FreeBaGeL, You make some great points and obviously put a lot of thought into this post.
That said, here are a few points I would challenge:
'FreeBaGeL said:
he constantly is among the league leaders in drops
According to whom?
'FreeBaGeL said:
...and constantly fails to come up with passes that are contested. He's pretty good at going up and getting the ball, but not nearly as good as he should be. Calvin is 6'5" 236lbs and runs a blazing 40 time that keeps defenders on their heels, yet he fails to come up with jump balls and contested throws the majority of the time.
Really? I thought he's made a living off some of those jump balls and contested throws.
'FreeBaGeL said:
...Another good example is Larry Fitzgerald...
...It's crazy, the ball just sucks into his hands. Calvin on the other hand doesn't pull in those type of passes very often, or at least not as often as he should...
All in all, Calvin lets a LOT of very catchable passes hit the turf. It's not that they're easy, routine catches. Rather, it's that for his massive advantages in height, speed, leaping ability, etc he should be coming down with a lot more of them.
He actually compares favorably to Fitzgerald, despite suffering a lot more adversity, rather than "massive advantages" IMO.Dropped passes isn't as strong an argument as you might think at first glance. Although I too have watched him play, and would agree that at times he has dropped some balls that surprised me, including a nationally televised clunker a couple years ago on Thanksgiving.
However, all WRs drop passes and the annual list of league leaders in drops frequently contains the names of pro bowl and all pro WRs, and many of them have pro bowl caliber QBs like Manning, Brady, Schaub, or Rodgers throwing to them. Calvin doesn't have one of these types of signal callers throwing to him. Even so,
Calvin doesn't appear amongst the top 25 in dropped passes for 2010, although guys like Andre Johnson, Terrell Owens, Brandon Marshall, Reggie Wayne, and Wes Welker do...
Rank Player Team Stats 1 Wes Welker NE 13 2 Reggie Wayne Ind 12 3t Brandon Marshall Mia 11 3t Terrell Owens Cin 11 5 Miles Austin Dal 10 6 Pierre Garcon Ind 9 7t Danny Amendola StL 8 7t Brent Celek Phi 8 7t Jerricho Cotchery NYJ 8 7t Brandon Gibson StL 8 7t Fred Jackson Buf 8 7t Stevie Johnson Buf 8 7t Chad Ochocinco Cin 8 7t Brandon Pettigrew Det 8 7t Steve Smith Car 8 16t Steve Breaston Ari 7 16t Michael Crabtree SF 7 16t Donald Driver GB 7 16t Tony Gonzalez Atl 7 16t Aaron Hernandez NE 7 16t Devin Hester Chi 7 16t Andre Johnson Hou 7 16t Dustin Keller NYJ 7 16t Brandon LaFell Car 7 16t Mike Williams TB 7 As far as his "go up and get it", or jump ball ability goes, I really think you are overstating the case. First off, he has done a good job already in this area, but I don't know how to quantitatively make the argument. If you have some kind of statistical analysis that bears out your point, I'm certainly willing to listen.Also rather than assume Calvin has all of these massive advantages, let's not forget Calvin has been on some historically terrible teams, including a record breaking 0-16 squad. And he has suffered from some truly awful supporting casts, poor coaching, and attrocious play calling. Some of my favorites include:
The ill conceived, "let's have the 6'5" 236lbs WR who stands out like a man amongst boys try to deceive the D with a couple of 'end arounds' per game until every opposing LB and DB has had a chance to attack his knees and lower legs, like mad lumber jacks. Or waiting to throw those jump balls until down by 2 TDs and only five or less minutes remain in the game and everyone knows exactly what's coming...
Furthermore, he is only entering his 5th season, and compares favorably from a historical perspective to great WRs like Fitzgerald, despite injuries, adversity, and subpar supporting casts and QB play...
Doesn't sound like a ton of "massive advantages" failing to be realized to me...
Yet Calvin already compares quite favorably to many of the best WRs to ever play the game through his first four seasons. He is one of only 16 WRs in NFL history with > 250 receptions, > 4000 receiving yds, and > 20 TDs in their first 4 NFL seasons:
NAME POS YRs G RSH RSHYD YD/RSH RSHTD REC RECYD YD/REC RECTD FANT PT 1 Calvin Johnson wr 2007--2010 60 18 156 8.67 1 270 4191 15.52 33 638.7 2 Marques Colston wr 2006--2009 57 1 6 6.00 0 285 4074 14.29 33 606.0 3 Brandon Marshall wr 2006--2009 61 16 104 6.50 0 327 4019 12.29 25 562.3 4 Larry Fitzgerald wr 2004--2007 60 16 55 3.44 0 330 4544 13.77 34 663.9 5 Anquan Boldin wr 2003--2006 56 23 116 5.04 0 342 4605 13.46 20 591.1 6 Chad Ochocinco wr 2001--2004 60 4 39 9.75 0 282 4124 14.62 25 566.3 7 Torry Holt wr 1999--2002 64 9 50 5.56 0 306 5088 16.63 23 651.8 8 Keyshawn Johnson wr 1996--1999 62 7 66 9.43 1 305 4108 13.47 31 609.4 9 Randy Moss wr 1998--2001 64 11 90 8.18 0 308 5396 17.52 53 868.1 10 Isaac Bruce wr 1994--1997 56 5 23 4.60 0 280 4206 15.02 28 590.9 11 Marvin Harrison wr 1996--1999 60 6 12 2.00 0 311 4141 13.32 33 613.3 12 Joey Galloway wr 1995--1998 63 44 379 8.61 1 261 4122 15.79 36 672.1 13 Andre Rison wr 1989--1992 63 4 9 2.25 0 308 4123 13.39 37 635.2 14 Sterling Sharpe wr 1988--1991 64 12 41 3.42 0 281 4280 15.23 23 570.1 15 Gary Clark wr 1985--1988 59 5 16 3.20 0 261 4149 15.90 26 572.5 16 Jerry Rice wr 1985--1988 60 37 256 6.92 4 264 4881 18.49 49 831.7 Amazingly, at only 25 years of age, some consider Calvin a dissapointment so far...On a side note - Chris Carter does not make the above list...
I'm not sure who is most overhyped, VJax, Dez or Best?
