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Question for Dmoney regarding Lofton.

Thoughtsoncanes

Thoughtsoncanes

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How do you see him getting the majority of his touches this year? You see him as primarily a pass catcher or you think he gets the ball out of backfield a lot as well? Also how many touches a game do you think the coaches shoot for with him?
 
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Blu was on Donno today and was at the Saturday practice/"scrimmage". He glowed about Lofton, called him a "cheat code" said he was a first day first round NFL pick in 2 years. "gotta take that Maserati out of the garage" That doesn't sound like a 5 catch / 5 run a game type praise.
 
DMoney said:
All of the above. As far as touches, it would be a guess but I hope it's at least 5 targets and 5 carries a game.
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Dmoney have you ever seen Lofton Carry the Ball at Practice? I get Jerome Bettis at Notre Dame Vibes when I see him with the Ball in his hands. That is a Bull Charging running the Ball.
 
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supersaiyanshel said:
He'll be Aaron Hernandez, without the secret boyfriends and multiple homicides.
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I was going to post the same thing. The comp is weird because, well, you know, but in terms of playing style, at UF and at NE with Gronk, those teams found creative ways to get him the football.

Lofton is also like a roided up Quad Hill except teams don’t have H-backs anymore. Lofton is more talented but I remember Quad contributing in different ways.
 
Well in bowl game he caught a pass as a TE, would have had a long TD pass but defender grabbed him, and he had a fake punt run, and he also pulled around was a lead blocker for a nice Fletcher run.

He will move all around, and be one of the best players in the ACC.
 
sstcane said:
I was at a closed scrimmage last spring and he was awesome at RB. Great vision and patience. Saw him break off a few long runs. IMO he is the key to the offence this season. 5-10 carries and 5+ catches per game.
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But explain this to me.

If we put Lofton at RB, it's at the cost of carries to Fletcher and Lyle, both of whom are very capable backs. And I assume that both Fletch and Lyle are better RBs than Lofton(?). So how do you maximize Lofton without limiting other players? In other words, I guess what I'm struggling to say is, how do you justify giving carries to a guy that is the 3rd best RB just to say we got him 10 touches a game.

I do feel like he can be a weapon at the goal line.
 
Lofton could be a key component of a very special type of power running game if Dawson is so inclined. I'm not advocating for that to be our identity but it's something that we could excel at as part of our overall attack. Especially since Beck is unable to throw right now since it's safe to assume that the passing game will be behind and need time to catch up. We will need to lean on our running game and a basic play action off of that for the 1st few games until Beck and the WR corps get on the same page.

The rushing attack would have to be diversified to include a few more concepts. I am also a big advocate of taking advantage of our depth at OL by incorporating unbalanced lines, OL at FB in certain power sets and using both Fletcher and Lofton as FBs, H-Backs in addition to Lofton's Jaylin Samuels type of role. I would also like to see SJ Alofaituli integrated into the above if he is up to it. SJ is only a true freshman but he is that type of all around football player that could be invaluable in these concepts.
 
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sstcane said:
I was at a closed scrimmage last spring and he was awesome at RB. Great vision and patience. Saw him break off a few long runs. IMO he is the key to the offence this season. 5-10 carries and 5+ catches per game.
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I'll split the difference and say 7.5 carries.

In 12 games, that's 90 carries and 60 catches. I'll go on record now and say he doesn't get 150 touches this season.

Damien Martinez led the team last year with 176 scrimmage touches. Fletcher had 122. (And this is in 13 games). I don't see Lofton getting to 150 this year, not with Fletcher and Lyle (and Pringle?) also in the backfield.

I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 touches is probably best case.

Remember, as involved as Arroyo was last year, he only caught 31 passes in the regular season. So if you say Lofton just slides in directly for Arroyo and it's a 1 for 1 swap, he's going from Arroyo's 31 catches to 60? And you're gonna tack 7.5 carries a game on top of that? No way.
 
AlexCane said:
But explain this to me.

If we put Lofton at RB, it's at the cost of carries to Fletcher and Lyle, both of whom are very capable backs. And I assume that both Fletch and Lyle are better RBs than Lofton(?). So how do you maximize Lofton without limiting other players? In other words, I guess what I'm struggling to say is, how do you justify giving carries to a guy that is the 3rd best RB just to say we got him 10 touches a game.

I do feel like he can be a weapon at the goal line.
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In that case you wouldn't justify it. However there are those who feel Lofton is the best RB in the building. I don't have access to practice so I don't know either way. As a hypothetical, if we assume that Fletcher and Lyle are better RBs than Lofton, there is still that overall skill set possessed by Lofton that would behoove the coaches to integrate him completely into the offense(including the running game). What we would lose(theoretically) by giving Lofton 5 carries that would otherwise go to the other two we would gain from the type of plays Lofton could make that the others couldn't. Ultimately we don't need to justify anything. We're talking about giving playing time to a player who has done more that enough to earn it plus we are keeping the other RBs fresh for what could be a playoff run and a potentially long season.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
I'll split the difference and say 7.5 carries.

In 12 games, that's 90 carries and 60 catches. I'll go on record now and say he doesn't get 150 touches this season.

Damien Martinez led the team last year with 176 scrimmage touches. Fletcher had 122. (And this is in 13 games). I don't see Lofton getting to 150 this year, not with Fletcher and Lyle (and Pringle?) also in the backfield.

I think somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 touches is probably best case.

Remember, as involved as Arroyo was last year, he only caught 31 passes in the regular season. So if you say Lofton just slides in directly for Arroyo and it's a 1 for 1 swap, he's going from Arroyo's 31 catches to 60? And you're gonna tack 7.5 carries a game on top of that? No way.
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If the offense is running 70 snaps a game like last season, someone has to get the ball. I doubt Carson is keeping it more than Cam did. How would yo divvy up those snaps? If Lofton is truly the best player on the team, wouldn't you get him the ball 1 in 5 times or more?

Again, I am only going on what other people are saying. I haven't seen enough of Lofton to know he's that good. But if he is, then he should be getting a lot of touches.
 
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