theMileHighGuy 656 Posted January 8, 2015 (edited) In projected career: 1. Ol' Dirty Beckham: Has the best QB of the receivers in this class, and they already have a great chemical connection. He likely won't play his entire career with Eli, and the Giant's replacement will mean quite a bit to keeping OBJ at the top of this list. 2. Mike Evans: He had an incredible rookie year, with statistically the worst quarterback in the league. TB can only get better at the quarterback position from here, which can only mean that Evans can also only get better from here. 3. Sammy Watkins: 2 and 3 are basically a coin flip for me. Like Evans, Watkins put up an impressive season with an anemic offense. Personally from a talent perspective, I think Watkins has higher upside than Evans, but the Bills aren't in as good of a position to acquire a talented QB as TB. I still like EJ Manuel, and hope the Bills bring in someone who can develop him, which will only mean good things for Sammy. 4. Jordan Mathews: We got to see a lot more of what he could do towards the end of the season. One thing you can count on with Chip at the helm is a windfall of of offense. I think Foles is plenty capable of delivering the ball in that system, but the success of the offense relies on the o-line, which let's Shady get going, making the tandem of Maclin/Mathews all that more deadly. 5. Kelvin Benjamin: Before the season I pretty much hated on Kelvin when the topic of rookie WRs came up. He definitely proved me wrong and showed that an abundance of raw talent will trump polish. He has a lot of rough spots in his game, but he's still learning the position and discovering what he's capable of. Having consistency at the QB position is also going to give him an edge over the players above him on this list, short of OBJ. Philly Brown pls 6. Martavis Bryant: He honestly reminds me a lot of Plaxico Burress, especially in the Steelers uniform. It's tough to stand out playing next to one of the best receivers in the game, but Bryant still put up some 'wow' moments on his way to an 8-touchdown season. He's the perfect compliment to Brown, and like the rest of these guys will only get better. Kind of like OBJ however, his career potential is going to be dependent on the transition from Reothlisberger, who isn't going to play forever. 7. Allen Robinson: I'm a pretty big fan of the fearless WarBortles, so I love the upside of the Jags offense going into the future. It's hard to expect too much with a bunch of rookies thrust into professional football, but Robinson still proved himself a capable and reliable target when the balls were getting there. I wanted the Broncos to draft Robinson so badly after watching him grow throughout his Penn State career. 8. Brandin Cooks: He may have the largest big-play potential on this list, but like some of these other guys, he won't have his steady QB relationship for long. I expected New Orleans to use him more creatively than they did this year, but they struggled to find any rhythm on offense altogether. 9. Donte Moncrief: Admittedly, he should probably be higher on this list for reasons related to my criteria for the other players on this list, but I watched a total of two Colts games this year. Moncrief pretty much made Reggie Wayne irrelevant in the Colts' offense this year, and with Reggie likely retiring this year or next, his role is going to expand. He's also in the perfect offense with the perfect QB to be successful catching the ball. 10. The rest: Marqise Lee, John Brown, Davante Adams, Taylor Gabriel, Cody Latimer. Like I said about Robinson, I'm a big fan of the Jags potential in the passing game. I think Lee is a great compliment to Robinson and CS3, but he's as likely to have a terrible fuck up as make an incredible play. I think he's a good match with Bortles, if and when they decide to open up the play book and air it out. John Brown is in a similar boat. He has the speed and capability to make some game-changing catches, but too many times this year he had bad drops in clutch moments. He also botched a couple special teams plays that cripples his team. Without his fuckups, the Cards probably don't lose as badly to the Broncos this year as they did. Davante Adams has tons of potential, especially because he plays in an offense with a ton of compliment weapons and the best quarterback in the league. I think all those weapons are going to hamper his potential production for a while, until he gets higher on the depth chart, which may not take too long. Gabriel is a touchdown waiting to happen, but I don't see the Browns being a consistent offensive football team any time soon. The potential is there though. On any other team, I think that Cody Latimer is in this conversation with the other big names of this year. But, he's playing with control-freak Peyton Manning, who values familiarity over talent. The reason I want him on this list however is the next ten years or so, given that Brock Osweiler isn't going to be a complete waste of time. Latimer and Oz already have somewhat of a chemistry going, and we got to see a few glimpses of that in the preseason this year. You can count the number of regular season plays he was in on with one hand, and that's a shame. He did have a really nice difficult catch in week 17 which was nice to see. Maybe he gets some action in the playoffs, but I sincerely doubt it. Edited January 8, 2015 by theMileHighGuy 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Maverick 791 Posted January 8, 2015 ---------------------------------------------------- Why Isn't BLAH BLAH BLAH Here... Brandin Cooks -- Not high on him to begin with. Looked OK to me. Depending on how long Brees plays, I am sure he will get some balls, he will get some stats.. But just nothing that excites me. Potential seems limited and almost gimmicky to me. Sammy Watkins -- Looked pretty horrible to me, lol. Maybe it was the QB, maybe it was the offense... I don't know. He just looked so flat. He made a couple really awesome plays throughout the year, but those are too few and far in between to really make it worth it. Bills mega flubbed trading for him.. Even if he is a 1,000 yard WR for the next 6-7 years. Kelvin Benjamin -- Like Watkins, he can make some fantastic plays... There is no doubt about it. However, I think he relies on his physical stature and size too much. He's so stiff running his routes, doesn't finish them out usually... Doesn't help his QB if he gets in trouble. Cam can move, so if you aren't open right away.. You work out of it and get open hoping Cam can find you. Kelvin doesn't do that. Looks a little slower to me than he should be, and I wouldn't rely on him to catch any ball thrown his way. As seen in my list, Philly Brown is, right now at least, the better technician.. has the better skillset... and should be the Panthers #1 until Benjamin proves otherwise. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thanatos 2,847 Posted January 8, 2015 EDIT 2: Response to Thanatos as I missed it. Yes, I did.. Philly Brown was better than Kelvin Benjamin last year, which I put into my calculations / projections. As Dutch just mentioned below.. We have one year to help us try and project these career arcs.. Philly Brown > Kelvin in 2014, IMO.. So i don't find it a stretch that he continues his positive development over Kelvin. I don't see Philly's 2014 being better than Benji's at all. But I do appreciate someone noticing him besides myself. I like him too, but his ceiling to me is a better version of Ted Ginn JR. Benji's ceiling is who knows where. All his flaws are fixed with proper coaching- assuming the guy listens to said coaches. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
