His strength, footwork, nimbleness and smarts allow him to carry a workload that Parker isn’t quite capable of at the moment.But when it comes to those deep jump balls, Parker gets the nod, even if it’s a very small sample size of examples.Not to mention, they’ve been in entirely different situations their entire careers.He’s working out of the slot here, displaying quickness off the ball and a sharp and deliberate snap at the top of the route:This is not a knock on Parker, as he’s a good, ascending player who I think is probably underrated.Can’t Guard Mike... from going at people on social media?And it’s understandable how this could be taken negatively from an outsider’s perspective, as it may seem unnecessary at times. Although, the one opportunity Thomas had to prove he could succeed with a backup quarterback, he passed with flying colors.They run a different route tree, and they run their routes completely differently.The answer is naturally cloudy because of the disparity in sample sizes, similar to their numbers in the short passing game. Offline: Phinfever Owner/Admin: Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2010 2:41 pm Posts: 19533 Location: Raleigh, NC Yeah, … The data bears this out.Comparing the two players is tough to do. Thomas couldn’t have been placed in a better system coming out of college, while Parker has endured a wheel of mediocrity at the quarterback position for most of his time in the NFL.
But they’re fewer and farther between than Mike simply getting open in the intermediate level of the field, which is more stable and consistent of a skill to have.This is where the argument between Thomas and Parker at least gets interesting. But the good news for Saints fans is the antics do not come at the expense of his performance, because, by God, he always backs his talk up.When he makes plays like this, it’s incredibly impressive. In the graphic below, he’s working out of the slot:But he can sometimes be guarded. Thomas is so elite at exploding out of his stance and setting up defenders at the top of his routes.While Thomas, on the contrary, may use the threat of his underneath game to get open deep, like on this Slant N Go.He actually out-paced Thomas in contested catch percentage on targets 10 air yards or more downfield, at 54.8 percent last year. I get it. On Dec. 13, Parker earned himself a four-year $40 million dollar contract extension with the Dolphins, ... DeVante Parker VS A.J.
It seems that he has made a great connection with current quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. But let’s use the entire sample size here.The formula to achieve this level of production consists of a heavy dose of deep curls, comebacks, outs and crossers. Mike, on the other hand, well, you can’t guard him.Now this back-and-forth was entertaining, but we’re here to talk about some of the debates that broke out from it.Where Thomas made his money last year wasn’t 20 yards downfield.