Where does the Ravens WR corps stack up?

[owknows]

You could say the same about every rookie QB ever. Did you watch him at all in college?

Honestly.. his passing wasn't very good this year, even for a rookie. Just about every analyst, and the team's own coaching staff was pretty honest about his need to improve as a passer.

Maybe he will... but I think the team would be better served by keeping his passes short and option-oriented until then...

I watched him in college... I'm aware of his success.. and I hope he finds it here too.

Which is why I want to play to his strengths.

[NjRavensFan]

Honestly.. his passing wasn't very good this year, even for a rookie. Just about every analyst, and the team's own coaching staff was pretty honest about his need to improve as a passer.

Maybe he will... but I think the team would be better served by keeping his passes short and option-oriented until then...

I watched him in college... I'm aware of his success.. and I hope he finds it here too.

Which is why I want to play to his strengths.

I don’t even know where to start with this........

[Balbirdsfan]

I would say our receivers rank somewhere in the AAF league at this point. lol All kidding aside I'm not to impressed, I would say somewhere in the bottom third currently. Willie is a nice 3rd receiver/slot receiver. Andrews is probably the most talented "receiver" of the group. Chris Moore's shown some flashes but nothing to exciting on the roster currently.

[WrongBaldy]

Well yeah that’s a list of the entire season and GWNR and I are talking about them coming on by season’s end.

Sutton also isn’t a high volume guy at this stage he’s a high y/r guy... but in the first 7 games Sutton put up 17/246 (2.4/35.1 per game) and over his last 9 put up 25/458 (2.8/50.1 per game). Watching them, he looked a lot more comfortable as the season went on and his yardage per game went up ~40% over the latter half of the year.

Moore was also slow out the gate before breaking out week 7 (against us, lol) and flying high the rest of the way

his stats went up bc d thomas and manny sanders got injured.

[NjRavensFan]

his stats went up bc d thomas and manny sanders got injured.

His snaps went up because of that. His catch percentage and ypc went up too. That’s on him. It’s not like our rookie is gonna have a ton of competition on the outside.

[NjRavensFan]

his stats went up bc d thomas and manny sanders got injured.

And what about DJ Moore... he broke out right as Cam got fucked up and their play overall cratered.

[owknows]

I don’t even know where to start with this........

Anywhere is fine with me.

[WrongBaldy]

His snaps went up because of that. His catch percentage and ypc went up too. That’s on him. It’s not like our rookie is gonna have a ton of competition on the outside.

broncos were behind a lot and played catch up, our D is much betteri think we wont be throwing too much

[WrongBaldy]

And what about DJ Moore... he broke out right as Cam got fucked up and their play overall cratered.

IMO there is no one in this class on DJM level

[The Excellector]

To some degree, I understand what owknows is saying, but this isn’t the thread for it.

[JimZipCode]

I would say somewhere in the bottom third currently. Willie is a nice 3rd receiver/slot receiver. Andrews is probably the most talented "receiver" of the group. Chris Moore's shown some flashes but ...

Certainly bottom third, absolutely.

Check me on this: If we assume that Chris Moore is a pretty solid ~800-yd guy, with normal usage: a decent #2 or "2.5" –
I think Tom Brady and even Joe Montana, have won SBs with worse WRs than ours. Am I insane?

2018 Pats – Edelman 850yds, Josh Gordon 720yds, Gronk ~700yds, Chris Hogan 500+ yds; RB James White 750yds
2004 Pats – Givens 875yds, Patten 800yds, Branch 450yds, Daniel Graham 360yds
2003 Pats – Branch 800yds, Givens 500yds, Troy Brown 475yds, Daniel Graham 400yds
1981 Niners – Dwight Clark 1100yds, Freddie Solomon 970yds, TE Charlie Young 400 yds

Gronk of course is a HOF-caliber player. But he missed significant time in '18 and '16: 3-5 games and 8-10 games.
Edelman is a really great slot when the PEDs kick in; but 900 yards is not an imposing total.
In '03/'04 they really cobbled together a WR-by-committee.

I always remember the '81 Niners offense as Joe Montana and a bunch of guys. Dwight Clark's numbers were better than I remembered; and I forgot Freddie Solomon was there too. So I don't want to "defend" this argument too hard. But: Dwight Clark has got to be the slowest "good" #1 receiver of all time. And they had basically nothing after their #2 receiver; their TEs & FBs were nothing special.

(Montana was pretty fucking special.)

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say, "Well we're definitely SB-bound! Look at those other receiving corps!" I'm saying, there is history of teams having competitive offenses with relatively weak WR corps. Tough physical teams with a good scheme that spreads the ball around, can get the job done.

(Personally I'd rather have Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. But it can be done.)

[NjRavensFan]

Anywhere is fine with me.

Ok, here goes

As a rookie, Lamar was a more productive passer than Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, and Josh Rosen by just about every single rate stat. Here’s the list overall:

Completion percentage:
Mayfield: 63.8%
Jackson: 58.2%
Darnold: 57.7%
Rosen: 55.2%
Allen: 52.8%

Yards/attempt:
Mayfield: 7.7
Jackson: 7.1
Darnold: 6.9
Allen: 6.5
Rosen: 5.8

TD%
Mayfield: 5.6%
Darnold: 4.1%
Jackson: 3.5%
Allen: 3.1%
Rosen: 2.8%

INT%
Jackson: 1.8%
Mayfield 2.9%
Darnold: 3.6%
Rosen: 3.6%
Allen: 3.8%

Adjusted yards/attempt
Mayfield: 7.5
Jackson: 7.0
Darnold: 6.1
Allen: 5.4
Rosen: 4.8 (oof)

Lamar certainly has some work to do as a passer, as those analysts and coaches you pointed to have said. This work is predominantly mechanical—he has a narrow base and inconsistent action with his hips (the narrow base can work if he fixes his hips tbh), and drops his elbow far too often on short throws. But it seems the staff and his team have identified the issues, and we’ve seen pictures of him working at least on the low elbow back home in Florida.

In terms of his feel for the game as a quarterback, he is extremely advanced for his age. He is very good at going through his progressions and can definitely make anticipation throws (he doesn’t need to see the guy come open to pull the trigger, which is often a huge issue for young passers). These were the traits that had me most excited about him as a prospect (since well before we drafted him) and he flashed both plenty as a rookie.

It’s true that he didn’t have a ton of success as a deep passer as a rookie (though he did have a few great balls), but he just never got in sync with John Brown and we didn’t have anyone else to really threaten vertically. In college his average depth of target was well above average and he didn’t struggle connecting deep. He’s got the arm strength (even if it’s not as electric as Darnold or Allen) and two years of success in this area in college. I’m not really worried about him as a deep passer IF he has the weapons.

Basically, JUST AS A PASSER he had a very successful rookie season relative to his peers. He does have some significant flaws but they’re both manageable short term and fixable long term, in my (and plenty others’) opinions. In terms of his natural feel as a passer he’s second probably to only Mayfield, and while his arm talent isn’t on the level of some of the other guys in the class it’s certainly adequate. His legs are an important weapon and part of what makes him such a unique playmaker, but JUST as a passer I wouldn’t look at him all that differently moving forward from the entire rest of the class aside from Mayfield (who is damn special and went 1-1 for a reason)