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Helu may become very productive this coming season, according to this:


Skins HC Gruden: Alf lacks 'natural hands'

Redskins coach Jay Gruden admitted at the NFL meetings that he does not see Alfred Morris as a player who possesses "natural hands," and envisions only "20-25 catches" for Morris in his offense.
Gruden said he "hopes" Morris can catch 20-25 passes, indicating that's Alf's ceiling. It's a growing concern for Morris' fantasy value as the Redskins transition away from Kyle Shanahan's run-foundation offense into Gruden's pass-happy scheme. We may see more of passing-down back Roy Helu and less of Morris, in a BenJarvus Green-Ellis/Giovani Bernard kind of backfield rotation.

http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/nfl/ ... -headlines

Thanks for posting that - I thought Gruden's comments yesterday about wanting more pass-catching from the RB position were pretty interesting. It definitely clears up why they were so interested in Sproles. I had two questions:

1) I like Helu a lot, but I don't have any sense of his pass catching ability. Is that already a strength with him or something he'll have to work on to improve like Morris?

2) Would those pass plays to the RB take some of the heat off RGIII as a runner?

If the answer to #2 is a strong yes, then I love the direction he's going.

No question passes to the RB will only help RG3. Reason being that passes to the RB are usually quick plays that are with a 3 step drop where the rb is rolling into the flat or a dump out on a handoff fake (either in front or just behind the LBs).

riggofan wrote:Thanks for posting that - I thought Gruden's comments yesterday about wanting more pass-catching from the RB position were pretty interesting. It definitely clears up why they were so interested in Sproles. I had two questions:

1) I like Helu a lot, but I don't have any sense of his pass catching ability. Is that already a strength with him or something he'll have to work on to improve like Morris?

2) Would those pass plays to the RB take some of the heat off RGIII as a runner?

If the answer to #2 is a strong yes, then I love the direction he's going.

Helu has really good hands. Morris needs to block better and hopefully Robert has Helu hands available, which means to me they should both be on the field at the same time.

Kilmer72 wrote:

riggofan wrote:Thanks for posting that - I thought Gruden's comments yesterday about wanting more pass-catching from the RB position were pretty interesting. It definitely clears up why they were so interested in Sproles. I had two questions:

1) I like Helu a lot, but I don't have any sense of his pass catching ability. Is that already a strength with him or something he'll have to work on to improve like Morris?

2) Would those pass plays to the RB take some of the heat off RGIII as a runner?

If the answer to #2 is a strong yes, then I love the direction he's going.

Helu has really good hands. Morris needs to block better and hopefully Robert has Helu hands available, which means to me they should both be on the field at the same time.

Excellent hands, and excellent open field running skills... runs good routes... I wondered several times last year why they didn't consider doing a Bobby Mitchell or Charley Taylor with him... in other words, converting him to WR in order to get him on the field more.

Countertrey wrote:

Kilmer72 wrote:

riggofan wrote:Thanks for posting that - I thought Gruden's comments yesterday about wanting more pass-catching from the RB position were pretty interesting. It definitely clears up why they were so interested in Sproles. I had two questions:

1) I like Helu a lot, but I don't have any sense of his pass catching ability. Is that already a strength with him or something he'll have to work on to improve like Morris?

2) Would those pass plays to the RB take some of the heat off RGIII as a runner?

If the answer to #2 is a strong yes, then I love the direction he's going.

Helu has really good hands. Morris needs to block better and hopefully Robert has Helu hands available, which means to me they should both be on the field at the same time.

Excellent hands, and excellent open field running skills... runs good routes... I wondered several times last year why they didn't consider doing a Bobby Mitchell or Charley Taylor with him... in other words, converting him to WR in order to get him on the field more.

... and on top of it all, he's very fast (4.42), can hurdle, and runs through tackles.

Love the hurdle.

I am getting more and more excited about Coach Gruden. If he can utilize the players strength like people say he can, watch out for players like Helu.

Countertrey wrote:

Kilmer72 wrote:

riggofan wrote:Thanks for posting that - I thought Gruden's comments yesterday about wanting more pass-catching from the RB position were pretty interesting. It definitely clears up why they were so interested in Sproles. I had two questions:

1) I like Helu a lot, but I don't have any sense of his pass catching ability. Is that already a strength with him or something he'll have to work on to improve like Morris?

2) Would those pass plays to the RB take some of the heat off RGIII as a runner?

If the answer to #2 is a strong yes, then I love the direction he's going.

Helu has really good hands. Morris needs to block better and hopefully Robert has Helu hands available, which means to me they should both be on the field at the same time.

Excellent hands, and excellent open field running skills... runs good routes... I wondered several times last year why they didn't consider doing a Bobby Mitchell or Charley Taylor with him... in other words, converting him to WR in order to get him on the field more.

Actually I do recall a handful of times seeing Helu in the slot last year. I don't recall which games, but it seemed that he was just a decoy (don't think he got any targets).

He was left to Griff in the slot when I saw him.

I think he should be used more often as well. Great emergency option when receivers are covered.