Complaining can work
I’m sitting at the Sixers vs. Wizards preseason game (don’t be jealous) and thinking about “divas.” I mean, is publicly complaining really the correct route for certain receivers to take if they want the ball more? Well, maybe.
In Week 5, it was DeSean Jackson that was in a foul mood after a one catch, one target day. He didn’t stick around to talk to the media, waiting to state his case on the radio. Low and behold, he got 12 targets against the Raiders the very next week.
Derrick Mason also wasn’t pleased in Week 5 after seeing zero passes come his way against the Bengals. In Week 6, he got 12 targets of his own.
This week, Carolina’s Steve Smith was the one peeved about his five targets and one catch, even after a win. Poor form? Probably. In case you missed it, here were Smith’s quotes after the game:
“It’s bittersweet. We get the win, but I have a limited role,” Smith said. “I see this game as showing I’m no longer an asset to this team.”
Of course, Smith fails to see that the constant double teams on him helped his team win the game. He was clearly an asset. But that doesn’t make him feel any better.
So will complaining at least in part get Smith a bump in targets this week against the Bills? Right or wrong, the answer is almost certainly yes.
Comments
Even if there was more than an anecdotal trend here, it still would be almost impossible to interpret due to selection bias. If you take all the good WR who got a small number of targets in a given week, they're likely to see a big bump the next week just due to regression.
As an example:
In Week 5, it was DeSean Jackson that was in a foul mood after a one catch, one target day. He didn’t stick around to talk to the media, waiting to state his case on the radio. Low and behold, he got 10 targets the previous week (week 3)
Derrick Mason also wasn’t pleased in Week 5 after seeing zero passes come his way against the Bengals. In Week 4, he got 11 targets of his own.
Posted by: brackenthebox | October 21, 2009 11:04 AM
i actually agree with adam here. this is a trend, yes, but it works. should work for smith this week. but at this point, how can he not do better than last weeks numbers?
he'll prob inporve thoughout the year on his totals, but he's more of a weak wr2/strong wr3 now with delhomme
Posted by: scott c | October 21, 2009 12:46 PM
Yes, he should be better than last week.
No, there's not any evidence that his complaining has anything to do with it.
Posted by: brackenthebox | October 21, 2009 01:51 PM