az_prof said:
He is enterring his "magical" third year.
FYI -This is a myth . . . an urban legend so to speak. For some reason people take this to the bank as "the year" for WR breakouts, but it's been shown that WR breakout in just about any season yet the third year gets the reputation for some reason. The third year did not have a significant breakout correlation than other years did.
Wrong. It's not a myth. However, it can be overstated. The fact is that the third year is the one where the MOST WRs breakout; but it isn't the only one. Most breakout in third or fourth (less than third but still a good number) and if a guy doesn't produce impressive numbers by his fifth he almost never will, with a few rare exceptions that prove the rule. This has been demonstrated on this board in the past but I am not going to go fishing for the thread.
HERE is a comprehensive study done a few seasons ago. Since then, there have been threads on the subject but none more thorough than this mathematical study.From what I remember about some of the other threads, 3rd year may have been a few percentage points better in terms of breakout seasons, but by no menas a huge majority. For example, maybe it had 21% when other years had 19%, 18%, and 17%. IMO, that's more a myth then something you can hang your hat on.