Wide Receivers and Why I Love'em

i love the way you shake your hips and activate like a wideout. i have a fondness for WRs. they're so pretty. all limbs and speed. most WRs run forty yard dashes in about 4.3-4.4 seconds. a normal human might run it in about six seconds. QBs may be the star and RBs the rock but WRs are sexy. they are the prima donnas of the football field. without them your team has no chance of dropping sixty yard bombs into the endzone, with them, you might lose your mind trying to keep them happy. i've always had a fondness for WRs ever since i got into andre rison and michael haynes on my madden 1994. they were unbeatable, i was unbeatable.

so now when i play fantasy, i want my WRs and i always keep my roster stocked with potential stars. the problem with WRs is that they are very volatile. they are inconsistent at best and the days of sterling sharp and his two touchdown per game averages are over. the best WRs nowadays can touch those numbers but outside of randy moss, no WR is that consistent. even the best WR in the game, marvin harrison, was invisible for the first four games of the 2003 season. but when WRs get hot, they get red hot. 10 receptions, 180 yards, 3 TDs. booyah. seeing a WR you own, on sportscenter, streaking down the sideline into the promised land might be the best feeling ever.

WRs are also highly inconsistent from season to season. a stellar WR needs a good QB and a good running game. it's too easy to shutdown a WR when they are no other offensive options. another thing that a star WR needs is a good wingman on the other side, keeping the defenses honest. the best WRs in history always had a dependable wingman. lynn swann and john stallworth. jerry rice and john taylor. michel irvin and alvin harper (um, sorta). usually the super stud is a slower possession type and the wingman is a speed type who can stretch the field. in fantasy terms, this difference is not accounted for. but i like to pretend that i'm building a real NFL team, so i draft possession types and speed types. possession receivers tend to be more dependable but speed types get the long bombs (while disappearing for stretches of games at a time).

still, regardless of which WRs you like, it all still comes down to the numbers they can produce. the best possible scenario for a WR owner is to have a lone great receiver on a team to whom the QB looks every time. terrell owens with the niners was such a receiver. the niners had no other bodies to throw to so they had to give it to TO twelve times a game. this produces huge numbers. also, teams that are out of the game by the first quarter often produce great receiving numbers simply because they have to throw so much to play catch up (e.g. anquan boldin with the arizona cardinals). watching the end of a blowout is always nail biting as you see the winning team play prevent defense while conceding huge chunks of receiving yardage to your opposing team's WR. a few trips down the field and the WR who had 3 receptions and 30 yards suddenly has seven and 120. scary stuff.

WRs flame out week by week and season by season. the rule of thumb is that rookie WRs always suck, and year three is when a young WR should find his legs. most rookie WRs have trouble with the physical play of the NFL and so need a few years to adjust. on average, there is probably only one or two rookie WRs worth drafting on numbers alone (many more are worth drafting if in a keeper league however). there are always a few superstar caliber WRs who emerge from season to season, but the question of which ones are flash in the pans cannot be answered. so beware WR buyer, it's a guessing game.