Hogs Haven
Looking for WRs who were the best at all the things that receivers do
Continuing my series of draft position roundups, focusing on skillsets the Commanders need to raise their talent ceiling and rebuild the depth pipeline, I’d like to switch back to offense. But, in case you missed the previous roundups, here they are:
Adam Peters made a big off-season move to bring in Deebo Samuel to give Kliff Kingsbury another playmaker. Deebo is a one year rental, and joins Terry McLaurin to give Jayden Daniels another playmaker to get the ball to. But the offense is still thin on game-breaking talents.
With a need for youth on both sides of the ball, this would be a good time to draft a dynamic receiver to help the Commanders compete for championships during the course of Jayden Daniels’ rookie contract. The WR class has been billed as weak, because it is short on first round talents. But it is very deep, particularly if you like big WRs. There could be an opportunity to add a developmental WR with upside even late into Day 3.
Wide Receiver is notoriously difficult to project to the NFL. Every year, the NFL hosts the Scouting Combine and WRs who test well shoot up media draft boards. This year was no different, with Texas WR Matthew Golden, Missouri’s Luther Burden III, Iowa’s Jayden Higgins, and Maryland’s Tai Felton, all enjoyed boosts to their draft stock with standout performances. Some of the stars of the underwear Olympics go on to have successful NFL careers. But every year, others don’t.
My favorite NFL Combine stat is that the greatest WR of all time, Jerry Rice, ran a 4.71 sec 40 time. It’s actually a myth. Nobody appears to have recorded Rice’s actual 40 time. According to 49ers’ coach Bill Walsh, Rice ran in the vicinity of 4.6 sec. But on tape, Walsh and his scouting team saw a player who moved faster than his 40 time, with exceptional movement skills and route running ability.
The 49ers picked Rice 16th overall in the 1985 draft, and got a steal. I can just imagine what would happen if Adam Peters used his first round pick on a small school WR, who ran a 4.6 forty. It would be pandemonium. Scott might have to close Hogs Haven for a few days to let things cool off.
In today’s NFL, measurables matter. That might be one reason that there is no difference in player outcomes between WRs drafted in the first and second rounds. Adam Peters’ $17.5 million offseason addition was a second round pick. So were the Eagles’ A.J. Brown and Steelers’ D.K. Metcalf and George Pickens. In fact, every season seems to feature a WR picked later in the draft outperforming premium prospects taken in the first...
