GOD- I am tired of your constant complaints about the management team that has kept the the longest running success story in NFL HISTORY together. But now that my rant is over, feel free to nitpick bad draft choices that ALL teams make if it makes you feel better (and it obviously does.). But pretending that Gabe Davis was an obvious choice because he had one great day in the playoffs is ludicrous beyond ANY measure. '
BUT the great thing about your post is that it got me thinking more about the annual whine for WR's fest we have EVERY year, regardless of the results on the field.
Now I don't disagree that having a great WR isn't helpful to an offense, but it has NEVER been a key element to overall team success. Let's take for example Cooper Kupp. I just read a post combine draft analysis before his draft. He ran a 4.65 forty but had a 6.75 3cone. Among his weakness they mentioned his quickness didn't translate into separation at times. This is now the guy who is the best WR in the league and is CONSTANTLY catching passes BEHIND opposing defenses, including the game winner last week. It got me to rethink a bit about what exactly MAKES a WR great. And there are a LOT of factors.
1. Offensive system - One of Jerry Rice's breaks came when he was picked by the 49'ers in the first years of the West Coast offense, and offense that is still causing problems for DC almost 35 years after its start with Bill Walsh, But back then it was a freakin' mystery that led to the Niner's dynasty run back in the 80's and even into the 90's as teams slowly started (as they always do) adjust to new things.
The Pats have an offensive system that has been both innovative and flexible over the years. It is built to effectively utilize the talent at hand, and has proven over the years to often lead the way establishing new trends. So I'm good with the brain trust, and I'm not different than most when it comes to the usual complaints during. game day when they do something that I wouldn't have done. BUT despite the fact that I still go nuts when they fail to even give the potential of a run on 3rd and 4 or less (and this has gone on for over 10 years), the offense (IMHO) has usually exceeded its athletic potential.
And we also have to admit to ourselves that we are making our judgements about game decisions with about 1% of the information that the coaches are using to make theirs
2. QB - who you have as QB OBVIOUSLY affects the success of any WR and passing offense. I don't need to go into more depth about an issue that has been talked about over and over, Suffice it to say, so far so good. Right now we have a QB who was JUST in the top half of the league stats wise, and looks to be a keeper in all of the intangible aspects of game (leadership, competitiveness, intensity etc). No one knows exactly what type of QB Mac will develop into. The range could be anywhere between mediocre to great. I think we can safely say we can eliminate "bad" from the equation.
I'm sure he will be working hard to improve on aspects of his game. I'd love to hear some time this off season that he spent a week with Tom House and his group, though it's just a hope.
3. OL - Another "keen sense of the obvious" selection - Ours is not elite but above average. The run game was decent and the pass blocking was surprisingly effective with the 3rd fewest sacks. I hope we do get better though and Mac himself with help with that as he gets more elusive in the pocket with more experience.
4. Targets- No WR is going to be successful if they aren't going to around 10 targets or more a game. Plaub and simple.
5. The ability to separate OR win the catch while being covered. That takes me back to Cooper Kupp. Here's a guy with BELOW average speed and good but not great quickness who has CONSISTENTLY beat defenses and created separation AND won contested balls all year.
So the question becomes HOW? I'm not sure I know because we don't get to see him very often. But I'd love to find his duplicate and hear from others who can offer their thoughts on the why and how of Cooper Kupp. But its clear to me that you don't have to draft in the top 10 to get one. PLUS you are about 50-50 even if you pick one in the first round. We bemoan like banshees over missing on a #32 pick when we all know about WR misses that have been made MUCH higher
But count me among those who hope we add more speed all over the field this off season but the bottom line here is that we need to use our early picks on the DL and/or CB, well before we use them for WR. Bourne has proven he can eventually be a 100 yd receiver as Andy pointed out, if he is on the field more than 50% of the time and gets more targets. Meyers is good at what he is, and Angular IMHO wasn't utilized well. It seemed to me that most of the time his role was to run clear out routes to open up others,
Harry is likely out the door, but Wilkerson continues to intrigue us with BRIEF flashes of brilliance followed by obvious examples of why he is still on the PS most of the time.
So in the end I've written a lot of crap that go back to the THESE points. You can find WR's good enough to gain 200 yds in a playoff game in every round of the draft and some that aren't even drafted. Second, it takes all kinds of skills to create separation. Cooper Kupp seems to do it every route DESPITE not having the obvious physical skills we look for in our ideal WR. I think that needs to be studied more.
