Anyone who has been watching knows that the Eagles offense is a shell of its former self. Outside of the Giants game, the team has struggled to put up points. The unit has lacked creativity, explosiveness, rhythm and consistency while becoming dangerously predictable.
While Doug Pederson and Howie Roseman deserve a share of the blame for the offensive ineptitude, offensive coordinator Mike Groh’s seat has gotten mighty hot as well. With Groh already feeling the heat, the coordinator made a head-scratching comment on Tuesday that seemingly highlights his own incompetence.
It’s laughable that an NFL coaching staff should be having trouble integrating a player of Golden Tate’s talent and skillset. In fact, it’s easy to imagine that Tate’s strengths should make him one of the easier players to integrate into an offense mid-season.
Tate has built his career around sure hands and gaining yards after the catch. He excels at breaking tackles and turning short receptions into long gains.
Now, I’m not going to pretend to know more about football than Mike Groh. However, it would seem the best way to utilize Golden Tate is to simply get the ball in his hands. Slants, bubble screens, curls, and quick outs all seem like excellent options. None of these plays require complicated route trees or a deep knowledge of complex schemes.
At some point you want Tate to have a complete grasp of the offense so you can maximize his potential, but common sense says that there are a myriad of simple ways to get him involved in the meantime that would allow his strengths to shine through and make him an impact player. To say that “it’s been challenging to integrate him” is ludicrous and indicative of someone struggling to do their job at the level expected of them.
Perhaps the Eagles coaching staff is simply overthinking things, trying to be too cute, or looking to do too much too fast with Tate. But an NFL staff should have no trouble finding ways to get the ball in the hands of a playmaker regardless of when said playmaker was acquired. After Tuesday’s comments, it’s hard to have any faith in Groh going forward.
