Red Raiders in the NFL 11.12.14

More Good Press on Amaro's Rookie Season. Jace Amaro is blocking well and catching most of what comes his way. He caught a Michael Vick touchdown pass on Sunday, his second in the regular season, which helped them to a 20-13 victory over the Steelers. He continues to be a bright spot for the New York Jets and is surpassing all expectations for himself.

"I felt like I've done a pretty good job. Honestly, I felt like I surpassed what I thought I was going to do at the midway point," he said. "Catching 30 balls my rookie year, I thought that would be a pretty high goal, especially the way training camp went early on. We still have seven games left and I feel really good about it. I think I'm just going to go out there and see what I could do and just produce as much as I can."

When he's not catching passes, one of Amaro's main responsibilities is run-blocking. Coming out of a spread-style offense at Texas Tech, he wasn't asked to block as much as he has been in the NFL.

During training camp it was a major point of emphasis for Amaro, who spent much of his time learning the proper technique and coupling that with his assignments.

Nine weeks into his professional career, he said it's been one of the improvements in his game that he is most proud of.

Waddle served as a team captain this week. In only his second year in the league, LaAdrian Waddle's value on and off the field has come to the attention of his head coach Jim Caldwell. Caldwell rotates captain's responsibilities among the team's leaders, and this week, our very own LaAdrian Waddle got the nod.

LaAdrian Waddle sat in the meeting room Friday morning, a grin on his face because of what he had just heard.

The right tackle, who has missed four games this season with a calf injury and then a concussion, was just named one of Detroit's three captains for Sunday against Miami -- a somewhat surprising honor considering Waddle is only a second-year player in the NFL and is one of the first captains Jim Caldwell has named outside his leadership council.

"[I was] a little surprised. A little surprised," Waddle said Friday. "But it's an honor, of course. You embrace it as what it is, but it doesn't change too much as far as going into the game."

Unfortunately, Waddle left toward the end of the game with a knee injury, but he seems likely to return this week.

Waddle was practicing with the first team OL and wearing a pair of knee braces.

— Josh Katzenstein (@jkatzenstein) November 12, 2014

Welker bounces back from another injury. Wes Welker will be active this week, even though he was knocked out of Week 9 after taking a brutal hit to the back by Devin McCourty. The 33-year-old has 22 catches for 212 yards and a touchdown this season, which has some talking of his retirement.

To be blunt, Welker has gotten old, and it is time for the Broncos to move on. The 33-year-old, always reliant on nifty-shifty quickness in the middle of the field, has lost a little of the agility that made him special. He is now in steep decline, and while the Broncos are so weapon-laden they can use Welker as a 3rd-and-3 specialist and decoy, they must worry more Patriots-caliber games are coming.

That perspective seems a bit harsh; as Red Raiders we can hope that Welker can continue to contribute on the field despite his age, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Our other two Denver Broncos, Louis Vasquez and Manny Ramirez, allowed a clean game for Peyton Manning as Denver easily handled the Oakland Raiders 41-17.

Cody Davis returns from injury and records a tackle on special teams for the St. Louis Rams.

Amendola shows value in the slot. Stats indicate that the New England Patriots have the most success when they have three receivers on the field, and their third receiver is usually Danny Amendola. Even though Amendola was involved in Tom Brady's first interception since September 29th (off a deflection), he has also made catches for some key third-down conversions and will hopefully continue to see more snaps moving forward this season.