Placing Cecil Shorts’ Production in Context

May 14, 2013 Receiving

One of the surprising success stories of the 2012 season was the breakout performance of second-year Jacksonville wide receiver Cecil Shorts. With a cap value of $729,000 in 2013, Shorts is probably the best value on the Jaguars roster. But he’s one of the more confusing players to project. The optimistic outlook on Shorts is [...]

Read the full article →

Record Watch: Can Jason Witten Catch Jerry Rice?

May 9, 2013 Receiving

Jerry Rice’s records are essentially unbreakable. Over a marvelous twenty-year career, Rice caught 41 more touchdowns than Randy Moss, 44 more than Terrell Owens, and 67 more than every player other than Moss and Owens. He also holds the overall touchdowns mark, with 33 more touchdowns than Emmitt Smith, 46 more than LaDainian Tomlinson, and [...]

Read the full article →

Forgotten Stars: Hugh Taylor

April 8, 2013 History

Only three players in NFL history have been responsible for half of their team’s receiving touchdowns over a six-year period: Don Hutson, Jerry Rice, and Hugh Taylor. You probably don’t know much about Taylor, the Washington Redskins star receiver who played from 1947 to 1954. In his first game in the NFL, he caught 8 [...]

Read the full article →

A closer look at Danny Amendola

March 27, 2013 Receiving

Few get the statheads talking like Danny Amendola. Bill Barnwell wrote a free-agent book on Amendola in March, where he presented Amendola in the best possible light. Barnwell noted that over the last four years, Bradford has completed 66.5% of his passes aimed at Amendola compared to just 56.8% to all other targets. Barnwell further [...]

Read the full article →

Arrelious Benn moves to Philly in search of a career revival

March 20, 2013 Receiving

To the casual fan, Arrelious Benn is one of many nondescript wide receivers in the NFL. The Buccaneers selected him in the second round of the 2010 Draft, he gained 862 yards in three seasons, and Tampa Bay just traded him to Philadelphia for a 7th round pick in the 2013 draft. My curiosity with [...]

Read the full article →

A look at the best receivers to change teams

March 14, 2013 Checkdowns

The craziness continues, with Wes Welker signing with the Denver Broncos being the big story of day two of the league year. The Patriots responded by signing Danny Amendola, the least surprising move since Brandon Lloyd joined Josh McDaniels in New England last year. Arguably the biggest move so far this week has been Mike [...]

Read the full article →

Examining Paul Warfield’s career

March 12, 2013 Receiving

Paul Warfield has been confounding stat heads for years. Warfield was a rare first-ballot Hall of Fame wide receiver and one of the most athletic and talented wide receivers in history. However, his statistics look downright unimpressive to the modern eye. That’s not too surprising, though, since he played the prime of his career in [...]

Read the full article →

Career Receiving Numbers Translated to the 2012 Passing Environment

March 6, 2013 Receiving

I’ve written several posts about how to grade wide receivers and did a three-part series on one ranking system two weeks ago. Grading wide receivers requires one to adjust for era, but there are many different ways to do that. Calvin Johnson caught 122 passes last year for 1,964 yards and five touchdowns. In 1973, [...]

Read the full article →

Jimmy Smith is one of the best wide receivers in NFL history

March 4, 2013 Receiving

Jacksonville’s Jimmy Smith was first eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2011. He was cut early in the process, failing to be one of the 26 semifinalists selected. A year later, he again failed to make the cut to 26, and was shut out at the same stage a few months ago, too. To [...]

Read the full article →

The Greatest Wide Receivers Ever Version 2.0: Part III – Career Rankings

February 20, 2013 G.O.A.T.

On Monday, I explained my methodology for ranking every wide receiver in football history, and yesterday, I presented a list of the best single seasons of all time. Today the career list of the top 150 wide receivers. As usual, I implemented a 100/95/90 formula, giving a player credit for 100% of his production in [...]

Read the full article →