to feel he'd be more effective are the Bears. If Hester is a threat you have to cover when he's playing outside at flanker he'd be a nightmare in the slot where he'd be covered by a #3 CB.

Knox is the only true all out deep threat on the team and he's not gonna get any better if he isn't used more and thrown to more. I'm of the belief that whatever Darryl Drake can't coach into him Jay Cutler can. With Bennett out some of last year with injuries Cutler seemed to develop a good rapport with Knox. That's being spolied this year by the acquisition of RWill but we still need to be taking some shots downfield with Knox. The meat and potatoes of this offense is the running game and shorter passes to Forte and Bennett but where we can really add a nice bonus is some quick scoring by Knox and Cutler. The way we're playing right now those plays could be real back breakers against our opponents.

Martz doesn't like Knox for the same reasons I don't. He never make a play on the ball. If its not right between the numbers, he'll make no effort to catch it.

He can't catch with his hands. He goes out of his way to make any catch a catch in his belly. He'll jump three feet in the air to avoid reaching for it.

He won't shield the ball from defenders. He'll let them cut right in front of him and outfight him to pick the ball off.

It's maddening to watch. Roy Williams is twice the receiver Knox is in all those departments and that's why he took his job. I give a wash on which has better hands.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StarkyLuv

Martz doesn't like Knox for the same reasons I don't. He never make a play on the ball. If its not right between the numbers, he'll make no effort to catch it.

He can't catch with his hands. He goes out of his way to make any catch a catch in his belly. He'll jump three feet in the air to avoid reaching for it.

He won't shield the ball from defenders. He'll let them cut right in front of him and outfight him to pick the ball off.

It's maddening to watch. Roy Williams is twice the receiver Knox is in all those departments and that's why he took his job. I give a wash on which has better hands.

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I've been watching him more closely and I've notice a lot of those same things. It's not that he and Hester are that small but they play small and light in comparison to even Sanz who is smaller than both of them and there no comparison at all to Bennett who play bigger than his size.

Now that RWill seems to be getting open and starting to hook up with Cutler more I'm all for making him and Bennett that starters but Knox is still an effective threat downfield and we need to go to him more often. Like I said let Cutler handle his deficiencies with him. Even though he drew a flag against Asomugha the other night he still didn't adjust to a perfect back shoulder throw. As you say, if it's not right in front of him and he can't gather it in it tends to go as an incompletion.

I think he's got it in him he just needs to have it pounded into him with more reps. Our running game is strong enough that they can't double him most of the time and if we go to him deep off a play fake we might just get a quick score. It's a matter of choosing the right spot to do it that's all. We still need the threat of his speed on the field to keep the Safeties honest.

Knox is having problems with the ladies?