Torrey Smith

[3-4ravdef509]

Saw a lot of chatter of various threads about Torrey and his lack of touches thus far this season and I thought that I'd start a thread to discuss why Torrey has been so lackluster and if it's temporary or a trend.

 

For starters, to me after the 1000 yard season he had last year, people are probably targeting him more than anyone else on the offense as the person to take away, so I'm sure he's seen his fair amount of bracket coverage and other schemes to take him away.

 

That being said, he hasn't done himself any favors in live game action. He rarely tracks the ball in the intermediate level well, he doesn't come back for the ball very well either. He seems to not be on the same page as Joe often about where the route should be run to and when/where to come out of his breaks based no the certain coverages. He also hasn't caught all the balls that he's got his hands on, and his route running when I am able to see it often seems lackadaisical. 

 

I've always sung Torrey's praises since he proved me wrong about drafting him in 2011...that was because he continually showed signs of improvement. Now i'm calling him out a little bit - he needs to sharpen up. The tables have turned on the resigning of 2011 drafties - now Jimmy is the clear-cut candidate to be rewarded with a long term contract. Torrey's done good things for us overall but he needs to start showing up in next week's game.

[Ravenseconbeast]

He'll show up soon and be productive and dissapear again the next. Kind of the way Torrey has been his whole career.

He needs to step it up and start beating his opponent and get open.

[Gtown Purple]

Torrey saw alot of Ike, you throw to who is open and has the better matchup. We ran alot more today as well.

[jimmypowder]

Torrey dropped a critical sideline catch on 3rd down that was thrown perfectly at the beginning of the second half .

If you want he ball thrown your way , don't drop passes

[1/28/01]

He's very eh.

[Bobby]

Torrey dropped a critical sideline catch on 3rd down that was thrown perfectly at the beginning of the second half .

If you want he ball thrown your way , don't drop passes

 

YEP...THIS.  That ball was ON THE MONEY in his hands and he dropped it.  I still like Torrey, but with Smith Sr here now who run way better routes and is more dependable I think Torrey becomes less of a target and more of a decoy.....

[TDubbs]

Lol even with a win we have to look at negatives. Torrey is just fine ... His speed on the outside takes the top off, opens up the underneath stuff for guys like Pitta and Daniels, which we saw. 

[1/28/01]

Lol even with a win we have to look at negatives. Torrey is just fine ... His speed on the outside takes the top off, opens up the underneath stuff for guys like Pitta and Daniels, which we saw.

That's all fine and good, but does he need to be more productive? Absolutely.

[edthehead]

I like T.Smith,great speed and a good guy,but he lacks something and it's funny cause i was thinking last night why can he not get open more so he can have those opportunities,,,he is in a contract yr,,he really needs to step up 

[arnie_uk]

That's all fine and good, but does he need to be more productive? Absolutely.

yea, i mean jacoby could effectively do what torrey is doing atm. Run long and fast and Drop passes.

[TDubbs]

That's all fine and good, but does he need to be more productive? Absolutely.

 

For sure. However his presence on the field generates production. When we're getting Steve Smith Sr and Pitta singled up b/c Torrey is taking a Corner and Safety deep, that helps the team win. 

[RedFire]

he's still working on route running and balance in and out of the breaks. 

 

but he can blow the top off of a defense and he will catch the ball. That clears things out and if a defense falls asleep of forgoes a certain top of coverage we can get them.

 

Flacco during the Superbowl run would work the intermediate and keep people honest with the deep ball. He has those type of weapons so he can ball-out if we stay healthy.  We go as flacco goes. 

[codizzle]

He's very eh.

Until he's Holy. Look how fast he's going

And then

he's wow. Shoulda caught that one

[codizzle]

Torrey saw alot of Ike, you throw to who is open and has the better matchup. We ran alot more today as well.

I agree with this completely.. Hard to tell from one watch on tv but seemed they weren't gonna let Torrey beat and also with Ike on him made it harder but...

still disappointing when only thing left is for him to take that next step and be that complete WR... Intermediate crisp routes and sure hands and he'd be a stud

[balfan23]

Definitely seems a little lost in the offensive mix. I have a feeling you're going to see other games for him that will look like this one, and then you're going to have a couple game where the defense focuses on the underneath guys and we burn them with Torrey.

 

And let's not forget, it doesn't show in the stat sheet, but he set up the first TD. 

[MTRavensFan]

Torrey dropped a critical sideline catch on 3rd down that was thrown perfectly at the beginning of the second half .

If you want he ball thrown your way , don't drop passes

 

yeah, but four days ago, you would have said the same thing about Smith Sr.

 

Joe has proven he's not afraid to come back at a receiver after drops. Now that Sr. has stepped up, and defenses are going to have to key in on him as the #1, I would expect to see Torrey get open a little more. Next game against Joe Haden should be interesting.

[Gtown Purple]

I agree with this completely.. Hard to tell from one watch on tv but seemed they weren't gonna let Torrey beat and also with Ike on him made it harder but...

still disappointing when only thing left is for him to take that next step and be that complete WR... Intermediate crisp routes and sure hands and he'd be a stud

 

Torrey and JJ were getting mugged all night, plus Flacco missed JJ on a wide open read that would have made a 3 a 7. I'm really not worried at all. Like I said before, you take what is given to you and last night it was the underneath stuff to the TEs. Seven people caught balls last night and we only had 6 or 7 incompletions. I don't think we had a drop all last night as well which is reassuring.

 

We had something like 160 yards rushing as well. I was happy with the effort except for short yardage.

[MTRavensFan]

Torrey and JJ were getting mugged all night

typical Steelers, right? look at all the penalties for dirty play.

 

Sr. shined, seemed right in his element

[SeaHawk]

I think it's actually quite impressive that we're playing good offense against at least solid defense without even featuring Torrey. If this happened last year, we would be suffering majorly. This year, we're actually looking pretty solid, and this is without the contributions of Torrey/Jacoby. Wow!

[Gtown Purple]

typical Steelers, right? look at all the penalties for dirty play.

 

Sr. shined, seemed right in his element

 

Yup, par for the course.

[codizzle]

Torrey and JJ were getting mugged all night, plus Flacco missed JJ on a wide open read that would have made a 3 a 7. I'm really not worried at all. Like I said before, you take what is given to you and last night it was the underneath stuff to the TEs. Seven people caught balls last night and we only had 6 or 7 incompletions. I don't think we had a drop all last night as well which is reassuring.

We had something like 160 yards rushing as well. I was happy with the effort except for short yardage.

Na I'm not complaining at all.. Just as an individual performance standpoint it's disappointing but I'll take the end result we saw every time

[Gtown Purple]

Na I'm not complaining at all.. Just as an individual performance standpoint it's disappointing but I'll take the end result we saw every time

 

A wins a win

[3-4ravdef509]

A wins a win

And irrelevant to Torrys performance

[The Raven]

It's because this offense requires Torrey to be a complete receiver whereas Cam just made him go deep and flash his speed all day. Torrey actually has to run routes in this offense. Not just drags, posts, and nines. And he still sucks at breaking routes.

[3-4ravdef509]

It's because this offense requires Torrey to be a complete receiver whereas Cam just made him go deep and flash his speed all day. Torrey actually has to run routes in this offense. Not just drags, posts, and nines. And he still sucks at breaking routes.

What's weird is last year he showed bat improvement early on, and then seemingly regressed later on and up to current day is still running very poor routes.

[Blackbirds Rule]

Torrey is just fine we have gone against two division opponents who know him very well. Who they don't know yet is Smith Sr. They also don't know Daniels. That's who we used alot against them. As the season goes on teams will start to gameplan against us differently and when they do Pitta, Smith, and Jacoby will get open. We also will start to get Juice involved in the passing when it opens up. We still havent shown our playbook. In our division its just a more physical style. When we play outside of our division we'll open it up more.

[jimmypowder]

Yup, par for the course.

The only thing missing last night was Twinkle Toed Tomlin jumping on the field for a penalty .

[3-4ravdef509]

Torrey is just fine we have gone against two division opponents who know him very well. Who they don't know yet is Smith Sr. They also don't know Daniels. That's who we used alot against them. As the season goes on teams will start to gameplan against us differently and when they do Pitta, Smith, and Jacoby will get open. We also will start to get Juice involved in the passing when it opens up. We still havent shown our playbook. In our division its just a more physical style. When we play outside of our division we'll open it up more.

 

Perhaps. I'm a big Torrey fan and I want him to succeed. But the problems I see are due to his own mistakes, not just the other team gameplanning against him well.

[Blackbirds Rule]

Perhaps. I'm a big Torrey fan and I want him to succeed. But the problems I see are due to his own mistakes, not just the other team gameplanning against him well.

I agree but i think Torrey plays well when he gets a catch or two early to get him going. Then a play action deep ball to him and it kills the other defense. That 3rd down ball that he dropped was big but I think he catches that as he gets worked into the game. Give him a WR screen to let him run with the ball in his hands. Give him a short out off a twin wr set just to get him an easy catch early in the game to warm him up and i think you'll see better production from him during the games.

[3-4ravdef509]

I agree but i think Torrey plays well when he gets a catch or two early to get him going. Then a play action deep ball to him and it kills the other defense. That 3rd down ball that he dropped was big but I think he catches that as he gets worked into the game. Give him a WR screen to let him run with the ball in his hands. Give him a short out off a twin wr set just to get him an easy catch early in the game to warm him up and i think you'll see better production from him during the games.

 

Agreed. He does play better when worked in early with some gimme stuff. Plus on those short little dump offs he's been known to turn on the burners and make some big plays out of them.