It would seem to me that the VL data would be a better indicator for WR's and CB's.
In fact an aggregate of Height, Arm Length and Vertical Leap would be a useful measure of a WR or CB's overall range. Someone like Cris Chambers is only 5' 11', but his arm reach is several inches above average, along with 40" + vertical leap give him excellent overall range.
True, but I don't think WR
requires the same kind of explosive quickness that RB does. Quickness obviously helps at every position, but WR is vastly different from RB. Things like speed, height, hand-eye coordination, and intelligence are more important. I think this is primarily why WRs take longer to develop than RBs. RB is all about athletic ability. The learning curve is small. If you have the ability then you will excel. WR is a bit different. You see a lot of great athletes at WR who are limited by mental mistakes and/or poor hands.
It's interesting to note that successful NFL WRs range from 5'9" to 6'5" and from 180 to 235 pounds. RB is a different story. Almost all of the NFL's top RBs range between 5'9" to 6'1" and 200 to 230 pounds. I think this lends some credence to the idea that wide receiver is a more complex position where a higher number of skills come in to play.
interesting comparison of why stud RBs excel sooner, & WRs TYPICALLY have a longer learning corve... sometimes much longer... though as bloom noted in another thread, '04 was a bit of an aberration... clayton, fitzgerald, roy williams, evans & colbert all made substantive contributions to their team in their rookie seasons. we can only infer if this is because this was a historic class in terms of talent & depth (it clearly was), & to what degree college offenses run more pro style offenses than a couple decades ago, better preparing them for the transition?a few other key differences (by way of explanation for differential development rate) between the two skill position sets, & there won't be anything earth shattering or that you haven't considered already EBF, but for the benefit of others who may not have broken it down this way...
wr is dependent on the QB in a way that the RB really isn't... if a QB can't deliver the ball at the right place AND the right time, his production will suffer. for that matter, passing games can be very dependent on the OL as well. probably we could say this about RB too (see MIA RBs in '04), but great RBs in past like barry sanders & LT have been known to surmount mediocre O-Lines. if a QB is constantly flat on his back, clearly this could spell trouble for WR stats & production (probably the prime reason i think dre johnson instantly becomes a monster top 5 WR the second they get their OL problems fixed).
getting in position to receive the ball is obviously far more involved for a WR than RB... especially in todays offenses where the defenses are getting faster & more athletic & blitzing with greater frequency... it is imperative to get the ball out sooner, & this can sometimes mean safe high percentage passes in the flat to RBs, dump offs, quick hitters to TEs, etc... but also pre-arranged passes where the QB is delivering the ball to a spot, in some cases b4 the WR has even made his break on the ball. this includes split second timing on the part of the QB/WR battery, which can often take more than a season to cultivate. also, the WR needs to be very precise in his routes... not 9 paces or 11 paces, but exactly 10... and not rounded off or up, but coming back to the ball in a certain way.
much easier for the RB to just take the handoff.
than there is also the issue of the art of defeating the jam... which takes some WRs a few seasons to master, if they ever do. many WRs possibly could have been stars based on speed, coordination, hands, open field moves... but alas, they don't have the strength or quicks to defeat the jam (kind of like baseball player like henson who could have been a good one if he could only have hit the curve ball... but this is a critical deficiency that his whole career foundered on).
unless you are a chicago bears RB
^), most RBs don't have to deal with defenders in their face the instant the ball is snapped.
another issue you alluded to... WRs not only have to have pretty good feet & movement skills... they have to have good hands too (with apologies to k-rob). jamal lewis probably has appalingly bad hands (ditto for bettis, etc.), yet he was still able to compile a 2,000 yard season a few years ago. WRs, in a very real sense, have a more complex task, & have to have a more diverse skill set to bring to bear on this more complex task. obviously freaks like marshall faulk & westbrook who combine skills of RB & WR in one player are the exception.
and it is maybe for this last, most important reason, that it is incumbent on the arm-chair scout (ie- us) to thoroughly vet prospective WRs for traits such as intangibles, football smarts work ethic... ALL the WRs that did well in '04 it could be argued, scored highly in the intangibles department... imo, this bodes well for them having a fast track development cycle which could supersede the usual historical norms for WR development of 2-3 years.
we are definitely in a different era with salary cap where players are expected to perform much more rapidly... & often placed in positions to do so. gone also are the days where coach like mike shula could flail for 4 season... there is now much more intense pressure to win quickly, when owners & fans see team like CAR go from last to super bowl in two seasons.
i have not scouted edwards in intangibles dept, but what i hear is somewhat mixed, but for the most part positive. i would have no hesitaion to draft mike williams or mark clayton based on what i have heard about their work ethic, passion for the game & desire to be great. i don't know enough about the next tier (troy williamson, roody white, reggie brown) to make this determination at the current time, but we still have time until the draft to make these sorts of determinations... in aggregate... in the inimitable stylings of the shark pool. :^)
For a big, supposedly slow back, that's pretty impressive.Then again, Omar Easy.... 
I'm laughing, but am also serious....
Well, I'm gonna BOUNCE outta here.BOING BOING BOING BOING....
I did not know that. Sorry guys.
That is exactly the way it's done... it has nothing to do with the player's height...
