A Happy Hester

It sure would be nice to see Hester have a breakout year as a WR.

Quote:

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LINK to the article

A Happy Hester

Brandon Marshall is unquestionably the Bears’ No. 1 receiver. Rookie Alshon Jeffery has more potential. Tight end Evan Rodriguez is a more intriguing playmaker. Earl Bennett still is a security blanket quarterback Jay Cutler will look to on third downs and in tight spots.
Though he’s still a starter, Hester is just another guy in this offense — and he couldn’t be happier.

‘‘Now I can go in and just play and not try to put a lot of pressure on myself to be the guy who takes over the game for us,’’ Hester said. ‘‘We have a lot of depth, and we have a lot of weapons. A majority of the time, safeties cheated to my side [before]. I was getting a lot of balls thrown my way, but I wasn’t getting a lot of mismatches and getting put on guys that aren’t supposed to be out there.’’


Hester, who has four receptions for 46 yards in the preseason, is excited about the opportunity to play in an offense he said is more suited for him than any he has played in since he became a wide receiver in 2007.
‘‘It’s more of a spread offense. It gets guys in mismatches,’’ Hester said. ‘‘We’ll have four or five playmakers on the field, and it’s going to be like, ‘Who are you going to double-team?’

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I think it will be a less is more type of thing with Hester. The more Marshall, Jeffery, and Bennett produce the less Hester's numbers and workload will be but the more impact he will have due to mismatches, being fresh, and a simpler system. I can see him mastering a certain packages, routes, and types of plays to make him a very nice complementary wr not an expected "number 1 wr".

The article is spot on. Look for 1 guy to have 1K to 1.2K yards, and everyone else to be bunched in the 700-800 yard range. Way to many guys that are capable of getting the ball and doing something with it, and none are great gamebreaking wr's that Marshal is; and that's just Bennett/Hester/Jeffery; not including Weems and Sanz; or the fact that Bush/Forte are still going to get catches out of the backfield.

Happy Hester! Is this a new national holiday? Come to think of it, for Bears fans maybe it is.

I agree with you guys. The "less is more" thing is what we've always needed to do with him but never had the supporting cast to do it with. Now when they line him up with the two "aircraft carriers" left and right and put him in the slot the create a huge problem for a defense. Who are you gonna double and even more importantly do you let your #3 CB/NB cover Hester?

As a starter he may have been good enough to beat 1/2 to 2/3rds of NFL CBs one on one but he should be able to beat 100% of the NBs one on one. Put him in motion, move him around, don't let the other guys get together a game plan based on knowing where he'll be lined up. For the first time in his NFL career he can be use as the "weapon" he is rather than the #1 WR he isn't.

He even gained some nice yardage on the end around last game and that has never worked before whenever they tried it. He'll always be more effective catching 50 balls a year than he could ever be catching 80. Just get him the ball with some space around him and let him do the rest or use the speed mismatches to have him running the down field routes Knox was running. It's not about being "fancy" it's just about using him right this time.