FanPost

49ers @ Broncos - Jarryd Hayne's worst game........but was it bad?

First let me state that I am by no means and NFL expert prior to Hayne's arrival my NFL watching experience was limited to

- Super Bowl most years

- Pro Bowl maybe once every 5 years

- The occasional regular season or play off game when to be honest I had nothing better to do and there was a game on TV.

However, through the first 3 pre-season games and reading/listening to plenty of NFL/49ers sites & podcasts, I like to think that I'm starting to pick up on things and slowly learning more about the game.

In the first two pre-season games Hayne has looked like a star especially in kick return duties however, he has also lead the 49ers in rushing in both the opening 2 games, a lot of that yardage was due to a 34 and 54 yard runs, but he has been the one to make them.

Now, that brings us to this game that statistically was by far Hayne's worse game officially he made 0 yards from 2 rushes, an 18 yard gain on 1 reception, 12 yard gain on 1 punt return and was involved in 2 incomplete passes.

Even then that was good enough for the longest punt return on the day and the longest reception on San Francisco's side (at least according to the stats info I've seen).

Breaking down Hayne's involvements in the game

First the bad:

1. The 2 incomplete passes as I would think is the case with every pass that fails to be completed it is a joint responsibility of the QB and receiver that caused the play to break down. If Hayne is 10%, 90% or somewhere in-between to blame for the play breaking down I'm not sure but he does need to take at least some of the blame and must improve on his route running moving forward to minimise that chances of having the same problems occur again.

2. The 2 rushes for 0 yards. The big negative is that these two rushes glaringly showed the issues everyone has been pointing out about Jarryd's pad height. It's debateable how much yardage he would've gotten with a better oad height but it would have helped.

Now the good

1. The punt return was the best on the day, like in his previous games he looked confident catching the punt and has still yet to call for a fair catch. Comparing him to the other two players used in punt return duties, Reggie Bush just didn't looked confident at all and it showed when he let one bounce before retrieving the ball on the 3 yard line which lead to a sack and 2 point safety. DeAndrew White while he has caught everything in his chances in the opening 3 games, he has called for a fair catch on multiple occasions and at least some of those at least to my untrained eye seem to have been incorrectly called and he easily could have caught the ball and made a decent return, and I'm confident in saying Hayne would have done so.

2. The 18 yard reception, this was arguably Hayne's big play of the game. He was solid with his catch off the pass and then put a sweet move on the linebacker to get past him and make ground upfield, before being pulled down had he been able to make it past the guy who tackled him who knows how far he could've gotten.

3. No loss of yards, his rushing both today with the 0 gain and in the opening 2 games if you take out the big runs hasn't been great but at no time in 3 games has a rush of his resulted in a loss of yards.

4. No fumbles (officially). Over the opening 3 games Hayne has yet to fumble the ball (and argument can be made for one play against the Texans however it was officially ruled an incomplete pass and was the result of what Australians at least would call a Hospital Pass) Hayne has had to deal with a lot of heavy contact in his runs but has had the ball security to avoid a fumble, When watching his Rugby League highlights plenty of 49ers fans were questioning his ball security.

5. 2 forced touchbacks on kickoffs. Twice during the game Hayne was out on kick-off return duties while the conditions allowed for more touchbacks then I would assume is the norm, both times the Broncos made sure to kick the ball out of bounds while when others were out there it appeared less of the emphasis was on ensuring the ball went out. To me this appeared that Hayne at least has the Broncos respect if not fear.

6. Versatility. This is the big thing that could net Hayne not only a spot on the 53 man roster but some decent playing time in games. He has shown the he should now be considering the 40ers primary punt return and even kick off returner, he has played as a rushing RB and also today showed he can take receptions how much of this will actually been seen in a full regular season game is debatable but he has shown enough to be at this stage an decent option as a #4 RB. On top of this he has also shown promise on the defensive side of kick-offs and punters if not as the gunner then at very least on the coverage team.

I could well be talking complete BS here as stated at the start, my knowledge of the game is limited and even watching games now I'm concentrating more on what Hayne and those competing for the same roles are doing then watching every aspect of every play but from what I've seen the 40ers could do a hell of a lot worse then have Hayne as the starting returner, #4 RB and as a gunner option.

and with that 2 questions

First, am I at all close on my assessment of Hayne's performance so far?
Second, while a much more downplayed game then his previous outings and a few bad points will the CS see enough that even if a game like today is among Hayne's worse that there is still enough there to keep him on the 53 and being on the 46 man active roster for most if not all games?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.