The beautiful/painful Sammie Coates experience

[polamalubeast]

PITTSBURGH -- Watching Sammie Coates play football offers a little bit of everything.

Flesh wounds, drops and big-play touchdowns.

"All I know is, I looked down and there was blood in my glove, and I was like, 'Oh crap,'" said Coates, who suffered a left-hand laceration that required multiple stitches during halftime of the Pittsburgh Steelers' 31-13 win over the Jets.

Coates didn't even know how he got the injury, which sort of makes sense, because his play can be as confusing as it is fascinating.

Coates does wonderful things for the Steelers' offense, then offsets those wonderful things with plays that make you look away and check your phone. He inches closer to stardom, then ducks.

But here's the thing: Through five games, Coates is 26 yards shy of the game's best receiver. He's the Steelers' No. 2 option downfield, and that probably isn't changing this year.

His 139-yard, two-touchdown performance Sunday puts Coates at 421 yards, compared with Antonio Brown's 447. His streak of five straight games with at least one catch of 40-plus yards is one shy of the franchise record.

The Steelers will take that all day.

Then why did his postgame news conference feel like a therapy session?

"I just had to get my confidence back and trust myself," Coates said. "It was a roller-coaster day. It was one of those days I knew I had dropped a few balls."



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http://www.espn.com/blog/pittsburgh-...tes-experience

[Hawkman]

The last sentence says it all about him, "starting tomorrow I'm working on the stuff I messed up on......whatever it takes".
Great attitude no excuses, didn't even want to talk about the roll his cut hand played. Not sure how many WRs after getting stitches at halftime would want to catch bullets from Ben.

[Rotorhead]

Well, he has next week to get over the drops. We will need all hands playing their best in 2.

[DesertSteel]

Well, he has next week to get over the drops. We will need all hands playing their best in 2.

We need our best next week. I'd rather lose to the Patriots than the Dolphins, and preferably neither.

[teegre]

We need our best next week. I'd rather lose to the Patriots than the Dolphins, and preferably neither.

For playofff seeding, tie-breaker-wise, winning the head-to-head match up with the Taperiots is more important...

[tube517]

http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/...tes?id=2552470

STRENGTHS Looks the part. Long legs with well-proportioned frame. Outstanding combination of size and speed. Good acceleration off the snap for a receiver with his length. Can take top off defense and open up the underneath. Will beat bold cornerbacks over the top if they wait to turn and run. Forces cornerbacks onto their heels and gets easy, open looks on dig routes. Makes easy in-cut with maximum separation. Ability to win big plays vertically. Saved best performances for big games. Put 206 yards and two touchdowns on Alabama in 2014.


WEAKNESSES Won't be on quarterback's Christmas card list. Wasn't always on same page with Auburn QB Nick Marshall. Unreliable target. Inexplicable focus drops in all areas of the field. Doesn't play with extended catch radius. Had a drop rate of 19.1 percent. Vertical receiver without vertical feel. Inconsistent play speed. Will gear down too easily on deep routes, turning catchable touchdowns into "overthrows." Suspect ball tracking. Must improve at using body to ward off defenders. Inconsistent with contested catches. Stiff hips and limited route runner. Slow to gather and turn it upfield on catch-and-runs.

[86WARD]

It was beautiful and painful. Against a team on the road or a top team...those drops could wind up being crucial!

[ALLD]

Good thing we had Bell to fall back to pick up the first downs. Coates has growing pains, but he will be good.

[steel striker]

What I like about Coates he makes no excuses and, he is a potential big play wr hopefully against the cheats he will have a huge day.

[86WARD]

His attitude about the drops has been good. He could easily go the route of Limas Sweed but has been far, far, far from that...which is nice!

[Steeldude]

WEAKNESSES Won't be on quarterback's Christmas card list. Wasn't always on same page with Auburn QB Nick Marshall. Unreliable target. Inexplicable focus drops in all areas of the field. Doesn't play with extended catch radius. Had a drop rate of 19.1 percent. Vertical receiver without vertical feel. Inconsistent play speed. Will gear down too easily on deep routes, turning catchable touchdowns into "overthrows." Suspect ball tracking. Must improve at using body to ward off defenders. Inconsistent with contested catches. Stiff hips and limited route runner. Slow to gather and turn it upfield on catch-and-runs.

That is a very accurate draft profile. I think one of his problems with catching, and he has a few, is he doesn't use his fingers that well to receive the ball. It's like he tries to catch it with his palms, that is when he can't use his chest to reel it in.

Hopefully he works hard to improve these areas.

[teegre]

Hopefully he works hard to improve these areas.

He has been working with AB.

That is great... but, no matter how hard anyone practices, they simply cannot become AB. (That said, obviously, I'll take any improvement.)

[Mojouw]

http://www.behindthesteelcurtain.com...s-and-martavis

Look at the first couple of GIFs. They are of Bryant doing his best Sammie COates impression against Seattle. I think we need to remember how many Bryant dropped too.

Coates' arrow is pointing up.

[tube517]

Is there some poker playing going on w/Coates???

[hawaiiansteeler]

Is there some poker playing going on w/Coates???

[DesertSteel]

That is a very accurate draft profile. I think one of his problems with catching, and he has a few, is he doesn't use his fingers that well to receive the ball. It's like he tries to catch it with his palms, that is when he can't use his chest to reel it in.

Hopefully he works hard to improve these areas.

I think he has shown MUCH BETTER than that profile with only limited action. His NFL career is 6 games. He's already leading the NFL in YPC, 40+ yard catches, and is 9th in total yards.

- - - Updated - - -

For playofff seeding, tie-breaker-wise, winning the head-to-head match up with the Taperiots is more important...

Good point.