Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

[BillsImpossible]

No. The Bills have a lot of good receivers, but they don't have a Calvin Johnson, A.J. Green, Larry Fitzgerald, or Julio Jones.

Stevie Johnson is the biggest wide receiver on the Bills, at 6'2 207 lbs.

Megatron is 6'5 236 lbs. He's the new NFL #1 wide receiver prototype.

Sidney Rice is 6'4 202 lbs. Offensive coordinators desire receivers on the outside that are tall, big and fast.

Tall is key, and the Bills don't have tall receivers on the outside edge. SJ13 has been working the inside of the field this year, not the outside.

Robert Woods, TJ Graham, and Marquice Goodwin are all players who can replace Johnson.

Stevie Johnson has an $8.5 million cap hit next year. That's a lot of money to pay a #2 wide receiver. If Jairus Byrd comes back strong, will the Bills let Johnson go? If Byrd does not play well, I think the Bills keep Stevie. Who gets the $8.5 million? Whoever plays better. But what if they both play very well? What do the Bills do? Sign both, they have the cap room. Having good wide receivers that can score is what the NFL wants.

Bills sideline reporter, Joe Buscaglia today said Johnson is at risk of getting released by the Bills next season. I hope he's wrong, but if the Bills draft this guy then maybe I won't mind so much depending upon where the $8.5 million goes. Rookies don't count much toward the cap.

http://walterfootball.com/draft2014WR.php

Mike Evans is 6'5 225 lbs.

More touchdowns have been scored in the first 6 weeks of the NFL than ever before, and most of them came from wide receivers.

That being said, what's more important in the NFL today? A very good #2 WR, or a very good (maybe excellent) Safety to defend the pass?

Adavantage: Offense.

The NFL has a huge incentive to score more points, and make things more difficult for defenses because the more offenses score, the more money the NFL scores. Ratings bonus baby.

Cowboys vs. Broncos 90+ point offensive bonanza was amazing to watch, and the NFL creamed their pants.

Give Stevie the $8.5 million. He's played through injuries, and has been the best Bills receiver since Eric Moulds retired. He's only 27 years old, and if a man goes down he can play as the #1 and still beat the best cornerbacks in the NFL.

If the NFL's offensive orgy continues, $8.5 million for a number 2 WR will look cheap in 3 years.

[Mace]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Absolutely, I just don't know which one it is.

[Crisis]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Da'Rick "Randy Terrell Rice Johnson" Rodgers

[BertSquirtgum]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Tall is not key.

[stuckincincy]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Of course they do. It's that turnstile you pass through going into the stadium.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Stevie Johnson is decent but he's not an elite #1 WR. Not too many teams do have a Calvin Johnson, AJ Green(even though we could have) or Julio Jones, etc. He is a middle of the pack #1 WR that is best suited as a #2 but there are many WR's in that category. If you have a decent cast with other guys in that range then your WR unit can still be successful. Somebody like Stevie just isn't going to be a main guy that can carry the passing game himself.

Many will point to the 1,000 yard seasons he had. He barely broke 1,000 yards to begin with and it's not like he's a 1,200+ yard receiver. Somebody needs to get the ball in the age of the NFL when the worse passers in the league still throw for 3,000-3,500 yards.

He's a good receiver but of course he isn't one of the best in the NFL. You could also do much worse. You just need a good cast to go along with him. I wouldn't get rid of him because he is still an asset and it's not like we need the cap room. If they released him and we still sat 15 million dollars under the cap then it would just be more proof of the Bills being cheap.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Da'Rick "Randy Terrell Rice Johnson" Rodgers

You forgot "Jones" in his name. According to NTD and others in Bills land he was supposed to be a Julio Jones clone.

[Mr. Miyagi]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

James Hardy is 6'6".

[BuffaloRedleg]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

It's always been hard to tell if the Bills have an elite #1 WR. Moulds was excellent but I never thought he was top 5. Same with Evans. Then again, look at the QBs tossing them the ball.

Last top 5 WR we had was Andre Reed, but look at who the QB was.

Calvin and AJ are WRs that excel for the most part no matter who the QB. It's tough to see Fitzgerald struggle without a QB, not sure what that says about him at this point in his career.

[Mr. Cynical]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

It's always been hard to tell if the Bills have an elite #1 WR. Moulds was excellent but I never thought he was top 5. Same with Evans. Then again, look at the QBs tossing them the ball.

Last top 5 WR we had was Andre Reed, but look at who the QB was.

Calvin and AJ are WRs that excel for the most part no matter who the QB. It's tough to see Fitzgerald struggle without a QB, not sure what that says about him at this point in his career.

Great points. There just aren't too many WRs that can just flat out make it happen without a really good/elite QB tossing the rock to them. I think the key is for elite WRs to show what they can do, they either need an elite QB OR a QB that will toss it to them no matter what, letting them make the play.

Anyway, we don't have an elite WR IMO, but maybe when we see them all healthy and with EJ hopefully improving, then as a group they can perform at an elite level.

[Meathead]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

at 8.5 mil stevie still probably wont be in the top 10 WRs for cap hit next season

the bills probably dont have a true wr1 but with robert woods what they might have is one of the most productive wr1/2 combo in the league by next season. teams very rarely only put one wr on the field for regular plays anyway so it doesnt really matter who is wr1 or 2. and with the way defenses can adjust to virtually remove one wr from the game, id rather have two very good wrs than one great one and not much of anything else at wr

[GingerP]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Stevie Johnson has an $8.5 million cap hit next year. That's a lot of money to pay a #2 wide receiver.

If they cut Johnson, it would have to be before they pay him the $1.75M roster bonus he is due at the start of the league year, which means they couldn't designate him a post June-1 cut. That means the $8.475M in dead money is added on to the $11.5M in dead money the Bills have next year, given them $21M in dead money. The cap savings would only be $25K. Then, they have to replace their best WR.

As little sense as it would make to cut him from a cap perspective, it also makes even less sense to cut the team's best WR because he isn't Calvin Johnson. Over the last 3 seasons SJ has averaged close to 80 catches for 1,000+ yards and 7-8 TD. That is real production that would have to be replaced if he is cut. Hardly seems like the best way to improve the team.

Seems to me they could improve their team by looking for help where it is needed, like at OG, and keep the guys who are producing elsewhere.

[better days]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Stevie Johnson is decent but he's not an elite #1 WR. Not too many teams do have a Calvin Johnson, AJ Green(even though we could have) or Julio Jones, etc. He is a middle of the pack #1 WR that is best suited as a #2 but there are many WR's in that category. If you have a decent cast with other guys in that range then your WR unit can still be successful. Somebody like Stevie just isn't going to be a main guy that can carry the passing game himself.

Many will point to the 1,000 yard seasons he had. He barely broke 1,000 yards to begin with and it's not like he's a 1,200+ yard receiver. Somebody needs to get the ball in the age of the NFL when the worse passers in the league still throw for 3,000-3,500 yards.

He's a good receiver but of course he isn't one of the best in the NFL. You could also do much worse. You just need a good cast to go along with him. I wouldn't get rid of him because he is still an asset and it's not like we need the cap room. If they released him and we still sat 15 million dollars under the cap then it would just be more proof of the Bills being cheap.

Well, look who Stevie had as a QB. With a better QB I think Stevie could have had 1200 yds with no problem. There have been MANY WR's drafted over the years that were SUPPOSED to be GREAT & they turn out to be busts.

You don't build a GOOD team by getting rid of GOOD players & Stevie is a GOOD player.

[TacklingDummy]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Having a Top receiver is nice but I'd rather have a Top 5 QB.
Someone like Manning, Brees, Rivers, Rodgers, Wilson, and Romo.

[pmoon6]

Re: Do The Bills Have An Elite #1 Receiver?

Too early to tell, but I have high hopes for Woods and Goodwin.