Jahan Dotson had one target on 23 pass attempts Sunday, which he dropped – meaning he had no catches for no yards, and is still stuck on a 17-140-1 line through six weeks, only now on 31 targets.
Many thought, especially after Terry McLaurin was hobbled at the end of camp, that Dotson was on pace for a breakout year, but even if you triple his stats (which would extrapolate to 18 games), a projected 51-420-3 line isn’t much better than the 35-523-7 one he put up in 12 games as a rookie.
So this begs the question: where has Jahan been? So big, that when BMitch & Finlay were taking calls on what fans saw Sunday, they got to their biggest surprises…and that’s one of them.
“Jahan’s role is a surprise. He was on the field 80 percent of the snaps and running routes on 60 of those, so he’s playing, he’s just not producing,” JP Finlay said. “Some days, he’s not getting the targets, but yesterday, he has to catch that deep ball, because that’s probably a walk-in touchdown.”
“That and the ball that he missed in Philly, he has to catch, but I think it's a combination of things,” BMitch replied “I know the coach is gonna try to go back to him – sometimes the quarterback is going to go to the people he felt caught the balls – but on top of it, Jahan had such a year last year that, when I've talked to other teams, they are trying to make sure he doesn't do what he did last year. So, maybe he’s getting a little bit of extra attention this year that he wasn't getting last year?”
Seven touchdowns in 12 games will do that, but here’s what’s interesting to JP: Curtis Samuel has a touchdown in three straight games and has become the second go-to, so is he benefitiing from health and chemistry with Sam Howell, harder coverage on Dotson, or some combination of things?
“I really don't have a problem with the fact that Curtis has started to make more plays than Jahan, because I think at some point this year, they're gonna try to take Curtis out of the game and then Jahan should be there,” BMitch said, “but I would say this: whenever the ball comes to (Dotson), nobody touched the ball, nobody blocked him…he’s gotta catch those.”
And then, Brian’s latest old school rant of the day:
“When you have three receivers who ae very capable, that’s a good thing. We get caught up with people thinking he needs more targets because he’s on my fantasy team or stats say he should do this, but if you win the game, I don’t care what he catches!” Brian asked. “Once he gets more involved, it could open up some more things, but I’m serious: other guys on other teams are trying to take him out of the damn game, because he’ll route you to death.”
