Hernandez caught 6 passes between 11 and 20 yards down the field. I think it's safe to say that he showed little to no ability to run the 12-15 yard routes. Even less so when accounting for catches out of the middle of the field (which is the other qualifier that I think I forgot to mention).
Yes, Branch can do that. 16 of his 61 receptions were in the 11-20 yard range, all from out wide at WR. And this was in 11 games. Prorated, that's 23 in a 16-game season, which would've been easily the best on the team.
Welker had 10 catches in the 11-20 range. Nope, not good enough.
This is Chad Johnson's forte, though. He had 26 last year, 35 the year before, and an obscene 45 in 2007.