Why are the Steelers so much better at drafting Wide Receivers?

[PGCountyRaven85]

Green Bay and Pittsburgh are awesome at developing receivers. Is there a possibility that they can lure scouts from either organization to the Ravens? Those teams grow pass catchers on trees.

[TL24x7]

But Rodgers, like Ben, is routinely surrounded by offensive players drafted in the 3rd Rd or higher.

Cobb
Jordy
Adams
montgomery
Rodgers (the TE)
James jones
Greg Jennings
jermichael Finley

And I probably missed a few.

That's A LOT of draft capital on skill players

Those are all top 100 players in the draft.

It's almost like constantly restocking the offense with top 100 talent helps the QB...

Also notice that the skill players drafted in the later rounds in GB are not key components and/or are no longer with the team.

Janis
Abbrederis
Brett Swain

The list goes on and on.

Why didn't Rodgers "develop" or "elevate" the level of play of those later round players to make them legit starters?

Instead, the offense consists almost entirely of players drafted in rd 3 or higher, which has been the case for mostly all of Rodgers career.

He has never had to rely on a 5th or 6th or 7th Rd WR to be a key cog in the offense.

He went from Jennings to Jordy to Cobb to Adams.

Driver was already established as a bonafide WR with favre despite his late rd status.

Rodgers has had one of the most stocked offenses his entire career in terms of draft capital.

That being said he's is obviously a great player... But let's not act as if he is throwing to Marlon Brown and such.

Since the Ravens inception in 1996 both clubs have drafted 25 wide receivers. On average the Ravens pick a receiver with the 136th pick in the draft. The Steelers target a wide out on average with the draft’s 124th pick. So one could conclude that the Steelers value the position slightly more.

Here’s a look at how the 25 picks made by each team since 1996, shake out by round:



• Six of the 25 receivers drafted by the Ravens (24%) never caught a single pass during their respective careers. The Steelers have drafted 3 such players.

• Seven Ravens receivers have eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in career receiving yards compared to 10 Steelers’ receivers.

• Only 1 receiver drafted by the Ravens (Brandon Stokley) has more than 5,000 career receiving yards. The Steelers boast 6 such players (24%).

• Five Ravens receivers have 10 or more career touchdowns compared to 9 Steelers receivers.

• Three Ravens receivers have 20+ career TD’s v. 6 for the Steelers.

• The 25 receivers the Ravens have drafted have career averages of 75 catches for 1,021 yards and 6 touchdowns. Comparatively, the Steelers 25 drafted receivers since 1996 have career averages of 177 catches for 2,396 yards and 15 TD’s.

• Only 5 receivers drafted by the Ravens (20%) have more catches (177+) than the average of all Steelers receivers drafted since 1996.

• The top 5 Ravens receivers as it relates to career receiving yards, have averaged 4,121 yards. The top 5 Steelers have averaged 8,463 yards.

[WrongBaldy]

I don't think Marlon Brown puts up 900 receiving yards like Kamar Aiken and I don't think Marlon Brown makes those contested catches like Aiken did as well. I think Aiken is a good and is a good smart route runner that for some reason got to take a back seat this season because The Ravens wanted to see what they had in Breshad Perriman.

[Jsmoove]

I don't think Marlon Brown puts up 900 receiving yards like Kamar Aiken and I don't think Marlon Brown makes those contested catches like Aiken did as well. I think Aiken is a good and is a good smart route runner that for some reason got to take a back seat this season because The Ravens wanted to see what they had in Breshad Perriman.

that would be ok....but they didn't even throw to him to see.

[WrongBaldy]

Since the Ravens inception in 1996 both clubs have drafted 25 wide receivers. On average the Ravens pick a receiver with the 136th pick in the draft. The Steelers target a wide out on average with the draft’s 124th pick. So one could conclude that the Steelers value the position slightly more.

Here’s a look at how the 25 picks made by each team since 1996, shake out by round:



• Six of the 25 receivers drafted by the Ravens (24%) never caught a single pass during their respective careers. The Steelers have drafted 3 such players.

• Seven Ravens receivers have eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in career receiving yards compared to 10 Steelers’ receivers.

• Only 1 receiver drafted by the Ravens (Brandon Stokley) has more than 5,000 career receiving yards. The Steelers boast 6 such players (24%).

• Five Ravens receivers have 10 or more career touchdowns compared to 9 Steelers receivers.

• Three Ravens receivers have 20+ career TD’s v. 6 for the Steelers.

• The 25 receivers the Ravens have drafted have career averages of 75 catches for 1,021 yards and 6 touchdowns. Comparatively, the Steelers 25 drafted receivers since 1996 have career averages of 177 catches for 2,396 yards and 15 TD’s.

• Only 5 receivers drafted by the Ravens (20%) have more catches (177+) than the average of all Steelers receivers drafted since 1996.

• The top 5 Ravens receivers as it relates to career receiving yards, have averaged 4,121 yards. The top 5 Steelers have averaged 8,463 yards.

heyTL
so in your opinion is it luck or issues with scouts/front office/coaches?
your thoughts on biscuit chalking it up to plain ol bad luck?

[Jsmoove]

heyTL
so in your opinion is it luck or issues with scouts/front office?
your thoughts on biscuit chalking it up to plain ol bad luck?

I think it's a little of everything, our scouts suck ass at it and we just haven't gotten lucky to get one worth a damn yet too. You pair that with coaches not developing the best out of them sand not having a good offensive system too and we still where we are, where we've always been.

[sawraven1]

I think it's a little of everything, our scouts suck ass at it and we just haven't gotten lucky to get one worth a damn yet too. You pair that with coaches not developing the best out of them sand not having a good offensive system too and we still where we are, where we've always been.

I think with the Free Agent wide receivers we have brought in, all of them were productive elsewhere before coming here. (Mason, Boldin, Steve Smith)

None of them really peaked here which goes back to what we all seem to think. There in lies the problems of us never developing a wide receiver, we don't have the right coaches and or scouts.

[srobert96]

I think that the consistency in approach to offensive scheme has certainly helped. Even proven receivers put up less stats in Baltimore's schemes. You can look for receivers that have certain traits that fit into what you want to do.

[Jsmoove]

I think with the Free Agent wide receivers we have brought in, all of them were productive elsewhere before coming here. (Mason, Boldin, Steve Smith)

None of them really peaked here which goes back to what we all seem to think. There in lies the problems of us never developing a wide receiver, we don't have the right coaches and or scouts.

exactly only the ones we bought have done well here look how they mis-used Boldin here until his last year with us. Boldin was terrorizing the NFC and came here and was so so til 2012. Mason was the only one who played consistently at a high level because that's all Joe had to throw to. Steve Smith was all we had and he too was sorely mis-used. When you don't have a good offensive system and good offensive minded people you can't expect to have good production.

[Jsmoove]

we can't even find an identity so how can we find WRs?

[burnwood]

I don't think it's luck or magic. I'm not SURE it's better scouting. I think we need to examine the coaching. Do they have better WR coach(es)? Do they use a different method of coaching. OR, conversely, are they looking for different characteristics in the WRs they draft compared to ours?

I know that the currently popular college "spread" offenses supposedly do not produce NFL-ready WRs. However, WRs from that system at least catch a lot of balls. They can CATCH. That is starting point some of our WRs have not achieved. If a WR has decent speed and height, and can CATCH, that's a better starting point than some of our recent WRs.

according to biscuit its "luck" shrug

I think it comes down to the Steelers having better coaching and a better QB. Once you have both of those things in place then you have an environment where most WRs will shine. The Ravens don't have such an environment so they continue to fail consistently at the WR position. Get better coaching and a better QB then you will see the results (not just one of those). It's that simple IMO.

[Jazz1988]

that would be ok....but they didn't even throw to him to see.

Breshad Perriman got 66 targets worth 499 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns. Unless i'm wrong but for a number three receivers or four receiver that's not bad . Kamar Aiken on the other hand got 50 targets worth 328 receiving yards and one touch down. Joe Flacco didn't throw to Perriman way more often like some fans would expect but that could be due to lack of chemistry especially since Perriman missed most of training camp but for the most part I think Perriman show positive progress through out the season.


He still has alot to work on but it's not like he showed totally nothing. Flacco developing better chemistry with him would be highly important especially since Steve Smith is retired and i'm not entirely confident Mike Wallace will be back but we shall see.