WRs: Every team but one

[Deus Irae]

And the Rams had:

Robert Woods - 1,219 yards, 6tds
Brandin Cooks - 1,204 yards, 5 tds
Josh Reynolds - 402 yard (8 starts), 5tds

How come they only scored 3 points?

Goff and McVay both wet themselves.

 

[luuked]

I think the reason we can get away with not having a true #1 WR is because of Gronk and strong pass catching RBs. It works.

I'd add McDaniels' playcalling and game planning to that. I know people often like to **** on him for sometimes getting too lost in all the plans he has going on at the same time but he really understands how to attack personnel and schemes with the players he has available.

And the question then becomes.. as valuable as it is to have a true WR1 who gets doubled and can open up space.. is it really worth WR1 money if he is more often used as a decoy than as a contributor ? Which is the Brandin Cooks situation in a nutshell. Worth it during a rookie contract but once the pay spikes up is this truly the best way to allocate your finite resources ?

The thing with Gronk is that his high level blocking adds another dimension to him that makes it absolutely worth it even if he gets limited targets like last year.

 

[zoostation]

This team needs to get the Pittsburgh WR drafting algorithm! They consistantly draft all star wide outs year after year. No need to pay for washed up veterans or high priced free agents when you can draft an impact player that is affordable. It's really sad. Coulda beat the Dolts in 2006 with a decent receiving core.

Pats scored 34 points that night. Could have beat the Colts if the D hung on to a good sized lead going into the 3rd quarter.

When was the last time a top notch A+ wide receiver won a championship?

 

[zoostation]

Goff and McVay both wet themselves.

Truth be told Cooks wet himself too.

 

[manxman2601]

Pats scored 34 points that night. Could have beat the Colts if the D hung on to a good sized lead going into the 3rd quarter.

When was the last time a top notch A+ wide receiver won a championship?

Brandin Cooks x2, Alston Jeffries and Julio Jones have all been in the last 3 SBs.

 

[Tony2046]

Not disagreeing but explain that a little. Safety help?

Sorry for the brief reply but I was at work.

Stretching the field , to me, generically means forcing the safeties to play a little deeper and opening up some underneath routes. Possibly using one safety as over the top help or whatever.

Edelman was just shredding them underneath. So in that sense, Edelman was stretching the field or forcing the defense to key in on him while leaving other routes open.

During that three play sequence on the TD scoring drive we saw how the defense keyed in on Edelman leaving Burkhead open and then later the seem route to Gronk open.

Just my opinion.

 

[patchick]

We had a dozen of people on this board who wanted....

-OBJ
-Trade for Julio Jones
-Trade for AJ Green (including myself but not at his current deal)
-Shoulda kept Cooks because Gordon can't stay clean
-AB

Yep, that's actually why I waited until now to start this post. My hope was that once the AB/OBJ silly season was over we could have a discussion about what we should really do at the WR position. And last I checked, nobody in this thread was pounding the table for a $16-million WR, so maybe it worked!

FWIW I've always been in the camp that says that marquee WRs are overvalued. I've even argued that the Falcons made a mistake trading so many picks to move up for Julio Jones. But I also assumed it was obvious that a 33-year-old Julian Edelman and a maybe-retiring Rob Gronkowski can't be the team's entire plan for this season.

 

[zoostation]

Brandin Cooks x2, Alston Jeffries and Julio Jones have all been in the last 3 SBs.

I rest my case with this response.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Yep, that's actually why I waited until now to start this post. My hope was that once the AB/OBJ silly season was over we could have a discussion about what we should really do at the WR position. And last I checked, nobody in this thread was pounding the table for a $16-million WR, so maybe it worked!

FWIW I've always been in the camp that says that marquee WRs are overvalued. I've even argued that the Falcons made a mistake trading so many picks to move up for Julio Jones. But I also assumed it was obvious that a 33-year-old Julian Edelman and a maybe-retiring Rob Gronkowski can't be the team's entire plan for this season.

They most certainly need to do something at the WR and TE positions. There is no debate there. As usual Bill will go about finding the right talent at a price point that isn't going to cripple the team's cap and limit their financial and roster flexibility.

 

[manxman2601]

People seem to be singularly incapable of dealing with the premise of this thread and have decided it’s about A+ WRs somehow.

It was a perfectly reasonable topic considering the current state of the WR corps which I doubt anyone thinks is optimal for going into the 2019 season.

And my answer would be to double or triple dip in the draft and hope Gordon comes back sooner rather than later. I’d kick the tires on Jordy Nelson and hope there’s a trade to be had for a cheaper but effective WR. I’ve mentioned Sterling Shepard previously.

 

[Ivan]

I am so done with this fanbase overrating the importance of the WR position in this offense.

Saying we won despite the WR position is crap.

Before the SB, Hogan had good games. So did Jules and Dorsett.

As we have seen, Bill and JMc like playmaking WRs (Branch, Randy, Flash, Lloyd, Cooks) but we don't need them to win. They know it.

All we need are players who can get open and represent legitimate threats in the passing game. Beating man coverage is a plus.

Yep. This team is in excellent shape and the offseason has just begun. The whining crying moaning and *****ing is at fever pitch when all they really have to do is find a couple of good WR’s between now and September. Belichick takes a different approach to offseason’s, largely because he has to. Drafting at the end of every round every year, and losing good players to monster deals because of their success makes it so he has to find ways to maximize the value of everything he’s trying to do. So when everyone is going one way he will go the other, and imo that’s what’s going on with his approach to free agency and this draft. Getting guys like Pennel, and looking at Bailey and Philon is because he knows front seven defenders are going to get plundered in the 1st round so he will fill defensive holes in free agency, and go offense in the draft. I won’t be surprised at all if he goes TE/WR/OL and double dips at WR in this draft. And I would bet on him trading for a WR around the draft.

 

[luuked]

We had a dozen of people on this board who wanted....

-OBJ
-Trade for Julio Jones
-Trade for AJ Green (including myself but not at his current deal)
-Shoulda kept Cooks because Gordon can't stay clean
-AB

The thing with Green is just that he seemed the most realistic when it came to the "big names" in terms of salary and acquisition potential 2-3 weeks before FA opened.

But given how AB and OBJ both renegotiated their deal immediately after getting traded I have a feeling Green would want the same to get closer to market rate making his contract suddenly not interesting anymore.

 

[Deus Irae]

I rest my case with this response.

Then you didn't have a case.

 

[TB_Helmet]

Brandin Cooks x2, Alston Jeffries and Julio Jones have all been in the last 3 SBs.

As we saw a couple months ago when this was discussed, any trend about "Teams that do X haven't won the Super Bowl" needs to be qualified with the fact that the Patriots winning so often biases the trend.

So if the Patriots don't have a bonafide #1 WR (which is frequently the case, and I don't put Cooks in that category), then you can always say that #1 WRs never win Super Bowls.

You can also say that 6th round QBs frequently win them, but that doesn't mean other teams should count on a guy they drafted in the 6th round to be their new QB.

 

[Deus Irae]

Truth be told Cooks wet himself too.

Truth be told, Cooks was interfered with at the goal line or would have had a TD, and he had his QB completely screw up the play that ended with him pinned in the back of the endzone.

Cooks was a referee's proper call, and decent QB throw, away from being the game's MVP.

 

[patchick]

People seem to be singularly incapable of dealing with the premise of this thread and have decided it’s about A+ WRs somehow.

I actually went back to my original post to see if I'd misremembered it! But no, it wasn't about spending money at all, it was about draft picks vs. veterans. Go figure.

IMO the reason the modest-priced veteran strategy didn't work last year isn't because they declined to throw money at the problem. Individual players just didn't work out as hoped. If Gordon had stayed clean, maybe it would have worked. But he didn't. If Dorsett had taken a big leap forward in year 2 with Brady, maybe it would have worked. But he didn't. Etc.

There are probably similar modest gambles to take this year. Jordy Nelson, for instance. But my gut says that this is the year to also try restocking WR and TE through the draft.

 

[Patjew]

Goff and McVay both wet themselves.

And that was awesome.

 

[manxman2601]

As we saw a couple months ago when this was discussed, any trend about "Teams that do X haven't won the Super Bowl" needs to be qualified with the fact that the Patriots winning so often biases the trend.

So if the Patriots don't have a bonafide #1 WR (which is frequently the case, and I don't put Cooks in that category), then you can always say that #1 WRs never win Super Bowls.

You can also say that 6th round QBs frequently win them, but that doesn't mean other teams should count on a guy they drafted in the 6th round to be their new QB.

Absolutely. And whether a team with a bona-fide receiver wins a championship is an irrelevant and not particularly smart argument to make. The Rams had the best defensive player in the league and failed to win the championship. Outside of QB, no position is the binary switch between winning/not winning one game. But try telling the Houston Texans that their #1 WR isn’t important as an example. Hopkins is their Gronk.

But as I said, the question is moot anyway because no-one is suggesting we get an expensive big name receiver short of the usual excitement that surrounds this time of year especially now that we’re in the trade-tsunami era.

 

[Deus Irae]

And that was awesome.

Goff didn't surprise me, but I didn't expect it out of Tintin.

 

[zoostation]

Truth be told, Cooks was interfered with at the goal line or would have had a TD, and he had his QB completely screw up the play that ended with him pinned in the back of the endzone.

Cooks was a referee's proper call, and decent QB throw, away from being the game's MVP.

Truth be told Cooks is a SOFT player. And that's one of the reasons he's no longer here. At the very least he should have fought for that ball. The refs let them play in the playoffs and it comes down to toughness and grit. His soft azz got knocked out of the tourney the year before too. You can have him.

But the original point was the Rams were loaded with 'shiny' receivers with 'shiny' stats during the regular season. Then in the biggest game because of good tough defense and the refs letting them play they do nothing.

I'll leave it at one question for you. When was the last time a top 2 receiver won a Championship? That's my only question for you.