A Receiver WTF

He was better; didn't matter

Continuing the walk through the Redskins' last cuts on the way to the final roster, the team chose not to keep anyone in reserve at receiver. Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El are unquestioned, early in training camp James Thrash won the number three receiver spot, he is a Joe Gibbs holdover, a 12 year veteran and was thought to be on the way out, he impressed coach Jim Zorn.

The team spent second round picks on receivers Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly, even though those guys are hurt, came to camp out of shape (op. cit.) and have openly struggled at times or perhaps a better way to say it is they have not struggled at times and it was also an early conventional wisdom that Devin and Malcolm were not going to be able to contribute much early in their rookie seasons, you still knew they were going to make the team, there is no way they were not.

Billy McMullen looked good in preseason, by the end camp it looked as though the team understood his strengths, catching the ball in his breadbasket using his body and not his hands, good for short possession catches. Anthony Mix was the incumbent trailer, cracked a rib in the second preseason game against the Bills. He lost ground and never made it back up and I seriously thought Billy was going to make the team, Jim Zorn even hinted as much in his Friday presser after the Jaguars preseason game. Neither Anthony nor Billy made the final cut.

So you have Santana, plagued by a recurring groin injury the past four seasons (op. cit.), Antwaan with a hamstring injury last season and now and with a broken bone in his hand and James with his history of catches the last four seasons: 2004 17, 2005 14, 2006 12, 2007 9 so his production is headed downward. In 2007 after Antwaan's hammy got hurt from overuse James stepped up into Antwaan's spot... and immediately pulled his hamstring, then the next week got a high ankle sprain. James is not a spring chicken and if Jim Zorn thinks he can make James into some sort of viable every down pass catching option he is in for a reality check. And anyway, if you go back the past four years, what does it mean when James is on the field? Seventy Eighty percent of the time it means run play.

So we can expect zero out of the draft picks and the top three are all veterans, Santana, Antwaan and James average to nine years experience. There is a big fat donut between the skill of veterans and the attendant hope they will stay healthy and some retro vision of two rookies blazing through the future catching deep balls.

The team does not appear too concerned, signing undrafted rookie free agent Horace Gant as the only receiver on the practice squad.


Tempering these notions is the idea that looking back at the past four years, whether Joe Gibbs or Al Saunders was calling the plays, there has only been serious work for two receivers what with Clinton Portis catching balls out of the backfield and Chris Cooley working the middle with the catch and run. If my theory of the NFC Beast holds then west coast offense or no, this ratio will remain constant.



Billy McMullen: Getty Images from here.