SSOG:
Crabtree: What makes him more talented? He played in a system in college that generated numbers for every Tom, ****, and Harry in it. You have to compare their college careers with that in mind. If you want to talk about physical talents, I don't know how you can say that you are confident that Crabtree is more talented. Sidney is 6'4", plenty fast, good vert, good bust, good build, great heands, pretty much all you can look for. Sure there are better specimens, but not many, and not enough better to use that as a reason to take someone over Rice. And again, Crabtree has done nothing, Sidney has.
Jennings: Stats clearly show who the best WR is on the team: Donald Driver. If you want to add TEs, Jennings is number 3.
Nicks/Bryant: Don't take my one statement, greatly exaggerate it, and present it as though that is what I was suggesting. Fitz was a special prospect, in my mind, and in just everyone else's at the time too. A tier above Bryant. And we are not talking about Derrick Mason's, or Joe Horns. We are talking about a 23 (at the time) year old WR coming off of a 1,300/8 season and an ever better post season. Your implied comparison is not even close to similar. And of course you are going to pay a premium for young, proven players. For every Larry there is a Rogers or Terrell. And how are you worried about Harvin stealing catches, but not Austin stealing them from Bryant?
85/Moss/Smith: I have never seen dynasty rankings that don't take age into account. You seem to take it into account for Jonathan Stewart. But they are your rankings.
Colston: He isn't the unquestioned number 1, week to week. Targets numbers show that the only #1 is who Brees thinks is open - that changes week to week. And how do you know Tavaris Jackson is going to ever play a snap for the Vikings again? We don't and it is far from a given. I also notice that you ding Rice for Jackson, but not S.Smith for Clausen. Plus, Colston had a big injury and missed major time too.
Austin: Did you watch the games? Austin got major yards from (abnormally bad) broken tackles, mostly against KC. He got a lot of TDs from hitches at the goal line, that most WRs can make. While I understand that those points count just as much, it does nothing to show that Austin is a better player than Sidney. Plus, you are ignore the postseason, in which Rice was better. The Cowboys goal line offense was really bad, so they didn't runt he ball as much they would have liked to. Austin benefited from that. I am not sure I want to count on that continuing.
Jackson: You are guessing, and have no proof what so ever. If Minny thought Jackson was better than Rice, why didn't they pull the trigger? He is not fantastic all over the field. Again, numbers show this. The ONLY advantage he as on Rice is the deep ball, and I am not sure that continues. Rice is a better route runner, has better hands, and is much more complete. I don't know how anyone can say that Jackson is a better WR than Rice, fantasy football aside. Rice does everything that Vincent does well, almost equally well. Everything that Vincent does not excel at, Rice is much better.
Lastly, you said that you don't cough up a 2nd rounder for a one year rental. Well if you think he is the long term solution, you sure as hell do. Neither of us know what Minny was thinking. Adjusting rankings based on your opinion, seems off to me. Especially because there is an equal argument to suggest that Minny did NOT think Jackson was better than Rice. And a 2nd round pick for a super bowl run, and #2 WR is a good price. Minny, again, STILL turned it down.
Crabtree: No, every Tom, ****, and Harry doesn't put up stats at Texas Tech. The whole Air Raid offense is based on having so many players out in patterns that no defense can cover them all. Those offenses churned out a ton of guys who got good yards, but they didn't have a clear-cut go-to guy. Think of the New Orleans Saints and Colston/Henders/Meachem/Moore, only at the college level. The second best WR to come out of Texas Tech was Wes Welker, and he averaged 1076/8 during his two seasons as a full-time starter. Michael Crabtree averaged 1563/21. Michael Crabtree was a QB in high school, so in his first ever season as a WR, he put up 1962/22. DISGUSTING numbers. Those were better numbers than Welker put up in his best two seasons combined. Then, as a rookie, after sitting out all of training camps, and all of preseason, and the first five games of the season, and playing for a lousy offense with a lousy QB, and being in just his 3 year of playing WR at ANY level (high school, college, or professional), Crabtree went out and put up one of the top 10 rookie seasons of the past decade on a per-game basis. And he was a top-10 draft pick. The guy sweats talent.Jennings: common sense clearly shows who the best WR on the Green Bay Packers is. Hint: it's the guy the opposing defense is double covering, not the guy who's getting open against linebackers on shallow crossing routes.
Nicks/Bryant: You don't think Dez Bryant was viewed as a special talent coming out? How many sets of rankings have Bryant in the top 10? I think Bryant is as highly regarded as Fitzgerald was coming into the league. Also, I think you're being too quick to brush off the Darrell Jackson comparison just because you don't like where it leads. From 2003-2006, Jackson averaged 1200/9 per 16 games. I think that's every bit as impressive as a single 1300/8 season, if not substantially more so. If you'd prefer a different comparison, though, how about saying the "what has he proven?" crowd would have mocked anyone who had Calvin Johnson over Braylon Edwards back in 2008? Or anyone who had Larry Fitzgerald over Michael Clayton in 2005?
85/Moss/Smith: I account for age. I don't overaccount for age. If you want a bit of insight into my methodology, check out
this and
this.
Colston: I never said he was the unquestioned #1 week to week. I said he was the 1A of the 1A/1B/1C/1D setup. Season to season, though, he's clearly the top banana in New Orleans.
Miles Austin: I was wondering how long it would be before the "do you watch the games" line came up. To answer your question... yeah, I do watch games. I watch a lot of games. Last season, I probably watched 60 whole games and bits and pieces of dozens of others. This season, I've watched every single game that has been played at least once, most of them twice, and some of them three times. Miles Austin is a better WR than Sidney Rice. Hell, you can go ahead and throw that 250 yard, 2 TD game against Kansas City out the window entirely for all I care- that still leaves Austin with 1300/9 over his last 15 games. It still leaves him on pace for 117/1642 this season. The guy's just a better WR than Sidney Rice. Sorry, but he just is. Disagree if you want to, but you will never convince me otherwise.
VJax: Of course I'm guessing. Of course I don't have any proof. That's what ranking is- guessing what will happen without any proof. I was guessing when I said that Michael Vick would be a starting QB for someone within a year, too. I had no proof that Darren McFadden could possibly be any good when I wrote that it was too early to bury him. Those guesses panned out. I've made other guesses that haven't panned out. When I say that Demaryius Thomas is better than Mike Williams TB, I have no proof to back up that statement. When I say that Devin Hester is still developing as a WR, I have no proof to back up that statement. That's sort of what I do- I guess what's going to happen, and then I rank accordingly. In this case, I feel it was a pretty educated guess. You might disagree- if you do, that's fine. Don't rank Vincent Jackson as high in your rankings, then. I actually happen to agree with my own guess (imagine that!), which is why I do rank VJax that high in my rankings.
Look, obviously you think Rice is one of the 5 best WRs in the NFL today, possibly even one of the 3 best. I disagree. I rank him at the tail end of the top 10, behind Fitz, both Johnsons, Austin, Dez, Crabtree, Desean, Marshall, and VJax going forward. You can feel free to disagree with that until you're blue in the face, but I rank based on what I believe, and that's what I believe, so I'm going to rank Sidney Rice accordingly. Period, full stop.