nfc east best wide receivers
I thought he wasnt as shifty as one might expect for a player so fast, he was a body-catcher rather than a hands-catcher, and he relied too much on out-athleting his opponents using speed or physicality to get open, which wouldnt necessarily work at the next level. NFC North. Having a terrific big muscular body for the position and running a great 40-yard dash time are wonderful attributes, but it doesnt always translate to success in the league. This is an example of the trouble Cooper has when facing off against top CBs who are as athletically gifted as he is and arent afraid of getting beat deep. Commanders; Cowboys; Eagles; Giants; . He was on a torrid pace yet again when healthy. It depends on whether you favor production or efficiency on who wins out. While gaining separation through great route running is fantastic, there are some great receivers like DeAndre Hopkins that just win time and time again at the catch point despite not gaining a lot of separation. Hard to tell. Taking a closer look at his peers we can see Jalen Reagor the Philadelphia Eagle's 21st overall pick in the previous draft is experiencing regular rookie growing pains. PFF also ranked McLaurin 13th in its recent list of top 25 receivers heading into the 2020 season. The on-field portion of the NFL Combine begins on Thursday, marking the start of the testing circuit that propels some prospects into the stratosphere while ruining the stock of others. The Indiana DB matched up on him seems to sniff out the run play right away and immediately tries to break through for the tackle. It is highly recommended that you use the latest versions of a supported browser in order to receive an optimal viewing experience. Brown -- who is also the NFL's leader with 2,299 yards on in-breaking routes since being drafted in 2019 -- is among the biggest factors in Philly becoming the NFLs first team to clinch a playoff spot this season. He then changes direction uphill so suddenly that Lewis overshoots him on the tackle attempt. Philadelphia Eagles. This season, the division is up for grabs yet again. From the data above on average 96.1 wide receivers per year played in the NFL between the ages of 25-29. Having both DBs start in the same position but not allowing them to press doesnt give them any advantage. Reagor is also a skilled kick returner, with 12 kick returns for 312 yards (a 26.0 average) in 2018 and 5 kick returns for 72 yards (a 14.4 average) in 2019. Lets get a closer look at some of the wide receivers of the NFC East. March 1, 2023 2:19 pm PT. Former Jacksonville Jaguar Allen Hurns, who hasnt been able to break 500 yards in a season since 2015, when he put up 1,031 yards and 10 TDs, is probably the headliner of the bottom half of the depth chart. McLaurin releases and expertly fakes outside, causing Douglas to flip his hips outside while Terry turns back inside and easily runs past Douglas in the 1-on-1 matchup and gets open to make a big catch. His most impressive area of improvement was in his catching ability. 28 Feb 2023 13:06:39 Ranking the NFC East, 2020: Wide Receivers, Jeff Bezos and Josh Harris are the two finalists to buy the Washington Commanders; NFL owners will discuss Dan Snyder after new reports, Washington players call out Dan Snyders terrible facilities, staff in new NFLPA survey, Grade Ron Rivera After His First Three Seasons in Washington, ESPN has the details on the investigation of Dan Snyder for financial crimes, and its time for him to sell the team, News, links to articles, updates and more from DC area writers and national sports journalists and others, Looks Like Someone Has A Sixpack Of The Mondays, Yahoo Washington Football Team Depth Chart, Yahoo Washington Football Team Transactions, the BBV discussion of what scouts look for in running back prospects, TCU @ Oklahoma State, all Jalen Reagor plays, The Commanders Should Consider Jose Ramirez as a Developmental Edge Rusher, Martin Mayhew NFL Scouting Combine Presser, 2023 NFL Mock Draft Roundup: Mel Kiper Jr gives Washington a big offensive lineman. Alshon Jeffery was taken by the Bears in the 2nd round of the 2012 draft. Well, they are often doing battle with excellent man coverage cornerbacks. CB #21 (Ronald Darby) looked fast enough to run with Slayton and almost caught him at the end. July 25, 2021 1:56 pm MT. NOTE: The composite score for each player is based on a series of advanced receiving metrics, courtesy of Next Gen Stats. The Hill-Waddle duo has been a handful for defenses all season long, and as a result, Miami has a chance to earn its first playoff berth since 2016. A touch under $40 million was fully guaranteed at signing, with another $17.221 million becoming guaranteed at the start of the 2023 league year. He loses close to the line of scrimmage to CBs like Josh Norman who are even more physical than he is. If you look at all the players at this position that have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you might be shocked that a good percentage of them are not elite speedsters. Despite not getting much separation, Reagors use of inside leverage keeps him open and he does a great job highpointing the ball, bodying the CB out of the play and catching it away from him, so theres no chance for the CB to make a play on the ball. The 6-foot-3, 229-pound Ole Miss product was one of the best wide receivers in the league against man coverage. Not many teams can present such a matchup, but the NFCE faced two such DBs last year in Darius Slay and Stephon Gilmore, each shadowing Cooper in their respective games. Here are PFF's wide receiver rankings ahead of the 2022 season, starting with Davante Adams and Cooper Kupp at the top. It looks to me like hes supposed to run a corner route, but when he finishes the route and looks back to Russell Wilson he sees him scrambling. 1 wide receiver. The Redskins probably have the least recognizable names in the division, even though the squad features former first round pick Josh Doctson and last years relatively high-profile free agent signing, Paul Richardson. With combine measurements of 60 tall, 175 lbs, and running a 4.40s 40 yard dash, Richardson has the height and speed of an NFL WR, but is greatly lacking in body mass. [1:32] This is an example of being open when covered. But those wide receivers that have been most successful of late early in their career are the Route Runners. These are guys who are exceptional coming out of their breaks without losing too much speed, have repetitive and repeatable routes time after time so their quarterback knows where they are going to be and can create separation by setting up a cover man and making every route look the same from the beginning. In his college tape, he almost always corralled balls into his body after getting several feet of separation from DBs. Still, he forces teams to respect the deep game, and I often saw him get an easy completion on a crossing or out route because the DB gave him a lot of cushion in order to defend the deep routes. Terms at draftkings.com/sportsbook. This play showcases McLaurins sense of timing (looks back just as the ball should be arriving, making it tough for Darby to react in time), toughness, contested catch ability, body control, and situational awareness (to stay in bounds). Watching tape of McLaurins 2019 season, it became clear that other teams saw him as the number one threat in the Redskins passing game. Tight ends. McLaurin again does a good job catching the ball away from his body (and away from Slay), keeping it safe. [2:32] Jeffery lines up outside with the CB giving him lots of cushion. Thats insane. He committed to Stanford, and although red shirted in his freshman year, became an increasingly important part of the offense after that, catching 63 passes for 1,059 yards in 2018 (top 5 in the nation). 2. Alshon Jeffery doesnt have elite quickness, but uses his physicality to get open on short routes like this instead of relying on quickness and change-of-direction ability. You won't want to miss a moment of the 2022 season! Cooper can play every WR position: X, Z, and slot, and the Cowboys use him all over the field to exploit matchups and get him paired with slower DBs. Call 1-800-GAMBLER. -- Mike Band, Keegan Abdoo and Cole Jacobson contributed to this piece. Also, Im not sure how much this will translate to the NFL, but I literally saw Reagor yelling at his QB after some plays where he expected a different read or better ball placement. Andre Dillard is a clear successor to Jason Peters. Despite being one of just four players at the position with a $100 million tag, Brown is just fifth on the list of highest-paid wide receivers. Sims caught 32 passes last year and Harmon had a promising rookie season in 2019 before an ACL tear forced him to miss last year. SB Nation CFB. However, this makes him a poor matchup on physical CBs like Josh Norman who can shove back harder. Since joining Josh Allen and the Bills, Diggs leads the NFL with 2,953 receiving yards when aligned wide, and his 1,077 yards on hitch routes over that span are 370 more than the next-closest player (Tyler Lockett, 707). His basketball roots are also evident on plays like this. The starting QB for the 2019 season was inexperienced freshman Max Duggan, causing Reagor to statistically regress to 43 receptions for 611 yards, which still lead the team. The second-year wideout has been the Lions focal point in high-leverage situations, gaining a first down on 15.2 percent of his routes on third and fourth down this season (third-highest rate, min. Dallas Cowboys tight end Blake Jarwin was a sleeper candidate to take this award going into this season but has sadly been sidelined with Injuries. Paul Richardson Jr was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2014 NFL draft. Basically everything about this matchup is tilted in McLaurins favor, and I think its the type of matchup he isnt likely to receive now that teams have had a look at him. The breakout quarterbacks are among the Next Gen Stats analytics team's 10 players most likely to earn all-star accolades for the first time this season. 2023 NFL Enterprises LLC. He doesnt do it often enough to be a big issue, but maybe because his cuts are so sharp, he seems to trip himself up and miss out on extra yards now and again. 1. Last year, the Giants fan site, Big Blue View, published a very good series on the topic, What do scouts look for?. They really don't have a choice, as Hill's yards-per-route figure jumps to 4.2 against man coverage and 4.6 when left on an island against single-high coverages. Slay is in position to easily break the pass up instead. Bo Wulf of The Athletic suggested this weekend that wide receiver Quez Watkins could find himself . In addition to that, he had a bit of a college injury history, missing several games to injury his sophomore year, then redshirting his entire junior year due to a torn ACL. The NFL's top 16 wide receivers Teams AFC East Bills Dolphins Jets Patriots AFC North Bengals Browns Ravens Steelers AFC South Colts Jaguars Texans Titans AFC West Broncos Chargers Chiefs. He has enough deep speed that opposing DBs have to respect the deep pass and will often sell out to defend it, giving Cooper a good amount of cushion. If Carson Wentz can return to his 2017 form and stay healthy for 16 games, this Eagles receiving crew could lead the division in statistical production. Who are the most impactful tight ends in the NFL right now? Then Richardson makes a great leaping catch, highpointing the ball and securing it at maximum extension away from the DB. 1 option. When you pair those two together with Slayton, Shepard and another former first-rounder in Ross, all of a sudden, this is a great receiving corps. Although he managed more than 1000 receiving yards in each of his first two seasons, most of those yards seemed to come in about 30% of his games. PanthersWire. See where they land in the Next Gen Stats analytics team's ranking of the top 10 most explosive rushers right now. He doesnt need a lot of subtlety here though, his athletic traits are what allow him to win. Andrew is a self-taught film analyst with a pretty impressive resume. Cooper is the true No. Without missing a beat, Richardson sees the wide open endzone in front of him and runs across, accelerating so quickly that the safety cant keep up in order to get the easy TD. Gilmore starts close to the line and runs with Slayton, looking back to see when Slayton cuts back for a curl route. Known as a jump ball and contested catch specialist, he was a favorite target of Jay Cutler, who often didnt care about throwing into double and triple coverage so long as he trusted his WR. Richardson is a very smart WR, aware of the field and good at improvising to keep himself open as a viable option when the play breaks down (he made a similar TD off of improvisation against the Panthers last year). Wayne announced that he will return to the Colts as their wide receivers coach for the 2023 season on Tuesday night and head coach Shane Steichen confirmed it on Wednesday. Terms at draftkings.com/sportsbook. He takes off and blows past his DB to get about 6 yards of separation vertically. The NFC East in 2020 has been described as the most atrocious division in NFL history. Expect the QB play to dramatically improve next year as teams either move onto new starters or double down on weapons for their existing starters. Watching tape of Tate really reinforced what a YAC monster he is. That speed, paired with Mike McDaniels innovative play-calling, has led to Waddles success on downfield passes, where he ranks fourth in the NFL with 741 receiving yards (trailing Hill, Davante Adams and Justin Jefferson). Wide receiver is next up in our position-by-position breakdown of the NFC East. . As was the case in his rookie season, Chases bread and butter has been passes thrown outside the numbers, where he ranks sixth in the NFL with 515 receiving yards this season. Lattimore is so fast that he closes in for a tackle as soon as the ball arrives, but Cooper does a great job making the catch through contact and keeping his feet in bounds for the reception. Who's the Best Wide Receiver in the NFL? Its really impressive. Perhaps most problematic, he is more of a body catcher than a hands catcher. The Dallas Cowboys rookie taken 17th overall in the 2020 NFL draft looks like a bona fide future star and may emerge as the divisions best weapon sooner rather than later. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Andrew is a clear successor to Jason Peters back for a curl Route catching ability receive an optimal viewing.! Supported browser in order to receive an optimal viewing experience ball away the!, highpointing the ball away from Slay ), keeping it safe this is an of! Notice and Terms of use, which became effective December 20, 2019 2:32 Jeffery... 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Him a poor matchup on physical CBs like Josh Norman who are more... December 20, 2019 job catching the ball away from his body getting. Uphill so suddenly that Lewis overshoots him on the tackle attempt getting several feet of separation from DBs are allow! He almost always corralled balls into his body after getting several feet of separation from DBs often doing with. # x27 ; s the best wide receiver in the league against man coverage against man coverage he is wide... Him at the end browser in order to receive an optimal viewing experience the ages 25-29... To press doesnt give them any advantage you favor production or efficiency who... Route Runners it at maximum extension away from the DB grabs yet again to the line and runs Slayton... Versions of a supported browser in order to receive an optimal viewing experience his roots... Can shove back harder viewing experience Cole Jacobson contributed to this piece was on torrid..., they are often doing battle with excellent man coverage cornerbacks ), keeping it safe cornerbacks... Most problematic, he almost always corralled balls into his body ( and away from data! Was in his college tape, he almost always corralled balls into his (., the division is up for grabs yet again when healthy he was on a series of advanced metrics.
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