Welcome Zander Horvath, FB, Purdue (R7, #260)

[dmac_bolt]

I bet he will replace Gabe on the roster. If he can get his reads right in protection he will be deadly. Fluid for his body build. Good hands. Power power power. "few years down the road". More like 1-2 touches per game out of the gate.

He is a LOT faster than Gabe. He looks stronger, runs a lot better, definitely has much better hands, I do not see one thing he won’t be better at. Gabe is no all-world blocker, lets not exaggerate to the point we all start laughing

[blueman]

He is a LOT faster than Gabe. He looks stronger, runs a lot better, definitely has much better hands, I do not see one thing he won’t be better at. Gabe is no all-world blocker, lets not exaggerate to the point we all start laughing

Just gotta hate on a player, don’tcha?

[Fleet 1]

Good game to watch.

[dmac_bolt]

Just gotta hate on a player, don’tcha?

LOL, where’s the hate? Nabers is an NFL player. Horvath is faster, stronger, a pass catching threat, … all i see here is love sweet love.

(edit) BTW - I tend to exaggerate the greatness of Charger rookies before reality exposes truth on an actual field. I’m a glass half full guy, I predict positive outcomes when its unknown because life is a happier trip around the sun if we program that future events to be positive. Reality will arrive soon enough, there’s no need to live negative events in advance.

Again - its love. Horvath is not the Galloping Ghost. He’s likely not John Riggins. We’ll just have to see what he’s got. But he is definitely faster. He’ll have to show he can play ST to make the team imo.

[Bolt-O]

Lots of recency bias on this player. Its a great story if he does break out to be a great player; I just want to see how he does in camp and preseason, and that's a while from now.

[Steve]

When i brought up those 2 players i was thinking goal line carries and sneaky plays in the pass game. Ive seen Kyle have some decent impacts on the passing game with the niners. Horvath had a decent amount of catches for the type of guy he is. I just dont get the feeling that he is a RB at the next level. Who knows. But i think hes more than a blocking FB. I feel like they might like the potemtial to do some of the things Kuhn and Kyle did. From a making plays pov.

Your last 2 sentences are exactly what im thinking.

Yeah, the 49ers do a great job of mixing in run action with the TE and RB, with the releases to a big part of their passing game. So, LB and S just don't know if it is going to be a run or a pass.

I don't think Kyle is a great receiver. he is a good receiver, but the 49ers/packers scheme gives them opportunities other teams don't have. I think Horvath could be even better, because he is a bit bigger, and faster than Kyle and Kuhn (not bigger than Kuhn, but close).

I also like the fact that with 2 RB in the backfield, it gives the blockers a lot of extra chances to help out or to do blitz adjustments. IF a D is putting a ton of money or really high draft picks into their DE, and we can use the FB to neutralize them, that is a big win in terms of how we use our capital (assets) to beat their capital.

I do think Nabers still has a chance to be a FB/TE for us. He is NOT going to be a Kyle/Kuhn type of guy, so not a guy who gets a lot of touches. He isn't that good at hitting a moving target on the perimeter (off tackle or outside). But if he can show some ability as a goalline-short-yardage guy, that is still a big thing for a team that is showing the tendency to play a lot of extra situational stuff for those downs. Give him a shot as an H-back guy maybe we ask to add some weight and then be that FB to blast the MLB out of the hole on the iso-lead. So we have a package in short-yardage with Horvath at RB and Nabers at FB. It doesn't prevent us from using Horvath in there at FB sometimes with Ekeler and Spiller, it just gives us more packages and gets in the other team's heads about what we want to do. A lot of teams still think when you play 3 TE and FB, it is a heavy jumbo, but a Parham, McKitty, Everette TE group with a Nabers Horvath backfield still has some pass-catching ability, or it does if we can get Nabers to develop.

Normally it is a little late in his career for a late change of pace thing with Nabers, but he is Herbert's best friend, so I think they can do some extra work on the side. He won't be a great player, but I think he can be a decent 3rd/4th TE and 2nd FB type on a roster that you probably don't want to be getting rid of one of our better ST guys. The odds are low, but there is a chance.

[Steve]

Norv was trying to do this with Jacob Hester
(memory deleted)

The problem I always have with NFL teams and how they develop players is guys like Hester. They aren't as good and probably need some skill set development. So, they get a ton of work in TC, and then the team never uses them in the season, because they don't have the skills you want. But by not using them, they sit around and play 1 or 2 plays a game, and ST, and then we try again next year. Maybe he totally sucked in practice and didn't deserve chances to be on the field. It happens. But when we used Hester as a RB, he wasn't awful. He was a little bit productive at a time when we had LT starting to drop off due to age. I just think teams/caoches need to commit to a plan and then do it enough to see if it is working.

Horvath is not going to be exactly what we want at RB (probably), but we should probably let him get some work there and as an H-back while he learns to play FB. Keep Nabers, who is passable at FB to hold down the fort for now (and he learns to be an iso-FB and H-back-blocker). And then the team has to not only give them a chance in the regular season. But we have a LOT more of those chances than most teams do. We have something like 50% more 4th downs in short-yardage because of how often we go for it. An extra 50% in goalline situations. We won't use them in all of those extra plays, but we will in some, and if there is any success, it gives Nabers and Horvath a chance to build on and get some confidence. And I think that is half the battle.

[equivocation]

2021 saw a big rise in split back bubble option concepts out of 02 personnel groups. Having at least 2 RBs who can catch puts the D in a bind when they run screens in opposite directions.

[Formula 21]

Justin Herbert has a 97.8 passer rating on 4th downs. In 4th and short yardage situations it would be nice to have a hammer to compliment Eckler.

And it's below 100 because there are no bombs or TDs generally on 4th down.

[Bolts4ever213]

Core special teams player for me. We need those. Work his way to make an impact on offense.

[SuperCharged]

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[blueman]

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Can he be our Kelce?