It appears….

[*ochocincos*]

(03-17-2016, 12:26 AM)Beaker Wrote: Marvin Jones - Rd 5
TJ Housmanzedah - Rd 7
Andrew Hawkins - UDFA

Which is three WRs taken fourth round or later in the past 15 years out of:
Mario Alford
James Wright
Cobi Hamilton
Marvin Jones
Ryan Whalen
Dezmon Briscoe
Freddie Brown
Mario Urrutia
Bennie Brazell
Reggie McNeal
Tab Perry
Maurice Mann
TJ Houshmandzadeh

That's only 16.67% success rate at finding a quality WR late in the draft and not even including the UDFA WRs that have been brought in. If we include that, the percentage would be much lower.

Meanwhile, the Bengals have selected the following WRs in the first three rounds in the past 15 years (quality WRs in bold):
Chad Johnson
Kelley Washington
*Chris Henry
Jerome Simpson
Andre Caldwell
Jordan Shipley
AJ Green
Mohamed Sanu

That's a 50% success rate of the Bengals landing a quality WR within the first three rounds. Above 50% if you consider Henry as a successful WR in his limited years and playing third WR behind Chad and Housh. Something of note: all of the non-quality WRs in the above list of rounds 1-3 since 2001 have been selected in the third round.

So Fred's point still stands that it's MUCH harder to find a good WR after the third round compared to within the first three rounds.