dplank wrote: ↑Sun May 08, 2022 3:46 pm
It's really not even a hot take. Very few QB's are so transcendent that you can roll out there with one of the worst two WR/TE groups in the league and still post high end numbers - it's just extremely rare. The examples that keep getting pointed out where someone succeeds in spite of having garbage weapons around them are, in fact, HOF caliber players. I went ahead and put the list out there and I'm waiting for someone to disagree with where I have our weapons ranked in the league - if someone wants to make a case that we're higher than I think, let's hear it.
I thought I did. Maybe I don't see this group as being as bad as you do.
Mooney is a proven 1000 yard guy even playing as a #2 like he did in 2021. Pringle had half his yardage and catches in 2021 alternating with two others at KC and should do better this year. Are either of them good enough to virtually take over a game? No, but then one was a 5th round pick and the other an UDFA and together they're costing us less than $3 mil this year.
That's two starters who put up over 1600 yards receiving in 2021 for less than $3 mil. That just a shade more than Davante Adams had in 2021 but we couldn't buy Davante Adams cleats for $3 mil if he was in them. Assuming both stay healthy and play all 17 games this year what do you feel they can produce; number of catches, yardage, tds? Individual or combined.
It's gonna be tough to come up with estimates for Jones because we don't know how much he'll be used as a WR vs his other duties but let's estimate 600 yards or so like Mooney did as a rookie. We don't know what St. Brown can do but like Pringle at least here he won't be pushed as far down on the depth chart and hopefully he has better rapport with Fields than Rodgers.
That's our top four. What can we expect from just those four WR? 2500 yards? 2800 yards? 3000 yards?
We don't know who the other 2 or 3 will be but Newsome will likely be one who may share snaps at Slot WR provided he makes the team and then we have another half dozen or so competing for a spot. Is it a stellar cast of proven players? No. It's a cast of mostly unknowns like many other teams have. They have little or no previous history to go by so we'll have to wait to see how well they produce but at least one or two should produce something this year.
At TE Kmet caught 60 passes for just over 600 yards in 2021. Horsted only caught two passes but both were TDs. He should get a better shot this year. Both could do a little better especially Horsted. Historically O'Shaughnessy is good for another 250 yards and then we have some other prospects. So being conservative lets say 1000 yards from our TE. I agree it should be more but then we don't know how much TE will figure into Getsy's passing game vs say his RB.
So very conservatively and without considering the RB this bunch should be able to ring up at least somewhere between 3500 and 4000 yards in 2022. When was the last time we had a QB throw for 4000 yards? Never? If you want me to rank them I'd say bottom third but they sure as hell are not as bad as some of the WR we trucked out over the years or even last year. With ARob we may have looked better on paper but what happened? ARob mailed it in and only had 38 catches for just over 400 yards.
I'll just say I don't believe it's as bad as it looks now or will look once they start playing and I'll stand by that ready to eat crow if I'm wrong.