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Hue Jackson: Still a place for Jermaine Gresham


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Hue Jackson: Still a place for Jermaine Gresham
January, 28, 2015
Jan 28
4:00
PM ET
By Coley Harvey | ESPN.com
CINCINNATI -- To the Cincinnati Bengals fan who may have already begun envisioning a future without tight end Jermaine Gresham, hold off.

At least, that's the underlying message behind comments made earlier this week by offensive coordinator Hue Jackson.

Asked if there was still a place on the Bengals' roster for the embattled soon-to-be-free-agent Gresham, Jackson answered in the affirmative.

"There's a place for him," Jackson said to ESPN.com. "But again, he's free, so that's going to work itself out for him however it works itself out."

 

Gresham's five-year rookie contract will come to an end in March when he becomes one of 13 Bengals to become eligible for unrestricted free agency. He and his representatives are free at that point to talk to whichever interested teams they would like. Reading into Jackson's comment it seems possible the Bengals could be one of those teams.

"We have a way that we do things, and how we want to accomplish things," Jackson said. "Within what we asked him to do this year, he did some good things. There are some things he knows he needs to do to be better, and he will work at them to be better."

It should be noted there was some concern among some around the team right after the season about Gresham's apparent inability to play in two meaningful late-season games because of injuries. After testing out respective ailments ahead of the Week 15 game at Cleveland and the wild-card round playoff game at Indianapolis, Gresham decided he couldn't play in either game. The decisions came despite cutting, running and jumping as he went through pregame evaluations from trainers and coaches.

Gresham was asked multiple times after the playoff loss to comment about what made him hesitant to play in the game. He declined each request.

Without the veteran tight end, the Bengals were forced into tweaking a game plan that already took a hit the day before when receiver A.J. Green wasn't cleared of the concussion protocol. Forced to shelve two of their top pass-catchers, the Bengals turned to backup running back Rex Burkhead as an alternate receiver, and mixed up protection fronts to account for Gresham's absence in run-blocking sequences. The Bengals already were without fellow tight end Tyler Eifert and receiver Marvin Jones; two of their leading 2013 pass-catchers who practically missed all of 2014.

"A doctor says he can't go, and I don't get to control that," Jackson said about Gresham's playoff absence. "When they said, 'Hue, here's the offensive football team you get,' you have to go out and coach. Were we at full strength? No. But we were the best we could be that day from an injury standpoint and it wasn't good enough."

The Bengals lost 26-10. Despite repeated trips to the postseason, they haven't won a playoff game since January 1991.

Gresham caught 62 passes for 460 yards this season and a division-high five touchdowns. He also fumbled three times.

 

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/cincinnati-bengals/

 

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Asked if there was still a place on the Bengals' roster for the embattled soon-to-be-free-agent Gresham, Jackson answered in the affirmative.

"There's a place for him," Jackson said to ESPN.com. "But again, he's free, so that's going to work itself out for him however it works itself out."

 

 

I admit that one stings a little.

 

I'm a hero, and I deserve better.

 

My heart goes out to me.

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If they bring him back I hope they have him run routes that are 

longer than 3 yards and show him what a seam route is too.

 

He knows what a seam route is, he used to run them all the time, and made some damn good plays doing it.  For some reason, they don't send him on those routes.......would be nice to have an intermediate passing game that allows for such routes to be run by a big, athletic TE.  

 

Wonder why those routes haven't been called at all?  Did Gresham forget how to run those routes, or is there something else?  Hmmmmmm.  I wonder.  

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He knows what a seam route is, he used to run them all the time, and made some damn good plays doing it.  For some reason, they don't send him on those routes.......would be nice to have an intermediate passing game that allows for such routes to be run by a big, athletic TE.  

 

Wonder why those routes haven't been called at all?  Did Gresham forget how to run those routes, or is there something else?  Hmmmmmm.  I wonder.  

 

 

Well I don't attribute him not running it to Dalton or the OC. Considering he 

has had 3 OCs and two different QBs since he has been here.

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Hue has to say that whether he means it or not. If he says there is no place for him and they bring him back that will make for a bad locker room.

 

Have no idea how it turns out but this resopnse reminds me of the Zimmer comments regarding Rey after 2012.

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He knows what a seam route is, he used to run them all the time, and made some damn good plays doing it.  For some reason, they don't send him on those routes.......would be nice to have an intermediate passing game that allows for such routes to be run by a big, athletic TE.  

 

Wonder why those routes haven't been called at all?  Did Gresham forget how to run those routes, or is there something else?  Hmmmmmm.  I wonder.  

 

I doubt it.    

 

Greshman runs short routes on his own and it's mostly because he's lazy.   We also run a bunch of short drops and screen passes because our line can't pass protect.

 

Please ignore Hue's recent comments on accuracy, last season accuracy analysis, and minor league pitcher experiment.

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Gresham is such an enigma. I would personally not want him back, but would be OK with it at the same time. Mixed feelings.

 

If he was a third round or later pick, I think we would be happy with him- even though he is very frustrating. But being a first round pick is a different story.

 

He was a VERY good pass catching TE in college. The Bengals really tend to throttle their pass catching TEs and ruin their best attributes. I actually think they had learned their lesson from this and were going to treat Eifert differently (as in: actually have him be a pass catcher) but obviously he has been hurt significant amounts of the time hes been on the team.

I bet they would take him back at a low/mid cost, or let him go if it gets even slightly unreasonable.

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Well I don't attribute him not running it to Dalton or the OC. Considering he 
has had 3 OCs and two different QBs since he has been here.

He has had the same QB for 4 straight years. Are you seriously training to pin some of Gresham's problems on Palmer and Bratkowski?

He doesn't run seam routes because our QB tends to over throw passes 15 yards down the middle of the field which ends badly.
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No I am pinning them on Gresham himself.


Nope, Gresh doesn't run those routes because our QB can't make that throw safely or consistently. If he could other players would be running that route, nobody is.
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Nope, Gresh doesn't run those routes because our QB can't make that throw safely or consistently. If he could other players would be running that route, nobody is.

 

 

Then why didn't he when Palmer was the QB?

 

I saw Hewitt and Eifert run routes longer than 3 yards.

I've seen WRs run routes longer than 3 yards.

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Dude's a good run blocker.  He's not right in the head, and if Hue thinks Gresham has any intention of sticking around Cincinnati, he just can't read people.  My belief from the moment I heard about it was that he held himself out of that last game because he didn't want to risk his next contract.

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