Core looking great!

[Whatever]

(05-31-2017, 11:11 AM)ochocincos Wrote: I'll add this...if Core has progressed as the Hobson articles are eluding to, Erickson is the the one on the hottest seat.
Core looked like a much better WR than Erickson last year, so him improving on that should widen that gap (unless Erickson has made at least similar strides as a WR, which we haven't even heard anything of the like).

I think Erickson could (and should) be the one dropped if only 6 are kept.
Everyone supporting Erickson has been talking about his return value at both KR and PR.
But while everyone points to Erickson's very good season last year at KR, he wasn't great at PR.
In college, Erickson was primarily a PR and only had two KR attempts. What this tells me is that needing a lot of KR experience isn't needed to become a good KR in the NFL.
Also, when looking at PR production in college, Tyler Boyd was a better PR than Erickson and I believe Boyd could take over that role. Adam Jones should be able to take a few attempts too. When looking at KR, there are plenty of options including Adam Jones, Joe Mixon (22 KR attempts in college, 22.9 YPA), Tyler Boyd (46 attempts in college, 24.4 YPA), and John Ross (86 attempts in college, 24.1 YPA).
Last, people talk about how he was the leader in KR yardage and second in YPA with eligible players, but the eligibility cutoff makes it so the list is only 10 players deep. A majority of teams are sharing return duties, and if you expand the list to 15+ attempts instead, Erickson's ranking in YPA is actually not second.

TL;DR - While Erickson had a good season at KR, he didn't need much experience to succeed at that (so lack of experience shouldn't prevent others taking the job), he didn't have a great season as a PR (which he actually had more experience with), there are a bevy of other options that can do PR/KR, KR is being phased out more than PR, and he doesn't offer much as a WR.

To put Erickson's year in perspective, he was 1st among rookies in KR yards and 4th in PR yardage.  His 810 KR yards nearly doubled that of the 2nd best rookie at 432.  It's not really realistic to think that another rookie will be able to do the same.

For another, how many rookies were the fans saying were going to unseat Brandon Tate, but failed, and he was an average KR and PR?  Erickson, as a rookie, was a very good KR and an average PR, so it will be that much tougher to unseat him. 

The big issue that I have with keeping Core and dropping Erickson is Erickson had 57 touches last year on returns, and that doesn't count fair catches and touchbacks.  Even going with the general consensus that Core is a better WR, there's not much reason to think Core will get much more than 20 touches he had last year with the guys in front of him, so why cut a guy who will get 50+ touches for a guy who will be lucky to get 25?  It's a lot easier to find a guy who can replace Core's production from last year than Erickson's.