Morris To Reduce Clayton’s Snaps

December 08, 2009 at 09:43am by Scott   •  4 Comments »

It might be happening. Raheem Morris might be coming around to the fact that he made a $25-million mistake this offseason. He said, on the record, that Clayton might be better off taking fewer snaps.

“Stovall will continue to play, no matter if he’s a starter or not,” Morris said. “Those guys started splitting reps because I think Michael Clayton is a better player when he plays less snaps because he plays so hard.”

“You’re such a good player, we need you on the field less.”

“That’s a problem. I told him he didn’t need to play more than 30 snaps or 40 snaps anyway. That’s where he is and that’s where they are.”

Is that really the problem? That Clayton is so tired from blocking all day that when he gets a shot at catching a ball he’s just exhausted? You’d think that Jon Gruden would have picked up on that years ago if that was the case. Clayton hasn’t been a full-time starter for years, and he was still dropping balls. Morris may be realizing what we’ve all been seeing since 2005, but he has to handle it gradually or else he’ll be accused of making yet another error in personnel judgment. After Jeff Jagodzinski, Jim Bates, Luke McCown, Byron Leftwich and about a dozen kickers, he’s got a worse reputation for finding talent than whoever casted Glee.