Will Franklin cut by the Lions

[Wesson44]

The Lions signed DE Ryan Kees, an undrafted rookie, and released OL Junius Coston and WR Will Franklin.

Will Franklin, WR, Missouri

Franklin is an under-the-radar prospect, as he wasn't the main option in an offense that featured two of the nation's top tight ends in Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman and saw the emergence of speedy freshman Jeremy Maclin.

Even though he wasn't a primary option, Franklin put up solid numbers throughout his four-year career, with 143 catches, 2,125 yards receiving, and 13 touchdowns. His best season was in 2006, when he caught 48 passes for 829 yards (17.3 yards per catch) and six touchdowns.

Given that he wasn't in the limelight at Mizzou, Franklin needed to take advantage of pre-draft opportunities to boost his stock, and he did. At the combine, he ran one of the fastest 40 times, clocking in at 4.37 seconds. At Missouri's Pro Day, Franklin showed tremendous jumping ability with a 40 1/2 inch vertical and a broad jump of 10 feet, 11 inches.

With his combination of size, speed, and athleticism, Franklin has real big-play ability and the potential to be a productive receiver in the NFL.

With his combine and Pro Day showings, Franklin's stock has moved from likely a fourth-round pick, at best, to where there's a good chance he'll be taken in the third round

[nfoligno]

Lets see. He is drafted as high as 4th round, but released after one season. Detroit picks him up, and a month later, dump him.

 

Doesn't sound like a great prospect to me. I actually liked him in college, but something seems to be wrong here.

 

The Lions signed DE Ryan Kees, an undrafted rookie, and released OL Junius Coston and WR Will Franklin.

Will Franklin, WR, Missouri

Franklin is an under-the-radar prospect, as he wasn't the main option in an offense that featured two of the nation's top tight ends in Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman and saw the emergence of speedy freshman Jeremy Maclin.

Even though he wasn't a primary option, Franklin put up solid numbers throughout his four-year career, with 143 catches, 2,125 yards receiving, and 13 touchdowns. His best season was in 2006, when he caught 48 passes for 829 yards (17.3 yards per catch) and six touchdowns.

Given that he wasn't in the limelight at Mizzou, Franklin needed to take advantage of pre-draft opportunities to boost his stock, and he did. At the combine, he ran one of the fastest 40 times, clocking in at 4.37 seconds. At Missouri's Pro Day, Franklin showed tremendous jumping ability with a 40 1/2 inch vertical and a broad jump of 10 feet, 11 inches.

With his combination of size, speed, and athleticism, Franklin has real big-play ability and the potential to be a productive receiver in the NFL.

With his combine and Pro Day showings, Franklin's stock has moved from likely a fourth-round pick, at best, to where there's a good chance he'll be taken in the third round

[DABEARSDABOMB]

He was good in college, but never put things together in the pro's and while I'd like to give him a shot, we already have enough raw WR's in here right now, imo.

[madlithuanian]

Not interested... We have good amount of unproven guys as is that have much higher upsides.

 

The Lions signed DE Ryan Kees, an undrafted rookie, and released OL Junius Coston and WR Will Franklin.

Will Franklin, WR, Missouri

Franklin is an under-the-radar prospect, as he wasn't the main option in an offense that featured two of the nation's top tight ends in Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman and saw the emergence of speedy freshman Jeremy Maclin.

Even though he wasn't a primary option, Franklin put up solid numbers throughout his four-year career, with 143 catches, 2,125 yards receiving, and 13 touchdowns. His best season was in 2006, when he caught 48 passes for 829 yards (17.3 yards per catch) and six touchdowns.

Given that he wasn't in the limelight at Mizzou, Franklin needed to take advantage of pre-draft opportunities to boost his stock, and he did. At the combine, he ran one of the fastest 40 times, clocking in at 4.37 seconds. At Missouri's Pro Day, Franklin showed tremendous jumping ability with a 40 1/2 inch vertical and a broad jump of 10 feet, 11 inches.

With his combination of size, speed, and athleticism, Franklin has real big-play ability and the potential to be a productive receiver in the NFL.

With his combine and Pro Day showings, Franklin's stock has moved from likely a fourth-round pick, at best, to where there's a good chance he'll be taken in the third round

[Wesson44]

Not interested... We have good amount of unproven guys as is that have much higher upsides.

IMHO i feel the same as you do, but if he can catch and has speed faster then Hester/Knox bring him in and see what's right or wrong with him...can't hurt.

[AZ54]

Something isn't right if this guy is getting cut so quickly. Pass.

[Wesson44]

Something isn't right if this guy is getting cut so quickly. Pass.

 

Yes that might be treue,but we should find out what it is? Is it something that we can fix maybe or maybe not. But if we did and fixed whats wrong this could be a gem hiding in a haystack. But I'm sure he is better than some of the players we have on the practice squad like Broussard

[madlithuanian]

The Bears should always do their due dilligence. But I think from what most of us have read and are reading into this...it's not worth it. I'd rather use up a spot for Simeon Rice than this guy.

 

Yes that might be treue,but we should find out what it is? Is it something that we can fix maybe or maybe not. But if we did and fixed whats wrong this could be a gem hiding in a haystack. But I'm sure he is better than some of the players we have on the practice squad like Broussard

[Stinger226]

Yes that might be treue,but we should find out what it is? Is it something that we can fix maybe or maybe not. But if we did and fixed whats wrong this could be a gem hiding in a haystack. But I'm sure he is better than some of the players we have on the practice squad like Broussard

I think we have enough projects on the team, we now need to embrace what we have, Jay Cutler! Bennett will lead the team in recepitions,. forget who he was last year. Hester will be better. Olsen will be all pro this year. Forte will be one of the top three rbs in the NFC. Our offense will be one of the top 10 in the league this year and I am an optimist.

[nfoligno]

I think the key is your first sentence. We have enough projects on the team. We have 3 rookie WRs, and one more from last year who has yet to catch his first NFL pass. That is a lot of raw talent on the roster, and lets be honest, the track record of our WR coach is questionable at best. Do we really want to add more work to his plate?

 

I think we have enough projects on the team, we now need to embrace what we have, Jay Cutler! Bennett will lead the team in recepitions,. forget who he was last year. Hester will be better. Olsen will be all pro this year. Forte will be one of the top three rbs in the NFC. Our offense will be one of the top 10 in the league this year and I am an optimist.

[defiantgiant]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but the Raiders claimed him off waivers. Chalk up another sub-4.4 project at receiver for Oakland.

 

EDIT: nfoligno, I don't know if it's fair to say that Darryl Drake's track record has been "questionable at best." He's been given some extremely suspect talent to work with, and has turned out receivers who performed as soon as they had a real QB throwing them the ball. Justin Gage and Bobby Wade aren't stellar by any stretch of the imagination, but as soon as they landed in places with even semi-competent QBs, they started performing decently. Mark Bradley even showed flashes in Kansas City, although he's hurt too much to be a consistent player. Bernard Berrian has performed well in Minnesota, and if they get a semi-decent QB, I'd expect Berrian to break out in a big way. It's worth noting that Berrian himself said that he was a one-trick pony coming into the league, and credited Drake with turning him into a complete receiver. I'm not saying Drake's a genius coach, but it's very hard to evaluate his receivers' performance in Chicago, given how poor their QB play was. If you evaluate them for what they did after they left, they don't look too bad.

 

Hell, look at the way Devin Hester started progressing last season. With all his physical tools, Miami U couldn't turn him into a receiver, and they've had a good track record when it comes to turning out NFL receivers (Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson, Santana Moss, Sinorice Moss, and Roscoe Parrish since 2001) If Hester continues to make progress like last season, he'll be a dangerous receiver, in no small part because we finally have a QB who can hit him on deep routes. If that happens, I think Drake will deserve some credit as a pretty good receivers coach. Basically, I think you have to withhold judgment on Drake the same way you have to on his receivers: see what they do with a real quarterback, then we can make a determination about whether he's done good work.

[nfoligno]

I agree it may be hard to judge, and may be unfair to criticize. At the same time, I am not just considering stats (for example). Not saying you are, but for me, it often comes down more to "development" and "progress", which I just didn't see a lot of.

 

You would not get any argument as to our QBs doing little to help the WRs, yet there are still too many aspects, or areas of the WRs game, which I just do not believe showed much development.

 

Route running. Ability to beat the press. Ability to separate. Knoweldge of when they needed to come back (rather than still be running when the QB is on the ground). Not to mention hands.

 

There are many things we can point to the QB, and yet many others I think QB play is an excuse.

 

You say Berrian developed his game, but how much. To me, he was not much more than the one trick pony in Chicago than he said he was entering the league.

 

Bradley didn't exactly have stellar QB play in KC, so I am not sure why you say a QB made the difference there.

 

Again, I just go back to how the WRs played for us. Often, you can point to the QB and say that is the key reason for a WR not producing. However, lets not pretend our WRs were running crisp routes, but the QB failed to get them the ball. Or that our WRs were doing a good job beating the press.

 

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but the Raiders claimed him off waivers. Chalk up another sub-4.4 project at receiver for Oakland.

 

EDIT: nfoligno, I don't know if it's fair to say that Darryl Drake's track record has been "questionable at best." He's been given some extremely suspect talent to work with, and has turned out receivers who performed as soon as they had a real QB throwing them the ball. Justin Gage and Bobby Wade aren't stellar by any stretch of the imagination, but as soon as they landed in places with even semi-competent QBs, they started performing decently. Mark Bradley even showed flashes in Kansas City, although he's hurt too much to be a consistent player. Bernard Berrian has performed well in Minnesota, and if they get a semi-decent QB, I'd expect Berrian to break out in a big way. It's worth noting that Berrian himself said that he was a one-trick pony coming into the league, and credited Drake with turning him into a complete receiver. I'm not saying Drake's a genius coach, but it's very hard to evaluate his receivers' performance in Chicago, given how poor their QB play was. If you evaluate them for what they did after they left, they don't look too bad.

 

Hell, look at the way Devin Hester started progressing last season. With all his physical tools, Miami U couldn't turn him into a receiver, and they've had a good track record when it comes to turning out NFL receivers (Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson, Santana Moss, Sinorice Moss, and Roscoe Parrish since 2001) If Hester continues to make progress like last season, he'll be a dangerous receiver, in no small part because we finally have a QB who can hit him on deep routes. If that happens, I think Drake will deserve some credit as a pretty good receivers coach. Basically, I think you have to withhold judgment on Drake the same way you have to on his receivers: see what they do with a real quarterback, then we can make a determination about whether he's done good work.

[lemonej]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but the Raiders claimed him off waivers. Chalk up another sub-4.4 project at receiver for Oakland.

 

EDIT: nfoligno, I don't know if it's fair to say that Darryl Drake's track record has been "questionable at best." He's been given some extremely suspect talent to work with, and has turned out receivers who performed as soon as they had a real QB throwing them the ball. Justin Gage and Bobby Wade aren't stellar by any stretch of the imagination, but as soon as they landed in places with even semi-competent QBs, they started performing decently. Mark Bradley even showed flashes in Kansas City, although he's hurt too much to be a consistent player. Bernard Berrian has performed well in Minnesota, and if they get a semi-decent QB, I'd expect Berrian to break out in a big way. It's worth noting that Berrian himself said that he was a one-trick pony coming into the league, and credited Drake with turning him into a complete receiver. I'm not saying Drake's a genius coach, but it's very hard to evaluate his receivers' performance in Chicago, given how poor their QB play was. If you evaluate them for what they did after they left, they don't look too bad.

 

Hell, look at the way Devin Hester started progressing last season. With all his physical tools, Miami U couldn't turn him into a receiver, and they've had a good track record when it comes to turning out NFL receivers (Reggie Wayne, Andre Johnson, Santana Moss, Sinorice Moss, and Roscoe Parrish since 2001) If Hester continues to make progress like last season, he'll be a dangerous receiver, in no small part because we finally have a QB who can hit him on deep routes. If that happens, I think Drake will deserve some credit as a pretty good receivers coach. Basically, I think you have to withhold judgment on Drake the same way you have to on his receivers: see what they do with a real quarterback, then we can make a determination about whether he's done good work.

I too am huge critic of Darryl Drake and not just because of what he has worked with here but wasn't he early on involved in the development of Roy Williams at Texas when he was there? I also believed that maybe Moose had a hand in on helping Berrian develop. I can remember Moose in his last year telling Hester what the plays were and where to line up when he was first switched to WR. Before Moose arrived Berrian didn't do much and was similar to Bradley and Bennett in terms of production early on. This was while Terry Shea was the OC and Craig Krentzel was the QB with Chad Hutchinson and Jonathon Quinn. His second year Turner, Moose and Drake both arrived and Orton was the QB and he still was limited because of injury and Turner's conservative calls. It was not until they started Grossman and took some shots down the field that he started to show some skills. Was it because Turner's calls,Grossman starting, Moose starting opposite him or Drake's coaching? All I know is that out of all the WRs that have been drafted by the Bears and released by the Bears under JA's tenure only Airese Currie and Jamin Elliott are no longer in the league. Bradley,Wade,Gage and Berrian are all stilll making contributions to NFL teams and we need WRs.

[nfoligno]

All I know is that out of all the WRs that have been drafted by the Bears and released by the Bears under JA's tenure only Airese Currie and Jamin Elliott are no longer in the league. Bradley,Wade,Gage and Berrian are all stilll making contributions to NFL teams and we need WRs.

 

Giant and others would likely respond to this by saying we didn't have the QB in place... You know how that argument goes.

 

For me though, it is really more simple than that. How much development did each player show when they were with the bears. Look at the numerous areas of a WRs game, and how much did each WR improve in those areas.

 

Personally, I don't think Berrian ever really even developed w/ the Bears. He always had natural talent. Once he was able to adapt to NFL speed, combined w/ having a "decent" QB (Even Rex haters have to give him the decent label when compared to the likes of Quinn, Krenzel, Hutch, etc.). To me, the QB/speed elements were the reasons for his improved stats more than his game developing.

 

Look at Berrian's last season w/ us. Yea, he had decent enough stats, but (a) his route running was still very suspect ( some plays, he actually ran the wrong route, questioning his playbook knowledge © he still struggled to get clean releases off press coverage (d) same hands issues as w/ many others. Berrian was the best of the bunch, but I question this idea he was a developed WR. He did a pretty solid job running downfield and making some plays, but I never felt his game was very developed or rounded.

 

W/ the other WRs, it only gets worse. It isn't just about the QB, the OL, or the other aspects of the team. When you look specifically at the play of the WR, it has simply been lacking, and further, minimal development (IMHO) has been seen.

 

For years, our WRs have simply not been good at: beating press coverage, running solid routes, tracking the ball, shielding the defender, awareness both of the field and the backfield (QB pressure). Oh yea. And catching the damn ball.

 

We can blame the QB day and night, but lets not pretend the QB is the sole reason our WRs have never lived up to expectations.