Pitta injury

[veritas]

His performance?

You mean his sub-1000 yard seasons every year that he was here? Its not too hard to duplicate that. If Mark Clayton can do it, any of those 3 can.

Nonsense. Nobody in the league can go get a ball in traffic like Boldin. Without him last year, there's no SB, period.

[alien bird]

You've set the bar pretty low. By your measurement there are a lot of "good QB's" out there. There were almost 80 players who caught that many passes last year. Supplemental draft pick Josh Gordon was turned into a serviceable receiver by "good QB" Brandon Weeden. Fifth round draft pick Jeremy Kerley was turned into a serviceable receiver by "good QB" Mark Sanchez. By comparison, seventh round pick Steve Johnson has been turned into an absolute beast of a receiver by Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Like I said, I don't disagree with your general premise. But your example is really not helping you.

I don't think we are really disagreeing here, but here are some Ravens stats from last year. They are numbers one would consider pretty average, actually, if your 80 players comment above is accurate (and I believe it probably is):

Anquan Boldin 65 receptions
Dennis Pitta 61 receptions

Joe Flacco had 317 completions last season, and those two guys had about 40% of them, so yeah, if Joe Flacco can get 125 receptions out of a combination of Doss, Thompson and Reed, I think that works, especially if Ed Dickson (21), Jacoby Jones (30) and Torrey Smith (49) see their numbers go up as well. You don't need superstars - you just need guys who can catch a well-thrown ball from a guy making $120M. A guy who is supposed to be that good should be able to make these guys look pretty decent. And I think he will.

For completion comparison, in offenses that throw more, you've got Tom Brady (401 completions), Peyton Manning (400 completions) and Aaron Rodgers (371 completions).

[Carey]

If people want to rag on Doss, Thompson, Reed etc. in 3 weeks so be it but until they actually get on the field w/the first team and prove their ready or not ready it's unfair to rip the guys. if they aren't ready Oz won't let this team go into a season without making a move thru free agency or trade but the fact that he hasn't to this point and didn't draft one high tells me there is a strong amount of preliminary confidence in their ability. I think Alien Bird is spot on, collectively I think Doss, Thompson, Dickson and Reed can match the production of Pitta and Boldin. It will be more in a committee approach and Doss has already hinted that certain guys will be out there in certain situations in specialized roles. I guess we will find out in preseason what these roles are.

[Money227]

Nonsense. Nobody in the league can go get a ball in traffic like Boldin. Without him last year, there's no SB, period.

This is true, but there are those who can actually gain separation from defenders so they aren't in traffic when attempting to make the catch.

Back in the day, there were very few outfielders who could make a diving catch in the outfield like Joe Orsulak. There were plenty, however, who could actually read the ball off the bat and get a good jump so their outs looked routine.