Leonard Hankerson

Let me put it to you this way.

I asked Leonard Hankerson straight up about him.

And he stopped himself because he was on the record.

But you asked him about Will Pauling and he wouldn't shut the hell up in a positive way.

You can't use Watkins on downfield stuff.

It's like, what's going on there? I mean, seriously, is Leonard Hankerson can't coach? Is it John can't pick? Is it Kyle can't pick? I mean, what's going on? You have to play your guys.

And it's like, you know what? We just kind of never put them out there, and we never really felt they were good enough.

Put your guys on the field and let them be judged and let yourself be judged.

Yeah.

And just, like, how he learned, oh, like, Hankerson can do this.

Mm-hmm.

Tanne can do this.

... and that's someone you had to have on the field.

So I think that's the way I think about it.

Like, Tanne is gonna have more catches, I think, than Leonard Hankerson that year.

Yeah.

He can run after the catch.

His route running has improved already just through training camp with Leonard Hankerson coaching him up and watching.

And one thing he's always had, even though the route running and the footwork may not have been precise, he's got a timing element of when to be in the spot.

And that's a big part of what makes Devontae Adams a great route runner.

What did you guys think of his performance week one? loved it

i i oh here let me ask you this boone they showed him on the sideline okay and he says to leonard hankerson hey man third down in the red zone i want to look i mean he was like adamant about that do you look at that as like too me centric or is that like a veteran saying hey man i'm gonna carry us i mean how do you see that because you could spin that either way you could be like you know what bro's about bro or you could be like no bro's about winning and

Well, the first time they went down by the goal line, he didn't get a look.

So I guess he had to say something.

It didn't take long for that to be a thing.

And at one point, you see a sideline shot of Evans saying to Leonard Hankerson, hey, man, when we get in the red zone, make sure I get a look.

And he's going to get a look every time they go to the red zone.

Every time they go to the red zone, they're going to get a look.

And we didn't even get into what he can do for the run game.

That is a thing that Leonard Hankerson and I talked about this in the spring, and then we talked about it again this summer.

They did not believe that their run blocking as a receiver group was nearly up to par last year, and it wasn't.

And I think that affected a lot of, you know, everyone makes a big deal of the Christian McCaffrey.