I expect our current group of receivers to out perform last years squad by a decent margin. In the second half of last season Garcon and Desean got targeted more and Crowder less. I think both squandered their opportunities.
Ok, each of the 32 teams has two starting WRs. So, by the law of averages, an average team would have one WR in the top 32, and then their second best WR would be ranked somewhere in the 33-64 range.
If the Redskins' top two WRs were ranked, what was it, 18th and 23rd? ... that's very VERY good. Not only does that mean we had two number one-calibre WRs, but they both produced even though neither got the ball all that much. A little more digging into NFL.com's stats show that, of the top 23 WRs, Garcon and Jackson were least two targeted on the entire list.
So if you are thinking 'Garcon and Jackson got targeted more' as if they were somehow getting more throws than they deserved, well, a quick look at those stats say otherwise. They were actually targeted less than they should have been for top WRs, but still managed to both produce. That is a very rare quality. One I doubt we will see again for awhile.
How many times did Jackson "take the top" off the defense? 2-3 years ago they used to state not many qbs can overthrow Jackson. Cousin's did and did you notice the defender is not losing ground like he once did. Granted that's just an observation and not necessarily scientific or factual.
Unfortunately, I think this may be a case of 'Player X wasn't perfect so therefore he was bad.'
Jackson was ranked, um, first in yards per reception last year. That is not the stat of a player who can't stretch the field or make opposing teams respect his ability to go over the top. In fact, that's the stat of a player who's better at it than anyone else. We don't have anyone on the team like that now. Which is fine, not many teams do, but when you couple that with the loss of Garcon it will kinda hurt. Pryor looks like he might be a fine player. Hard to know after just one year, but he looks good. He might make up for the loss of one those guys. I sure hope he does.
I have no reason in the world not to be excited about Crowder Cousins Reed, add a trio of big talented guys like Pryer, Doctson,Hurt. Yeah I'm feeling pretty good.
Sure. If we spent last year languishing with players like Jabar Gaffney and Anthony Armstrong, I'd be thrilled to be going into the season with Pryor and some hotshot rookie (second year rookie whatever) and Crowder. It's not a total crap lineup. But I think it's a bit of a prayer to suggest they'll be significantly better than the crew that put up the best passing offense in team history.