Analytics anyone? Interesting read based on the 2012 season.
Why Wide Receivers Are Overvalued
Wide receivers are overvalued for one basic reason: they simply do not touch the ball enough to justify big money or high draft picks.
Let's look at it this way: Detroit’s Calvin Johnson is fresh off perhaps the greatest individual receiving season in NFL history, as noted above, with 122 catches and a record 1,964 yards.
But even HE spent 94 percent of every snap on the sidelines or as a high-priced decoy.
Johnson's 122 catches equals 7.6 touches per game. There are about 130 snaps (65 per team) per NFL game. So even the greatest wide receivers touch the ball on fewer than 6 percent of all snaps. They are OVERVALUED, folks. Don’t you see it?
Coupled with the fact that Johnson got in the end zone only five times and his team won just four games, you could argue that he was the shiniest, most overvalued, least impactful hood ornament in NFL history in 2012.
Fans in Detroit shouldn't be excited by his performance. They should mock the Ford Family for attaching this oversized Shiny Hood Ornament to the rusty old Edsel of NFL franchises.
Bottom line: It is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous, to dish out megabucks to a guy who, in a great year, might touch the ball on just 5 percent of NFL snaps and do little to nothing 95 percent of the time.
Why Wide Receivers Are Overvalued
Wide receivers are overvalued for one basic reason: they simply do not touch the ball enough to justify big money or high draft picks.
Let's look at it this way: Detroit’s Calvin Johnson is fresh off perhaps the greatest individual receiving season in NFL history, as noted above, with 122 catches and a record 1,964 yards.
But even HE spent 94 percent of every snap on the sidelines or as a high-priced decoy.
Johnson's 122 catches equals 7.6 touches per game. There are about 130 snaps (65 per team) per NFL game. So even the greatest wide receivers touch the ball on fewer than 6 percent of all snaps. They are OVERVALUED, folks. Don’t you see it?
Coupled with the fact that Johnson got in the end zone only five times and his team won just four games, you could argue that he was the shiniest, most overvalued, least impactful hood ornament in NFL history in 2012.
Fans in Detroit shouldn't be excited by his performance. They should mock the Ford Family for attaching this oversized Shiny Hood Ornament to the rusty old Edsel of NFL franchises.
Bottom line: It is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous, to dish out megabucks to a guy who, in a great year, might touch the ball on just 5 percent of NFL snaps and do little to nothing 95 percent of the time.
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