Here is a list of WRs for this season.
NAME REC YDS AVG LONG TDEthan Wolf 12 157 13.1 31 2Preston Williams 5 117 23.4 49 2
Josh Malone 12 109 9.1 19 1
Josh Smith 9 104 11.6 20 0
Jauan Jennings 9 87 9.7 30 0
Von Pearson 6 87 14.5 45 0
Alvin Kamara 10 77 7.7 19 0
Jalen Hurd 6 70 11.7 31 1Joshua Dobbs 1 58 58.0 58 (TD) 1Johnathon Johnson 4 45 11.3 16 0
Marquez North 4 38 9.5 16 0
Pig Howard 1 8 8.0 8 0Alex Ellis 2 7 3.5 5 0Totals 81 964 11.9 58 7The RBs are green because they are not part of the discussion, and while i consider TEs to be basically WRs, they are not part of this discussion other than to note that at the moment a TE is our leading reciever, which probably does say something.
And of course Dobbs is excluded.
Now, although it seems 50 WRs because they play so many of them, the reality is we have 7 pure WRs on that list .
Of those, Pig has now been dismissed after barely playing, and North is finally benched after having to deal with a nagging injury.
Opinions may vary, but if you asked me at the start of the season who our starting WRs would be, I would have said North and Howard. Both have had issues. I do question why North continued to play if he was (supposedly) so "dinged up", but it appears that at the moment at least, he is a non-factor. I don't know if it's been announced if he is playing Saturday but at this point I'd be surprised to see him in the game.
That's for the two main receivers, for a possession or slot type receiver I would say Smith is a perfect fit.
My main point is this, if those three were the clear starters and had developed a rhythm with Dobbs, I suspect our passing game would be much better. However, it hasn't happened. But...and here is the crux of it...no one else has really stepped up.
So I want to say that (a) we are not as deep at WR as I thought, and (b) we need to identify two prime receivers, and the sooner the better! This I think is perhaps the biggest part of the problem, just a failure of anyone else to emerge.
I think what the staff should or should have done, is identify two clear starters as primary receivers, and keep Smith as the third receiver. That clearly has not happened, and it should have long ago.
But a corollary point is that we are not as deep as I thought, certainly not in
experience. Right now, not counting North who I believe is out, Malone is probably our most experienced WR counting prior seasons. That's a problem!
So here is what I would do, if I were coach for a day.
Based on a combination of experience and talent, Von Pearson and Malone are the starters with Smith in the slot/third WR. Let me say that I would be okay swapping Smith with Von Pearson also. Then backing up Von Pearson and Malone are Jennings and Williams, who both seem very talented but lack experience. Finally Johnson can back up Smith.
So there you have it...for a 3-receiver set we have a two deep. The expectation is that if Von Pearson and Malone are not getting it done, Williams and Jennings press them.
What I see instead is a circus of guys coming in all over the place, without any seeming logic to it. A guy will make a nice catch and come out of the game, etc.
Pick a dam lineup and stick with it for awhile, and if the starters aren't getting it done bench them! Geez almighty, how hard can it be?