Clayton's big game a sign of things to come?
Maybe a few games, months or years from now, people might look back at the Bengals game from Sunday and point to it as the game that propelled Mark Clayton into the upper echelon of receivers, teammate Derrick Mason says.
Clayton had five catches for 164 yards including a 70-yard reception for a touchdown. He also hauled in one other long pass, and threw a 32-yard touchdown.
Mason and Clayton are good friends, and he definitely would like to see Clayton improve. Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome certainly would like to see Clayton improve because he drafted him in the first round four years ago.
But before Clayton moves up into the upper crust, I would just like to see him become more consistent week to week. Once that happens, we'll talk about him moving up in class.
Comments
As I said earlier this week, Clayton has been coming on for weeks. In the month of November, he had 15 catches, averaging 25 yards per catch and scored 3 TDs. I think it all goes back to when Williams went on IR and the Ravens were forced to use Clayton as the deep threat. He has excelled in this role.
Posted by: frox | December 3, 2008 4:26 PM
Clayton is a good receiver. I think as we add a big receiver and get better as a offense people will see that. We dont really have any receivers that defenses necessarily try to game plan to take away even though mason is a great receiver, once we add a third guy, a bigger, more physical threat downfield you will see more production from him. This is the first year in a offensive structure thats actually good.
Posted by: Carey | December 3, 2008 5:26 PM
Hey Mike, is it not possible that the reason Clayton has not excelled because of the poor qb's throwing to him as well as a poor scheme. It always seems to me, and perhaps I'm wrong, that Clayton catches what is thrown to him.
Posted by: jj | December 3, 2008 5:27 PM
Consistency is all Clayton needs now to become a very good receiver in the NFL. He has great hands and is deceptively quick. Sure is fun watching him lately.
Posted by: BHSTER | December 3, 2008 5:45 PM
He looked very good back in 06 when there was stability at QB, he made his share of big plays back then. Clayton is capable but he needs to do it on a consistent basis, hopefully this is a sign of things to come. I believe he might be coming on but don't want to get my hopes up.
Posted by: Marcus | December 3, 2008 9:05 PM
He reminds me of Jimmy Orr, a small guy but with the uncanny ability to get open deep. His problem since he has been here, is that the Ravens haven't had a QB who could throw deep with accuracy. As a result, the offensive coordinators, who were affraid of turnovers when the QB's tried to throw deep, only used Clayton on dink and dunk stuff for 6-7 yards. Now, with Joe Flacco able to not ony throw deep, but throw deep with accuracy, his talents can be properly utilized. It also seemed like the QB's of the last 4 years were always getting sacked or running for their lives. With the fine job the offensive lines is doing, with Flacco's coolness under fire, and with an offensive coordinator who is not conservative and who knows how to utilize his talent, good things are happening for Clayton.
Posted by: Deke | December 3, 2008 9:36 PM
Might be early but can you say "Wes Welker"!!!!!
Posted by: bud cefalu | December 4, 2008 8:22 AM