NFL wide receiver additions for ’15 may not seem like the sexy whisper you want to hear when you’re sitting next to a cozy fire. But, wait! We’ll take a shot at making your blood boil with some promising Wide Receiver upgrades … while you sit at your coffee-stained desk.
49ers: Touchdowns as Red Hot as their Jerseys
Let’s start with the 49er’s offense—an offense that had only 30 offensive TDs in 2014. Only 8 teams weren’t able to get 30 or more TDs last year.
Courtesy: washingtonpost.com
But this team’s ’15 Red Zone threat should go up a few notches with the addition of Torrey Smith. Although SF lost Michael Crabtree and Stevie Johnson, those two combined for only 7 TDs. Ex-Raven Smith had 11. And Smith’s 11 scores accounted for 26% of the Ravens’ total offensive TDs. He also converted 1 of every 5 catches into a TD.
Veteran, Anquan Boldin, will be a natural partner on the field.
Watch out for the 49ers!
Dolphins: The “Young Stud Nation”
The Miami Dolphin’s find themselves freed of the Wall … ace they ran into. That was bad, wasn’t it? But also bad was taking a $17.3 million dollar hit to the cap in 2014—from a guy that burdened the locker room and had 17 fewer receptions than his rookie teammate, Jarvis Landry.
Courtesy: rantsports.com
But don’t fear Dolphin fans. The Malice-Wallace is now freezing in Minnesota. And a young stud—Kenny Stills—was gained. Stills is a hell of a steal for the ‘Fins’—considering that he had 69 more receiving yards than Wallace last year. That’s a total of 931 receiving yards during a stellar rookie year.
Wallace’s cap hit in 2014 was 31.7x more of a burden than the amount Stills had on the Saints. The ex-Saint caught 74% of the footballs that were thrown his way, while Wallace (who must have been counting his money in a Scrooge McDuck manner) retained 58% of his throws.
No doubt, though, Miami will miss Wallace’s presence in the Red Zone: he had 10 TDs and accounted for 26% of the team’s offensive TDs. Meanwhile Stills caught only 3 TDs from Gunslinger Drew Brees.
Still, though, Stills will be a strong addition. He ran a top-performing 4.38 sec 40 at the 2013 Combine. With that, we may find him in the backfield in Percy Harvin-style when match-ups align just right.
Stills had wait for 143 players to get drafted before his name was called. Now he’s getting his chance to shine.
Colts: Revamping the Veteran Presence
What was one of the biggest WR signings during the offseason? It was a guy who had to throw a ‘Fitz’ in order to get out of Texas. That player is the veteran Andre Johnson, the man who’ll be replacing beloved Reggie Wayne.
Courtesy: bloguin.com
The hope? The transaction will upgrade an offense that has a ton of talent, but just not enough “Luck” to play in the Super Bowl.
Johnson comes in with 936 receiving yards to his credit in ’14. That’s 157 yards more than Wayne’s production. Johnson also snagged on more TD than Wayne last year.
Andrew Luck will have another seasoned WR in the arsenal—a WR who had the ball thrown to him 147 times last year. The only problem? Ego. We’ll see how Johnson relates to his new partner, T.Y. Hilton.
But, all in all, it’s a great deal for the Colts offense. And it makes dollars-and-sense, too: the cap hit was only $1.3 million dollars more than Wayne’s contract last year.
Luck-y for the Colts.
