National Football Writer Agitates Taylor Gabriel
It started with a tweet, but it was a tweet that Taylor Gabriel didn’t appreciate.
Football is a 12-month sport these days. Because of the popularity of the sport, writers are kept busy for 12 months a year writing about the NFL, but at times, there isn’t enough news to fill up the columns. That forces writers to speculate and try to create news items out of nothing. On Wednesday, that happened to Pro Football Focus’ Mike Renner.
Renner is labeled as a “senior analyst” for PFF. While he was “analyzing” the Chicago Bears’ roster, he tweeted out this little nugget.
It's crazy to think the Bears top four receiving options - Allen Robinson, Kevin White, Anthony Miller, and Trey Burton - played a grand total of 395 snaps in the NFL last year. Definition of a wildcard unit
— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) May 30, 2018
Renner saw a way to question the Bears receiving unit coming off their 2017 seasons, but there’s only one problem with his statistic: he didn’t include Taylor Gabriel. That’s an oversight that anyone who follows the Bears’ knows you can’t make heading into this season.
In no universe is Kevin White in front of Taylor Gabriel on the #Bears WR depth chart. https://t.co/cLdmCquE3u
— Bill Zimmerman (@ZimmermanSXM) May 30, 2018
Gabriel is 100% one of the Bears’ top four receiving targets this year, and if for some reason you didn’t think that was the case, you would at least turn to Tarik Cohen or Adam Shaheen. You certainly wouldn’t turn to Kevin White and his five games played in three seasons.
Well, when you tweet things into the world of social media, plenty of people see them, including the players you are discussing.
Just no he will regret this come August I promise you
— Taylor Gabriel (@TGdadon1) May 30, 2018
Brugh really trippin lol must haven’t watched any film lol
— Taylor Gabriel (@TGdadon1) May 30, 2018
Gabriel responded to Renner, which caught Renner’s eye, and Gabriel responded to him yet again:
The disrespect was what I needed I can’t even believe that you would feel comfortable as a expert to write that lol
— Taylor Gabriel (@TGdadon1) May 30, 2018
I think the best response from Gabriel was “he will regret this come August.” Notice Gabriel said August. He didn’t say September. He didn’t say December. He said August. As in, wait until the preseason when it’s clear that this tweet has no basis of anything sensical.
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Say what you will about PFF, some of their statements and player grades might be a little questionable, but they are a professional organization with qualified employees. For someone to tweet about the Bears in that capacity and call themselves an expert is really off base. That is someone who saw a good stat and conveniently created his stance. For the record, Gabriel played in 540 offensive snaps last season according to Football Outsiders. If Renner included Gabriel in his tweet, it would have blown up his stance, so Renner chose to twist a situation to fit his argument and in turn looks ignorant.
Gabriel could have been nasty towards Renner but went the more playful route in his replies. Renner a time least tees up Gabriel with his “make me look dumb” response. For Gabriel, that should be easy.