So far we have ranked Andy in the 9-12 range and our RBs in the 6-10 range. Now comes the time to rank AJ, LaFell, and Boyd. Here's who they are competing against:

ARZ- Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, John Brown
ATL- Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu, Devin Hester
BAL- Steve Smith, Mike Wallace, Breshad Perriman
BUF- Sammy Watkins, Robert Woods, Marquise Goodman
CAR- Kelvin Benjiman, Devin Funchess, Ted Gin Jr
CHI- Alshon Jeffey, Kevin White,  Eddie Royal
CLV- Brian Hartline, Colby Coleman, Andrew Hawkins
DAL- Dez Bryant, Terrance Williams, Cole Beasley
DEN- Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Cody Latimer
DET-Marvin Jones, Golden Tate, Jeremy Kerley
GBP- Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams
HOU- Dodo Hopkins, Cecil Shorts III,  Will Fuller
IND- TY Hilton, Phillip Dorsett, Donte Moncrief
JAX- Allen Hurns, Allen Robinson, Marquise Lee
KCC- Jeremy Maclin, Albert Wilson, Chris Conley
LAR- Tavon Austin, Kenny Britt, Brian Quick
MIA- Jarvis Landry, Kenny Stills, DeVante Parker
MIN- Stefon Diggs, Laquell Treadwell, Charles Johnson
NEP- Danny Amendola, Julian Eldeman,  Nate Washington
NOS- Brandin Cooks, Willie Snead, Brandon Coleman
NYG- Odell Beckham Jr, Victor Cruz, Sterling Shepard
NYJ- Eric Decker, Brandon Marshall, Devin Smith
OAK- Amari Cooper, Michael Crabtree, Seth Roberts
PHI- Jordon Matthews, Nelson Aguilar, Rueben Randle
PIT- Antonio Bryant, Markus Wheaton, Sammie Coats
SDC- Keenan Allen, Travis benjamin, Stevie Johnson
SEA- Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse, Tyler Lockett
SFF- Torrey Smith,  Jerome Simpson, Quinton Patton
TBB- Mike Evans, Vincent Jackson, Louis Murphy
TEN- Kendall Wright, Dorial Green-Beckham, Harry Douglas
WAS- DeSean Jackson,  Pierre Garcon, Josh Doctson

I voted 6-10 simply based on AJ Green. AJ Green plus others > a number of other teams WRs.

No way I could go 1-5.

11-16 AJ is great but the rest of WR Corp is unproven.

(05-22-2016, 04:17 PM)J24 Wrote: 11-16 AJ is great but the rest of WR Corp is unproven.

Not sure I'd consider LaFell unproven.

(05-22-2016, 05:29 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Not sure I'd consider LaFell unproven.

Not sure I'd consider your consideration...

~16th-ish... possibly could be 1-2 spots higher or 1-2 spots lower. Hard to really judge it because AJ does help a lot with the rankings, but once you get past him, it's hard to argue in favor of their depth.

Plus AJ was only 8th in receiving yards last season, so it's not even like he can single handedly carry a WR corps' ranking like Antonio Brown or Julio Jones can if need be. As consistently good as AJ has been in his career, he's never been elite. Never shown the ability to be the best WR in a given year like Chad Johnson did.

AJ Is great, but I voted 11-15 because nobody else has proven they are a stud yet.

CHI- Alshon Jeffey, Kevin White,  Eddie Royal
DEN- Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Cody Latimer
GBP- Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams
HOU- Dodo Hopkins, Cecil Shorts III,  Will Fuller
IND- TY Hilton, Phillip Dorsett, Donte Moncrief
JAX- Allen Hurns, Allen Robinson, Marquise Lee
NYJ- Eric Decker, Brandon Marshall, Devin Smith
WAS- DeSean Jackson,  Pierre Garcon, Josh Doctson
PIT- Antonio Bryant, Markus Wheaton, Sammie Coats
ARZ- Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, John Brown

Those are the trio's I have ahead of ours. So I have our guys at #10. People are saying that we're unproven behind AJ, but if you look at most #2's they have just as many questions around them as LaFell - if not more. 

I gave a slight edge to Bryant over AJ with Pittsburgh, but it's not like Wheaton has done anything spectacular in his career. He wouldn't even be starting if not for a suspension to Bryant. Coats has 1 more catch than Boyd in his career.

If you pick out any other trio other than the ones I mentioned above, I can finds faults or questions with their #2 guys and many of the #3's are just as unproven as Boyd. 

EDIT: I added AZ to the list, so I have the Bengals at #11.

(05-22-2016, 08:58 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: CHI- Alshon Jeffey, Kevin White,  Eddie Royal
DEN- Demaryius Thomas, Emmanuel Sanders, Cody Latimer
GBP- Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Davante Adams
HOU- Dodo Hopkins, Cecil Shorts III,  Will Fuller
IND- TY Hilton, Phillip Dorsett, Donte Moncrief
JAX- Allen Hurns, Allen Robinson, Marquise Lee
NYJ- Eric Decker, Brandon Marshall, Devin Smith
WAS- DeSean Jackson,  Pierre Garcon, Josh Doctson
PIT- Antonio Bryant, Markus Wheaton, Sammie Coats

Those are the trio's I have ahead of ours. So I have our guys at #10. People are saying that we're unproven behind AJ, but if you look at most #2's they have just as many questions around them as LaFell - if not more. 

I gave a slight edge to Bryant over AJ with Pittsburgh, but it's not like Wheaton has done anything spectacular in his career. He wouldn't even be starting if not for a suspension to Bryant. Coats has 1 more catch than Boyd in his career.

If you pick out any other trio other than the ones I mentioned above, I can finds faults or questions with their #2 guys and many of the #3's are just as unproven as Boyd. 

Couple bold exclusions there in my opinion...


Arizona: They had arguably the best trio of WR in the NFL last year. Fitzgerald 1,200/Brown 1,000/Floyd 850.

Atlanta: Julio Jones + people > AJ Green + people. Julio Jones has gotten nearly 3,500 yards the last two years.

Dallas: AJ and Dez are about a wash, but I think Williams is better than LaFell and Beasley gets a slight edge over Boyd for actually producing in the NFL.

Giants: OBJ has been nothing but a monster in his career thus far and easily out produced AJ in receptions, yards, and TDs. Throw in a possible Cruz return (remember that guy?) and a 2nd round pick WR like the Bengals took.

Oakland: Amari Cooper 1,070 yard rookie season, Crabtree with over 900 yards, and Seth Roberts came out of nowhere undrafted with 32/480/5 as a rookie. Cooper and Roberts should both get better, plus Carr should also get better after improving his second year.


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(Ones I wouldn't sleep on but can't call "exclusions" are Miami with Landry/Stills/Paker and San Diego with Allen/Benjamin/Johnson.)

I was torn between 6-10 and 11-15. I'm of the opinion that AJ Green has never truly been elite. And after him it's a big ?

I'm hoping AJ can turn in a career year this season and Boyd and co. really lite it up, we'll see.

(05-22-2016, 09:19 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Couple bold exclusions there in my opinion...


Arizona: They had arguably the best trio of WR in the NFL last year. Fitzgerald 1,200/Brown 1,000/Floyd 850.

Atlanta: Julio Jones + people > AJ Green + people. Julio Jones has gotten nearly 3,500 yards the last two years.

Dallas: AJ and Dez are about a wash, but I think Williams is better than LaFell and Beasley gets a slight edge over Boyd for actually producing in the NFL.

Giants: OBJ has been nothing but a monster in his career thus far and easily out produced AJ in receptions, yards, and TDs. Throw in a possible Cruz return (remember that guy?) and a 2nd round pick WR like the Bengals took.

Oakland: Amari Cooper 1,070 yard rookie season, Crabtree with over 900 yards, and Seth Roberts came out of nowhere undrafted with 32/480/5 as a rookie. Cooper and Roberts should both get better, plus Carr should also get better after improving his second year.

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(Ones I wouldn't sleep on but can't call "exclusions" are Miami with Landry/Stills/Paker and San Diego with Allen/Benjamin/Johnson.)

AZ: I goofed here. Honestly, I didn't know Brown was that good last year.

ATL: I still see Julio and AJ as equals or close to. The Falcons pass more than we do and thus Julio gets more targets. If you swap AJ and Julio, I think there's a good chance AJ is posting similar numbers in ATL and Julio isn't going for 1600+ yards in Cincy. The rest is also a wash. Flip a coin.

Dallas: I went back and forth on this one. You could flip again here as well. I'm not seeing where Terrence Williams is obviously better than LaFell. He has a career high 840 yards (3 TDs) last year with Dez missing most of the season. His other 2 seasons were kinda LaFell-like. Beasley also had career highs with Bryant missing time. He's a Baby Hawk type and never had more than 420 yards prior to last season. If Boyd puts up that kind of production I think he'd be viewed as a disappointment.

NYG: I had the Giants ahead of us last year when we did this. I've lost all faith that Cruz can get or stay healthy. Even if he does, will he play at his old level? Giant question mark there honestly. Fwiw, PFF rated AJ ahead of Beckham by a nose last season. The 2nd round picks are also a wash. Another one where you could flip a coin honestly.

OAK: I considered them, but I think AJ is clearly better than Cooper (as of right now) and that makes up for the difference between Crabs and LaFell. Seth Roberts was a nice surprise, but if I have a gun to my head and I'm asked to pick one, I'm going with Boyd for sure. Also, keep in mind that the Raiders passed 606 times last year and didn't have much going on at TE. They targeted WR's a ton, while our offense is a bit more diverse.

Honestly, I don't think these exclusions were all that bold. Other than AZ and I admit my mistake there.

This one is especially hard because I for one don't know an awful lot about most teams' #3 receivers. There are also many transplant FAs, injury cases, and rookies to further muddy the waters. Lafell and Boyd just happen to be two of these cases where they may or may not have good chemistry with this offense. I'd guess that the top tiers of wrs look something like this:

Tier 1: Denver, Green Bay, Houston(depending on Fuller), NY Jets, and Pittsburgh(maybe Tier 2 after suspension)

Tier 2: Arizona, Atlanta, Buffalo, Carolina, Dallas, Jaxonville, New England(depending upon Amendola), NY Giants, Tampa Bay, Washington(depending upon Doctson)

I'd assume that they'll be somewhere in the middle of the Tier 2 pack, which would be good for 10th best in the league. It'll be fun to see how it all shakes out with the new guys.

(05-22-2016, 09:50 PM)Shake n Blake Wrote: AZ: I goofed here. Honestly, I didn't know Brown was that good last year.

ATL: I still see Julio and AJ as equals or close to. The Falcons pass more than we do and thus Julio gets more targets. If you swap AJ and Julio, I think there's a good chance AJ is posting similar numbers in ATL and Julio isn't going for 1600+ yards in Cincy. The rest is also a wash. Flip a coin.

Dallas: I went back and forth on this one. You could flip again here as well. I'm not seeing where Terrence Williams is obviously better than LaFell. He has a career high 840 yards (3 TDs) last year with Dez missing most of the season. His other 2 seasons were kinda LaFell-like. Beasley also had career highs with Bryant missing time. He's a Baby Hawk type and never had more than 420 yards prior to last season. If Boyd puts up that kind of production I think he'd be viewed as a disappointment.

NYG: I had the Giants ahead of us last year when we did this. I've lost all faith that Cruz can get or stay healthy. Even if he does, will he play at his old level? Giant question mark there honestly. Fwiw, PFF rated AJ ahead of Beckham by a nose last season. The 2nd round picks are also a wash. Another one where you could flip a coin honestly.

OAK: I considered them, but I think AJ is clearly better than Cooper (as of right now) and that makes up for the difference between Crabs and LaFell. Seth Roberts was a nice surprise, but if I have a gun to my head and I'm asked to pick one, I'm going with Boyd for sure. Also, keep in mind that the Raiders passed 606 times last year and didn't have much going on at TE. They targeted WR's a ton, while our offense is a bit more diverse.

Honestly, I don't think these exclusions were all that bold. Other than AZ and I admit my mistake there.

Yeah, on some of your coin flips I did say I saw Bengals at 16-ish, +/- 1 or 2.. so not completely off the train of thought as you are. Did wonder about Arizona. That was one of the easiest ones to call for me, lol.. but yeah, if you just forgot then that happens sometimes.

-I think viewing Julio and AJ as equals is kind of silly. That's like saying AJ and Sammy Watkins are equals because the Bengals throw it more than the Bills. Julio Jones just put up 136/1,871, which makes it the second year in a row he's put up a yardage total better than AJ's career best year... Julio had less than 90 yards last year in only 4 games. AJ only had more than 90 yards in 4 games. I don't think AJ has that kind of year in him. I really don't think they're equal anymore.

-I do agree that AJ is better than Cooper, but I think Cooper will improve and I think the difference between Crabtree and LaFell are bigger than you think. (I know you're a LaFell believer though.) I just see him as a bad #2/mediocre #3 when he's not getting thrown to by Tom Brady and Crabtree has put up an 1,100 season before. #2s are mainly what made me mention Oakland over Cincinnati. Real good odds that they have two 1,000+ yard receivers in 2016 which I guess I give bonus points for in my rankings... meanwhile I put LaFell behind Marvin Jones, and Jones only got 800-ish yards with Dalton playing MVP-level football.

-Even if Cruz doesn't go back to his 1,500+ yard 2011 (which I agree is unlikely), I think he could still be a 800-1,000 yard receiver with so much attention off of him. PFF judges pretty harshly for penalties, so his 3 personal foul game against Norman could have easily tanked his score to explain AJ being ahead of him by a nose though. Despite outperforming AJ statistically.

-Dallas, I think this is one again you buying into LaFell minus Brady more than I am. This is admittedly a pretty close matchup, though I think Eliott and Morris are going to open up the passing game big time for Romo and his WRs.

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Sure would be nice to get the '03-'07 Bengals WRs right now. Would be real happy with the '06. Lol

Too soon

(05-22-2016, 10:54 PM)Atomic Orange Wrote: Too soon

I actually think our WR core is at least as good as it was last year, maybe even better if Boyd does what I think he might be able to do.

(05-22-2016, 05:29 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Not sure I'd consider LaFell unproven.

He is coming off a down season maybe unproven is a bit harsh but he still has some to prove.

I said average or just below average, in the 15-20 range.

AJ Green is great, but you take him out of the mix and this receiving group is a giant question mark.

Lafell - sure, he has proven he can be a decent starter.
Everyone else - No Clue

Also, are we counting our TE's? If not, then I feel 15-20 range may be even a little too high. They could end up top 10 depending on how the rooks do, but I don't expect it this year.

Trying to take a few things in to consideration here, I went 6-10. Here's why:

Competition. Who did they rack up stats against? The Falcons play in a division where they get to see the Saints and Buccaneers twice. They have been awful defenses over the past few years. Ditto the Colts and Texans getting to see the awful Jags (I know everyone thinks they are a playoff team now...but their defense was awful) and Titans. Does everyone remember how the Bengal's defense shut down Atlanta's offense after they torched the Saint's defense the week before?

Balls. (Haha) How many could the three WRs get on this so-called "run-first" offense that also had a top 3 TE on the field?

Going through the list of the big three for each team, there was maybe only a couple I would have selected over our big three LAST YEAR. AJ, MLJ, and Sanu were pretty damn good. I point to Sanu's performance when AJ was down, MLJs performance whenever he was seemingly targeted... But with MLJ and Sanu gone, I moved about six other squads ahead of ours and came up with 9th or 10th overall.

When I started thinking about why I dropped them the 6 places, it has to do entirely with the lack of experience of Boyd and Core. Lafell should, at the very least, be a solid WR. How great does the WR have to be to excel with AJ and Eifert drawing coverage? I think that is the huge opportunity for Lafell, and eventually Boyd and Core.

So I guess we are completely disregarding Eiffert during these rankings?

I mean, I know you said wide receivers, but Eiffert is one of our top receiving weapons on offense...