*Gabriel. Sound the trumpets - Printable Version +- International Simulation Football League (https://forums.sim-football.com) +-- Forum: Community (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5) +--- Forum: Media (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=37) +---- Forum: Graded Articles (https://forums.sim-football.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=38) +---- Thread: *Gabriel. Sound the trumpets (/showthread.php?tid=30078)

*Gabriel. Sound the trumpets - 37thchamber - 02-18-2021 ...Raphael Delacour finally scored the first touchdown of his professional career against the New York Silverbacks. Scored two, in fact. I know what you're thinking, how did this scrub finally score a touchdown? The world is surely about to end. I get it. I mean, that's a lot of games for a wide receiver to go without a touchdown, especially when about half of those have been as WR1 or WR2 (all seawolves games and some of this season). You're right. But it's probably not as bad as it looks when you dive into the actual numbers, though. The first fourteen of those games were in the DSFL, on a team that had just been gutted by call-ups, with a rookie quarterback... The team understandably focused on the running game, meaning that naturally, the passing game suffered. With the Seawolves, Delacour was targeted 102 times, making 58 catches. Of the others, there were 16 drops. The rest (13 incompletions, 2 interceptions, and 13 broken up by the defender) weren't passes he even had a chance of catching, really. Let's say that red zone receptions are the ones we'd realistically expect a decent wide receiver to have a chance of converting to touchdowns... breaking down the location of those 74 "catchable" passes, only 4 were within 20 yards of the end zone. So the lack of touchdowns isn't exactly surprising here. It's also worth noting that of those four, three were caught, and two yielded first downs.  Let's dig deeper. Of the 74 passes, 58 were caught. That's a not-great-but-not-terrible catch rate of around 78%. Those 58 receptions amounted to 656 yards, or an average of about 11.3 per catch. Good enough for 10th in the league that year in receiving yards, and 8th in YPC among all receivers with at least 50 receptions. The glaring stat here though is still the lack of touchdowns. But touchdowns aren't the wide receiver's sole dining experience, right? Delacour, as a slot receiver, should be particularly adept at short gains, moving the chains... so let's check that. 37 of his 58 catches yielded a first down. That's almost two-thirds of his receptions. Even accounting for the drops, that's still 50% (37 of 74). Around a quarter of the times Emi Rune targeted Delacour in Norfolk that season were on third down. Of the 28 times Delacour was targeted on third down, 11 were not "catchable" (1 interception, 4 broken up, 6 incompletions), leaving 17 plays on which we can assess Delacour's ability as a receiver. Of these, only two attempts were dropped; the other fifteen were caught for a gain -- seven of these resulting in a new set of downs. There were also two attempts to go for it on fourth down -- both times, Delacour dropped the pass. Combined, this information perhaps points to Delacour's role in that Norfolk side as a safety blanket for fellow rookie Emi Rune; which would suggest he was not as bad as his relatively low yardage and lack of touchdowns might suggest at a glance. Though this doesn't seem to have been the consensus anyway, he did make the pro bowl after all. While normally, we would say DSFL performance is largely irrelevant when assessing a player's ability, I feel it's important to note all of this ahead of his move to Chicago in the ISFL, where things seemed to go completely off the rails. See, in Chicago, Delacour was effectively the fourth or fifth name on the depth chart at receiver. So naturally, the numbers look even worse here than they should. While Delacour featured in fifteen of their sixteen games, he was targeted just nine times, making five catches. I won't dive any deeper here, because it doesn't really bear much investigation. If you're targeted nine times, it's highly likely you wouldn't get a single touchdown anyway. For completeness, Delacour did not get targeted in a single red zone situation. It is perhaps notable, though, that all five of his receptions for the Butchers yielded a first down. On to Colorado.  Things didn't start off too hot here either if we're being honest. The first two targets were an incompletion and an interception. But once again, we see a familiar pattern -- Delacour making short plays to move the chains. Through the first eight games of this season, Delacour was targeted 79 times by Mattathias Caliban, making 58 catches (~73% raw catch rate) -- of these passes, 61 were "catchable", for a true catch ratio of ~95%. That's quite the jump from his DSFL season, eh? Of those 61, almost half (28 to be precise) yielded first downs. This is comparable to the 50% first down rate he amassed in the DSFL, including drops. Given that the quality of opposition is significantly higher, that represents quite an improvement over two years. Delacour is still not a particularly favoured target in the red zone, though. Just ten targets in the red zone (seven receptions) and no touchdowns. One first down on a 2nd and 3 play against the Wraiths. That's it. Until the Silverbacks game. Of the thirteen passes thrown Delacour's way against the Silverbacks, one was picked off (for a touchdown), one broken up, one sailed over his head, and two were dropped. That leaves 8 of 10 caught, which represents a steep drop off from his true catch ratio for the season (80% as opposed to ~95% beforehand), likely due to him dropping almost as many passes in this game as he had all season to this point. But... there were also two touchdowns. The first a 27-yard reception off a 2nd and 13 play, and the second the only red zone target Delacour saw in the game; making the catch after second and goal on the one-yard line. There is something amusing about Delacour snagging not just one, but two, touchdowns -- the first of his professional career -- in front of one of his idols, James Bishop. Perhaps not as amusing as repeating the feat in the next game, against his old employers. He'd never admit it, but there was certainly a feeling of vindication -- seen in his celebrations, really -- when Raphael Delacour hauled in the first of his two touchdowns against the Chicago Butchers. While he stressed that he felt no ill-will toward the organisation, there was something that deeply satisfied him when he evaded Shields to level the scores toward the end of the first quarter. Once again, every time Delacour was targeted in the red zone, he scored a touchdown. That's three for three on red zone targets to touchdowns in the last couple of games. Similarly, of the nine targets thrown his way against Chicago, seven were caught. Of seven "catchable" passes. Five of them for a first down or touchdown. Four of the nine targets were on third down, too, with one of those yielding a touchdown. Does all of this mean that Raphael Delacour has "arrived", as they say? Of course not. But with the monkey off his back now, perhaps his confidence will go up and we'll see him get more looks from Caliban in the red zone where William Lim is likely to be well covered. This season, Delacour has 73 receptions for Colorado, off 101 targets. A true catch ratio of ~94% (73 catches from 78 catchable; just 5 drops), 605 yards, and now, four touchdowns. In addition, almost half of his receptions have earned a first down (36 of 73), with a red zone conversion rate of almost 25% (3 touchdowns from 13 red zone targets), or 30% if ignoring incomplete passes and passes defended (3 of 10 catchable red zone targets have resulted in a touchdown).  While Delacour remains a distant second choice to Lim -- who leads the league in receiving yards this season so far, with almost double Delacour's tally -- it is clear that he is developing a strong rapport with Caliban, and has shown his value in the short passing game while still possessing enough quickness to be a threat at range. Ask Dermot Lavelle, Jr. The Baltimore cornerback was burned for a career best 50 yard reception in week six, before narrowly preventing Delacour's first career touchdown on the next play. Would have been a particularly amusing scenario, had young Raphael got the touchdown there, given the rivalry the two men's fathers had in the league's earlier days. Should Delacour and Caliban develop in step, Colorado could have a particularly potent passing game in coming seasons, as their understanding deepens. And if Delacour's form over the past two games continues, he could be in with a shot at breakout player of the year. Though that's still a long shot, with almost half the season still to play.