You need two #1 receivers
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
It’s been a while since we had an irrelevant post, but here we go:
In today’s modern NFL offenses, for a team to really tear it up, you need two #1 receivers.
It used to be that you had a #1 and you had a #2. But then, you rarely had more than two receivers on the field at any one time. Now, with potentially 5 receivers lining up, you need more receiver talent to make a team super awesome. If you look at the trend in the NFL, it is very much towards acquiring a critical mass of receiving talent. Cases in point:
- Jets have Braylon Edwards and go get Santonio Holmes
- Patriots had Wes Welker and Randy Moss
- Eagles have DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin
- Falcons have Roddy White and draft Julio Jones
- Ravens have Anquan Boldin and go get Lee Evans (then Buffalo’s #1)
- Cowboys have Miles Austin and Roy Williams and go draft Dez Bryant
- Steelers have Hines Ward and Mike Wallace
A lot of teams are stockpiling receiving talent because the spread offenses that everyone is running requires a lot of options and as defenses increasingly go 3-4 and stockpile nickel and dime backs, it is not enough to think that you will have an open guy when they swing coverage to your #1 receiver – you need guys that have to be bracketed on both sides to open up the middle of the field.
