NFL 2012 Receiving Corps Power Rankings

[Rob0729]

The fact is that there have been players who have struggled with the playbook. Of course there have been. Your presumption is that it contributed meaningfully to their failure, and there's virtually no evidence of that. Every WR that you cited failed to make anything resembling an impact in the NFL after leaving New England, which indicates pretty strongly that none of them were NFL-caliber football players. That is the reason why they failed, no other contribution necessary.

Ok, looking back I may have misspoke. I also did bring the other guys up first. My bad there.

I disagree that all the guys failed because they weren't NFL caliber players though. Donald Hayes was an up and coming WR when the Pats got him and was one year removed from a 926 yard season. He was not ever going to be an elite WR, but he was looking like a solid one. I think his inability to grasp the system here shattered his confidence. That is potentially the same with Doug Gabriel and a few others. You see it all the time around the league where a fairly young players loses his confidence and becomes a shell of himself.

My overall point was that you can't compare Ochocinco to Lloyd, Gaffney, and Stallworth. Completely different situations. Ocho was an unknown in this offense AND he has lost a step. All the other guys are proven in this system and other than Stallworth, haven't lost a step.

I will concede the other part about past WRs, but my point stands stand with Ocho vs. the new WR additions this year.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Ok, looking back I may have misspoke. I also did bring the other guys up first. My bad there.

I disagree that all the guys failed because they weren't NFL caliber players though. Donald Hayes was an up and coming WR when the Pats got him and was one year removed from a 926 yard season. He was not ever going to be an elite WR, but he was looking like a solid one. I think his inability to grasp the system here shattered his confidence. That is potentially the same with Doug Gabriel and a few others. You see it all the time around the league where a fairly young players loses his confidence and becomes a shell of himself.

That's fair- I'm not a big fan of evaluating things like shattered confidence, just because it happens so far behind the scenes that I don't even know how we'd begin differentiating it from a number of other reasons, but it's definitely a possible cause. In Gabriel's case, I actually thought that he was reasonably alright as a Patriot, albeit inconsistent to the point of being a dealbreaker. He'd look great for a couple of plays per game and then disappear for the rest.

My overall point was that you can't compare Ochocinco to Lloyd, Gaffney, and Stallworth. Completely different situations. Ocho was an unknown in this offense AND he has lost a step. All the other guys are proven in this system and other than Stallworth, haven't lost a step.

I will concede the other part about past WRs, but my point stands stand with Ocho vs. the new WR additions this year.

Definitely agree here. Apples and oranges, none of these guys has anything in common with Ochocinco.