Coby Fleener really needs to work on his hands

[coltsfanej]

Im hopin he can step up and put it together. I also am liking Allen better, but I also wanted Allen more than Coby pre draft as well and my opinion has not changed. But If they can both reach their potential they could be a killer pair at TE.

[Hans Moleman]

Allen was open on ALL of those throws to Fleener. Think Luck may have an agenda there for his ole buddy from Stanford? Allen has clearly outplayed him in all aspect of the game so far. There was plenty of time for Luck to make all the reads, too. He simply CHOSE Fleener over Allen. Hope this kind of stuff doesn't happen during regular season.

Good Ole Boy system alive and well......

There's an agenda- it's called giving a receiver the chance to bounce back. Luck's done it all preseason when a receiver has dropped a pass. He goes back to them to show he's still got confidence in them and, ideally, help them get over the drop.

[YOUR GM]

Allen was named the Best TE in all Of Football one of his years. So he should be better right now. Give Fleener time, i'm sure not all good TE's came out Blazing their Rookie year. Look at Jimmy Graham, he was an unknown for a while and then just burst onto the scene.

Yeah, but you could see the talent was there with Graham right away. He didn't crack the starting lineup sooner because the Saints signed Jeremy Shockey to be their primary TE. Once Shockey went down, Graham went on a tear the rest of that season and carried it over into last season.

I think it's too soon to say whether Fleener will be good or bad, but I haven't seen the elite level speed (for a tight end) that I thought we would see right away. Part of it is because he's playing a step slow, being that he's a rookie with a learning curve to overcome. He hasn't played like someone worthy of a 1st round pick (which he was touted as, pre-draft) so in a since, I'm a little disappointed. Like I said though, just because he's not an impact player this year doesn't mean he won't be moving forward.

[ColtsFTW]

Maybe he just didn't wanna get killed before the real games start. =P

[oldunclemark]

I will only be worried if he continues to do it during the regular season.

He is a rookie and the pre-season doesn't matter

and we really didnt play the first string as much as I expecetd in the presseason considering the rookies and new players we have..

I really thought there'd be game when the No.1s played 3 quarters.....

..hopefully we dont regret missing that game time

[BIGugly]

and we really didnt play the first string as much as I expecetd in the presseason considering the rookies and new players we have..

I really thought there'd be game when the No.1s played 3 quarters.....

..hopefully we dont regret missing that game time

They played well into the 3rd quarter vs Skins.

[Moncrief]

And NOW y'all be coming over to the Allen side.

[oldunclemark]

They played well into the 3rd quarter vs Skins.

True/...but that would be what? for the 1st string ...... 7 quarters... if that?..

Brand new QB....new linemen....3 rookie receivers .......I'm a little concerned about the offense...

......one good thing./.the Bears have very little Andrew Luck tape to go on...

[colts8718]

Liked Allen better any way Coby looked like he had his feet in MUD in preseason

[BIGugly]

True/...but that would be what? for the 1st string ...... 7 quarters... if that?..

Brand new QB....new linemen....3 rookie receivers .......I'm a little concerned about the offense...

......one good thing./.the Bears have very little Andrew Luck tape to go on...

'Bout normal for preseason, don't ya think? Gotta look at wanna be's in last game. Always have done that.

[oldunclemark]

'Bout normal for preseason, don't ya think? Gotta look at wanna be's in last game. Always have done that.

We are in a unique situation this year with so many newbies...

Clearly Pagano obvioulsy agrees with you......he clearly feels the offense is ready.......

I dont mind telling you.....I'm going to be a little nervous about 11:55 next Sunday morning

[BIGugly]

We are in a unique situation this year with so many newbies...

Clearly Pagano obvioulsy agrees with you......he clearly feels the offense is ready.......

I dont mind telling you.....I'm going to be a little nervous about 11:55 next Sunday morning

If we don't get this oline fixed, I'm gonna be nervous all year. I really want to keep Luck upright.

[oldunclemark]

If we don't get this oline fixed, I'm gonna be nervous all year. I really want to keep Luck upright.

True....and after what happened (or almost happened) to Andy Dalton Thursday.....I cant dwell on not playing Luck that final game

..and it was going to be scary the first time Briggs, Urlacher and Peppers start looking dirty at Luck

next Sunday no matter what he did in the pre-season...

..seems like the off-season has lasted 3 years....after all this time....next game is for real

[Gavin]

Adam Caplan ‏@caplannfl

Teams are still trying to pull off trades of bottom of the roster guy and veterans. That's why so many teams have not made announcements.

oops wrong thread

[BIGugly]

True....and after what happened (or almost happened) to Andy Dalton Thursday.....I cant dwell on not playing Luck that final game

..and it was going to be scary the first time Briggs, Urlacher and Peppers start looking dirty at Luck

next Sunday no matter what he did in the pre-season...

..seems like the off-season has lasted 3 years....after all this time....next game is for real

Think we will see lots of screensj, draws, and quick snaps?

[MacDee1975]

How on earth did he ever become a 2nd round pick in the NFL if he has questionable hands?

[Gavin]

How on earth did he ever become a 2nd round pick in the NFL if he has questionable hands?

Andrew Luck

[Mouthfire]

How on earth did he ever become a 2nd round pick in the NFL if he has questionable hands?

Actually, it was the combine workout. Based on the pre-combine tape, most people had him as a late 2nd-3rd round pick after Allen.

[Carlos Danger]

That's exactly what happened last night when he dropped that one right down the middle. He saw the LB coming in on him before he broke on the route and never had a chance.

He needs a good, hard tackle or two (obviously without injury) to get up to speed.

[waka waka]

Fleener will be fine as i've stated before i think its just a lot to take in for a rookie in a new system. We can't use what we see other players doing in the same system as a measuring stick. Heck some of us act as if we catch on to everything right away. Sometimes i think players have so much tossed at them and they focus so much on trying to do too much too fast. We expect it...should we?

Sometime if you just focus on doing one thing well at a time the lights seem to come one and things seem to stick. Maybe its just getting back to the basics for him. Right now he just needs to focus on Blocking right now. Everything else will take care of itself. I remember when Dallas Clark was picked and people were very upset about the pick...and if some recall it took Clark sometime to get comfortable in the system...but when he did he played well very well.

[WoolMagnet]

Its early, but I somehow expected more from Fleener.

I'm starting to wonder if Luck made him look better than he is at this point.

Allen looks to be the better blocker AND receiver at this point.

I thought Fleener would be bigger than he is. his frame could easily support more bulk.

I by no means have given up on him, he's a fresh rookie after all. i fully expect him to improve not only his catching (too many drops in pre-season), but also his blocking, and route running.

I'm expecting BIG things from these 2 TEs.

Time will tell.

On a side note, I noticed SF waived Ousu (sp?), the wr from Stanford.

I'm wondering just how much better Luck made these receivers and TEs look.

Its very similar to how Peyton made our receivers look "better".

His accuracy can make catches much easier to catch.

[funktacious2]

Yep. Arians has said himself that needs to work on his receiving.

[Carolinapantherfan]

From day one after the draft season evaluating began I've said:

Allen

Fleener

I've looked to be proven right

[Esquire59]

Fleener is 80x's the athlete Utecht was. I've not been happy with his hands in camp or PS, but have faith in him. His hands at The Cardinal were fantastic. He's going to be a match-up nightmare and his going to finally give the Colts a legit endzone fade and endzone jump ball threat. Heck, if Kris Adams sees the field, we'll have two. I've got faith in Fleener.

[T Y Goodbye]

He needs to work on his blocking as well. To me, it looks like he's playing scared. Allen is way ahead of Fleener at this time IMHO.

[Bleedin Blue]

I would give Fleener more time before we start weighing in too heavily on his performances. I watched many of the Standford games last year as I am out west (In PAC-12 country) and I can tell you that the guy has great hands. I've seen him catch very difficult passes fully extended above DB's and I've also seen him catch seem routes and long bombs in traffic...the guy can flat out play. He is an excellent route runner and can get open frequently.

Fleener is the kind of tight end that finds holes in the defense...he's not a burner. He's never been a good run blocker and unless he decides to make this a priority I don't think that will change. His use as a red zone threat is also tremendous (assuming he cures his dropsies) due to his 6' 6" frame.

[NewColtsFan]

I think the drop against Cincinnati was a concentration thing, not a 'hands' thing.

I think he heard footsteps from a nearby linebacker and took his eyes off the ball. It's not a very Coby-like thing to do. I wasn't very happy.

But, all in all, I've heard/read too many comments about Coby with a case of the drops to ignore it. He needs to start focusing much, Much, MUCH better. This is the N-F-L. This is your livelihood... this is a big business. People are counting on you.

Get your stuff together!!!

[Bleedin Blue]

I think the drop against Cincinnati was a concentration thing, not a 'hands' thing.

I think he heard footsteps from a nearby linebacker and took his eyes off the ball. It's not a very Coby-like thing to do. I wasn't very happy.

But, all in all, I've heard/read too many comments about Coby with a case of the drops to ignore it. He needs to start focusing much, Much, MUCH better. This is the N-F-L. This is your livelihood... this is a big business. People are counting on you.

Get your stuff together!!!

Dude...it's been 4 games and much of those didn't even involve game plans. It's too early to be in the "ultimatum speech".

[NewColtsFan]

Dude...it's been 4 games and much of those didn't even involve game plans. It's too early to be in the "ultimatum speech".

Dude. That wasn't even close to my "ultimatum speech." Not even close.

That's the speech of a Stanford fan who saw most every game Fleener played and knows he's capable of better. That's all.

Don't read anything else into it. Certainly NOT an ultimatum. (Yikes!)

[JoKeR]

Allen was open on ALL of those throws to Fleener. Think Luck may have an agenda there for his ole buddy from Stanford? Allen has clearly outplayed him in all aspect of the game so far. There was plenty of time for Luck to make all the reads, too. He simply CHOSE Fleener over Allen. Hope this kind of stuff doesn't happen during regular season.

Good Ole Boy system alive and well......

The agenda is preseason, he's not going to jeopardize a win just to make sure Coby gets his touches. One possible reason he kept passing to Fleener is because Fleeners routes are more downfield than Allen's , in general. Do you remember what downs they were, how many yards were needed?

[Malakai432]

I wouldn't worry about it yet, it's way too early.

[IndyTrav]

Guys do good in preseason, next big thing.

Guys do bad in preseason, "it's just preseason".

I'll give him some more time, but Arians has barely used a TE before, let alone two.

[funktacious2]

I both hope and expect more from Fleener going forward (he's just a rookie afterall), but as much as I enjoyed the Fleener pick, I was in favor of nabbing Kevin Zeitler (OG starting for the Bengals). Cordy Glenn seems he could have been a decent pick too as he's starting LT for the Bills.

[Mouthfire]

I both hope and expect more from Fleener going forward (he's just a rookie afterall), but as much as I enjoyed the Fleener pick, I was in favor of nabbing Kevin Zeitler (OG starting for the Bengals). Cordy Glenn seems he could have been a decent pick too as he's starting LT for the Bills.

Yeah, I thought Cordy Glenn was going to be the pick.

[SubZero]

Someone said it earlier: it's uncanny how much he looks like Ben Utecht out there.

That is all.

I was really rooting to draft Cordy Glenn over him. And so far ive been disappointed

[Alf the Ref]

Hey kid . I have no idea if ur ever gonna read this , and u know I've only sent u a few messages via Twitter ( or whatever she was using to send you those messages for me ) cuz I don't have one of those .... but u know I've been paying attention ever since u left The Hill ( and u know I'm a Bears fan ) . What else could I be ? It's what happens when you grow up and spend ur whole life living in Bears territory right .

I'm not gonna be long and windy ( and I probably won't post all that often ) but a few things :

I'm not surprised you've come this far. The size & talent was always there.

It's been a blast watching you develop ... and on TV.

If I were to give you 1 word to remember it's : execute- basically all I mean is 'catch the ball' first .

You can hang with these guys .

Pain is temporary - regrets aren't .

Have fun .

And good luck.

[GoColts8818]

I've thought all along Flenner has just not looked comfortable. I am not sure if that's because he's being asked to stay in and block more than he is used to or if he is just trying to get the NFL terms down and what not. I will say this the one game we let him kinda stretch the field in the Steelers game kinda like how he was used at Stanford he did look comfortable and made some nice grabs. He's been dropping the short passes where he stays in and I am wondering if that is just a product of not being used to staying on the line.

I also think that part of the reason he's looked "bad" is that he's looked like a rookie where as the guy taken before him and after him are ahead of the rookie curve. With that said i would agree with the title of the thread he needs to work on his hands because rookie or not and uncomfortable or not he's dropping passes you just can't drop at the NFL level. With that said I am not overly worried about it at this point.

[Jules]

I also think that part of the reason he's looked "bad" is that he's looked like a rookie where as the guy taken before him and after him are ahead of the rookie curve.

This, This, This and more This.

I am not sure ANYTHING is wrong with Fleener and I do think he will be fine. He just is not looking as polished yet and we have been spoiled by a few others so far.

Time......

[Hans Moleman]

This, This, This and more This.

I am not sure ANYTHING is wrong with Fleener and I do think he will be fine. He just is not looking as polished yet and we have been spoiled by a few others so far.

Time......

What do Jimmy Graham, Antonio Gates, Vernon Davis, Kellen Winslow (both jr and sr), Tony Gonzalez, Dallas Clark, and Jason Witten have in common? They've all made at least 1 Pro Bowl (a few are Hall of Fame Caliber), and none of them had more than 400 receiving yards as a rookie.

Fleener looks more disappointing because Allen and Luck are skewing the curve. TE is one of the toughest positions for a player to make an immediate impact at because of the demands from both a blocking and receiving stand point. It's not a position that's designed for rookies to come in and excel at.

[lollygagger8]

If Fleener has this "elite" speed I keep hearing about, why don't we send him down the field instead of these 10 yard dink passes that he refuses to catch because he's going to get hit?