Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Jenkins plays key role with Falcons offens
By Jeff Haws
For the AJC
He's the forgotten man on a potent Falcons offense.
While receiver Roddy White and quarterback Matt Ryan elicit MVP discussion during Atlanta's 8-2 start, while tight end Tony Gonzalez continues his march to the Hall of Fame and tailback Michael Turner pounds the ball between the tackles, receiver Michael Jenkins gets little attention.
Missing the first half of the team's 10 games with a shoulder injury didn't help put him into the spotlight. Nor does the fact that in the five games he has been able to play, he's yet to find the end zone.
But Jenkins' 14.2-yard average per catch is the best on the team. And in the past two games, only White has more catches for Atlanta than Jenkins' 10.
The talk all seems to be going elsewhere, but Jenkins relishes his role as a stealth weapon for the Falcons.
"It's big for me to be able to come through when those guys are being doubled and I have to win one-on-one," Jenkins said. "If I'm not winning that, we're not moving the ball downfield. I have to say thanks to those guys for carrying all the attention. I don't mind that. The guys on our team know what I can do and what I bring to the table. It's just going in and being a teammate."
Nobody knows better what Jenkins brings to the offense than Ryan, who has seen defenses focus put most of their efforts into stopping White and Gonzalez, leaving Jenkins with room to operate.
That's one of the big reasons getting him back on the field after missing the first five games was important. Ryan can see the difference from the pocket.
"It's huge. When you have that many guys of that caliber, it makes it difficult on a defense," Ryan said. "They can't just try to take away one guy. There's a number of guys who can get the job done. Being the talented player that [Jenkins] is, when he came back, that made our offense better."
Jenkins showed just what he was capable of in his first game back, a 31-17 loss in Philadelphia, when the seventh-year wideout caught five balls for a team-high 99 yards.
Four weeks later, he made one of the biggest catches by any Falcon this season. His 24-yard sideline catch on third-and-10 in the last minute against Baltimore kept alive a drive that eventually resulted in the game-winning touchdown.
It was a long bench route that showed a true chemistry between Ryan and Jenkins, a bond forged through years of practice.
"He's disciplined in his route running," Ryan said. "His sense of timing is really good. When you have routes like the one you mentioned, that's a complete trust route. You let the ball go and you have to trust that he'll be in the exact right spot."
The team's use of the no-huddle passing game requires precision in receivers getting off the line and knowing where to be, something at which Jenkins has excelled.
?There are certain routes that Michael runs extremely well," coach Mike Smith said. "I think there?s a comfort level and I thought Michael had great concentration because there were some balls, where he was coming over the middle [Sunday], that he had to concentrate because he knew there were guys closing on him.?
Doing so takes confidence, which is something Jenkins has in good supply, particularly in an offense with as many options as this one.
"We've been in this system for three years, so we've run those route numerous times," Jenkins said. "It becomes like the back of your hand. There is that trust issue because we do have a lot of timing routes."
