I posted this before and I’m not going to go back and re-pull all the numbers.
None of the championship teams or SB teams really had a true good #2 receiver. Hell, the Patriots WRs were so “meh” (and they got to the SB anyway) that Diggs was their #1 coming off on ACL tear. And they haven’t resigned him, they traded for Brown and signed Doubs. Yeah they’re going all in this year, we’ll see how that works out for them but they were effective enough last year with very unproven talent to make the SB without even a star good 1 let alone a 2.
All 4 teams had a #1 and then had lots of other options but the second outside guy was mostly just a dude for all four teams. Between 600-800 yards for the season which equates to like 30 yards a game. And if the star WR for any one of them went down they probably aren’t in the championship game.
I think you’re overestimating how many teams have enough top end talent at WR where if the #1 goes down for any length of time the team can survive it without heroic efforts from the QB. The Bengals are the obvious exception.
And I’m not opposed to signing another guy. But I think the panic is, at least for now, over the top.
On the flip side, I’m completely panicked at CB. Amos isn’t practicing yet off of a broken fibula in October. That must have been a hell if a break for it it to be 8-9 months and he’s still not back. I didn’t expect that at all. To me, if you want to panic about something, that’s it. I get Flores’ defenses didn’t really rely on CBs. But you’ve got to have CBs who can plan and right now we have a gimpy/not practicing #1 who played 8 games before getting hurt and a third year guy coming off of a bad second season.
The cupboard is not bare at WR. And hell, if you listen to most of the beat guys so far the guys look pretty good. Which again, who knows what that means. But if they looked like a train wreck, that would be a definite bad sign. But they don’t. Which is promising.
It’s entirely empty with moth balls at CB.
That terrifies me. If Amos was more healthy that would be something. But man. They’re playing with fire there.
You said in another post that you do see WR as a premium position. But after debating roster-building philosophy for years, I just don’t buy that you actually treat it that way — at least not based on the arguments you’re making. When your position is basically, “If there’s one spot you can afford to be weak, it’s WR2,” then we’re not really debating one player anymore. We’re debating philosophy. And on that, I don’t think we’re going to see eye to eye.
A 600–800 yard season is absolutely WR2 production. In some offenses, even 500-plus yards can qualify if the role is split between two guys. Not every team is the Greatest Show on Turf. There are only so many targets and yards to go around. Your definition of a WR2 seems less like “legitimate second receiver” and more like “borderline WR1 who happens to play behind an elite WR1.”
Bourne, Hollins, and Douglas are all viable WR2 types in New England — and frankly, any one of them would have a strong case to be the WR2 here. That’s the point. The Patriots have three guys who could plausibly fill that role, while we’re talking ourselves into one maybe emerging. That’s not exactly comforting.
I think you’re redefining WR2 to mean “great WR2” — basically a DeVonta Smith type. And, funny enough, that kind of WR2 just helped win a Super Bowl.
But yeah, I know the script: the WR room is fine, everyone questioning it is whining, the national media is clueless, the analytics people are overthinking it, the WR rankings are fake news, and we should all just relax, take a measured approach, smell the roses, and pre-order our Luke McCaffrey playoff hero jerseys now — because apparently when he’s torching teams in January, the rest of us will look like fools for not seeing the vision.
But let's argue it from your perspective for a moment.
Let's say the Patriots had a terrible WR situation last year. The difference is they did something about it. The Broncos did something about it. They looked at their weaknesses and decided they weren't good enough.
These are teams operating on roughly the same rebuilding timeline as Washington. Granted, Denver has been crushing personnel decisions for a while now, so that's probably not a completely fair comparison. But New England is.
When Drake Maye arrived in 2024, the Patriots had a shaky offensive line, a mediocre receiver room, and a defense that wasn't exactly carrying the franchise. Three years later, they've dramatically upgraded the roster. I'm sorry, but I don't think Washington has kept pace in that specific area.
And this is where I differ from a lot of the national media. They act like Washington has a bad roster. I don't agree with that at all. I think the defense is significantly improved. I think the team is better than Vegas believes, better than many of the power rankings, and better than a lot of the offseason narratives suggest. I wouldn't be surprised if they outperform expectations again.
But acknowledging that doesn't require pretending every position group is set.
The roster can be good overall and still be light at WR. Those aren't contradictory statements.
That's really my point. I'm not arguing this is a bad team. I'm arguing that after three offseasons, one of the most important positions on the field still feels incomplete. And when you're building around a young franchise quarterback, that's a fair criticism—not some irrational obsession with wide receivers.
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