top returnman - Hester, Maroney, Hobbs, Miller, Jones-Drew, Turner, McGee, to name a few
welker ranked 28th in KR average...14th in PR and Faulk was 5th..
Yep, just IGNORE the fact the special teams blocking in Miami STUNK last year.
Also, lets also put the punt return in perspective. Welker averaged 9.2 yards per punt return. Faulk averaged 10.6 yards per return. A whopping 1.4 yards per return difference. That's not a lot. Especially when you take into consideration how bad the Miami punt return blocking was. Miami had to take 29 fair catches on 70 punts or 41% of the time ( 6 more than any other team). By comparison, the Pats only had to make 14 fair catches on 50 punts or 28% of the time.
Playmaker..doesnt matter who your QB is. Stallworth had 945 yards 7 TDs in 13 games with Aaron Brooks as his QB..Roy Williams had a huge year with Kitna...Boldin..Fitz..Johnson did well with a washed up Warner
This is garbage. It does matter who your QB is. Otherwise Randy Moss would have made Aaron Brooks and the other Raider QBs look good.
Williams had a huge year because he was the only other option outside of Mike Furrey.
Boldin, Fitz and Johnson caught more passes from Leinhart than they did Warner. And even with Warner there, he's more than adequate and still a step up from Harrington and 3 steps up on Cleo Lemon.
catchhing a lot of passes does not make u a playmaker..hes averaging 9 ypc and 1 TD...thats not a playmaker. Playmakers make plays..they score..they get big plays. Welker..hes not a playmaker
Actually, Welker averaged 10.3 YPC. That is 67 receptions for 687 yards. Of the 687 yards, 285 of them were Yards after catch. Please re-read that last statement. So, 40% of Welker's yardage came AFTER he caught the ball. You know what that tells me? Welker was getting thrown a lot of SHORT passes and proceeded to advance the ball 4 yards more after each catch. That's ALOT.
To give you a frame of reference, Stallworth had 218 YAC on 38 receptions, Branch had 187 YAC on 53 receptions, Caldwell had 221 YAC on 61 receptions, and Mike Furrey had 271 YAC on 98 receptions.
Now, something else. Just because you don't SCORE doesn't mean you aren't a play-maker. There are these wonderful little things called 1st downs. They are what allow your team to get into scoring position. 33 of Welker's 67 receptions resulted in a 1st down. To me, that is the sign of a play-maker. I can't hold it against him that Miami's offense didn't go to him in the red-zone. But then, how many teams go to the 5'9 #3 receiver in the red zone?
Even in 2001 when Troy Brown was their #1 receiver, he only caught 5 TDs.
i'll admit. I HATED THE MOVE. 2 nd rounder for welker..boooooooo but it doesnt mean i wont respect what he does..or i wont be happy. im saying hes not a playmaker nor a top returnman like someone said..
Welker is a good return man and he IS a play-maker. He's got very good hands. He was a target 100 times, making 67 catches. Of the 33 times he didn't catch the ball, 4 were drops on his part. 8 were passes that were defensed. The rest were thrown away.
With the Patriots blocking, I think that Welker will be in the 10-13 YPR on punts. I think he will be the #2 KR option unless the Pats don't add someone, but my gut tells me that the #1 option will either be Hobbs or a WR draft pick.
Now, before anyone goes off half-****ed and starts acting like I am annointing Welker as a savior or this ultimate #1 WR, I'm not. I see Welker as what Troy Brown was when the Pats has Shawn Jefferson and Terry Glenn. I see Welker in the same category as Wayne Chrebet was for the Jets. A tremendous role player who gives you 110% on the field every play of every game.
