EBF-
You appear to know a lot about judging talent and have a long memory. I'm at 1.05 in our rookie draft and I've noticed you to have Gilyard at the #2 or #3 WR position. How would you tier the following WRs based on talent. You'll notice that they are also KR types (like Mardy) and somewhat svelte WR's on their respective teams. I like Gilyard but don't have a clean read on his talent, other than the comparisons people make to him and Santonio Holmes. I know Coles and Moss are old but it's more like judging the peak of their careers and talent they brought into the league.
Mardy Gilyard
Lavaerneus Coles
Percy Harvin
Desean Jackson
Ted Ginn Jr.
Santonio Holmes
Santana Moss
Devin Hester
I never liked Ginn. He was a lanky long strider whose body type prevented him from getting separation. I never drafted him in any of my dynasty leagues.The other guys on your list are all decent players. I would probably rank them something like:
DeSean Jackson
Santonio Holmes
Santana Moss
Percy Harvin
Laveranues Coles
Mardy Gilyard
Devin Hester
Ted Ginn
There is not a huge gap between Jackson-Coles. All of those guys are similar talents. All of them are/were very good players. Coles and Moss had some very good seasons in their prime. Harvin will be that kind of player in the future.
Hester is a good athlete, but not very polished as a WR.
Gilyard seemed to first make waves as a returner and his skills as a WR emerged later. I'm cautious nowadays because there was so much unwarranted hype surrounding Ginn Jr. and he's proved to be a liability at his primary position. I know less about the WR Gilyard than the KR Gilyard. Any perspective would be appreciated.
Gilyard is a good natural receiver. I've seen bits and pieces of many of his games over the years. I don't think I've ever seen him drop a pass. Check out the reel that I posted in the highlight thread and you'll see him make some very difficult catches along the sidelines (
). He has all of the football skills that you look for in a WR (body control, reliable hands). The only area where I have any concern is his physical talent. As you mentioned, Gilyard is thin. He's not nearly as well built as Harvin, Coles, or Moss. He's more along the lines of Jackson and Holmes. That's not necessarily a death sentence. It's okay to be thin if you're also quick and fast. That's the main question with Gilyard. Is he fast enough to do what he did in college against NFL DBs? I don't quite know yet. He looks pretty fast on the field, but I'd like to see his 40 time. He probably needs to run at least a high 4.4 (and hopefully a high 4.3). Otherwise he might not be able to compensate for his lack of strength.
Holmes is probably the closest comparison, but Holmes is a tad thicker in the lower body and he ran a 4.35 at Ohio State's pro day. Gilyard needs to run something in that ballpark in order to be considered an equivalent talent. Right now I would say he's a slightly lesser version of Holmes. Probably more of a WR2 at the next level, but capable of producing good stats in a downfield passing attack that relies on precision WRs like Holt/Wayne/Bruce. He's more similar to those guys than he is to Coles/Moss/Harvin.