Wide Receiver Class of 2014

My take on a few of the WR's:

- Richardson's build is really an issue for me. He has great straight line speed and good amount of wiggle when in the open field. I have a serious concern about his ability to beat press coverage with his current frame. He is not polished at all and is at least a two year project. Late 3rd round grade for me.

- Benjamin has the length, height and build to succeed. He may not possess top end speed or crisp route running but he can high point the ball better than most. His best chance to succeed will be with a team that can use him in a complementary role starting out. The potential in the red zone alone makes him a mid to late 1st round talent.

- Cooks is an above average prospect in the slot. He has a good wiggle after the catch and changes directions very well. I worry that press coverage will effect his ability to get into a route tree and finish his cuts. A pure 2nd round grade.

- Jordan Matthews is well rounded in regards to his development as a pass catcher. He has big hands and uses his tall frame for good positioning against defenders. I worry that he has already tapped his full potential. I would feel safe on taking him in the early to mid 2nd.

- The prospect I find the most intriguing is Davante Adams. He has a great frame to fend off defensive backs and uses his basketball background to apex the ball. He is the type of player I could see Baalke targeting in the 2nd.

My personal favorites:

1. Jarvis Landry
2. Jordan Matthews
3. Allen Robinson
4. Donte Moncrief
5. Jared Addbrederis
6. Robert Herron
7. Jeff Janis
8. Odell Beckham
9. Tracy Moore
10. Josh Huff

1 or 2 of these receivers **crossing fingers**, just gotta come away from this draft a San Francisco 49er.

Originally posted by RumorHasIt:
My take on a few of the WR's:

- Richardson's build is really an issue for me. He has great straight line speed and good amount of wiggle when in the open field. I have a serious concern about his ability to beat press coverage with his current frame. He is not polished at all and is at least a two year project. Late 3rd round grade for me.

- Benjamin has the length, height and build to succeed. He may not possess top end speed or crisp route running but he can high point the ball better than most. His best chance to succeed will be with a team that can use him in a complementary role starting out. The potential in the red zone alone makes him a mid to late 1st round talent.

- Cooks is an above average prospect in the slot. He has a good wiggle after the catch and changes directions very well. I worry that press coverage will effect his ability to get into a route tree and finish his cuts. A pure 2nd round grade.

- Jordan Matthews is well rounded in regards to his development as a pass catcher. He has big hands and uses his tall frame for good positioning against defenders. I worry that he has already tapped his full potential. I would feel safe on taking him in the early to mid 2nd.

- The prospect I find the most intriguing is Davante Adams. He has a great frame to fend off defensive backs and uses his basketball background to apex the ball. He is the type of player I could see Baalke targeting in the 2nd.

To me Benjamin is a huge project, choppy feet, lacks burst off the line, limited as a route runner, high drop rate, yes he's good in the red-zone, but generally you want a guy who can get it done the other 80 yards of the field as well. Not as sold on him as some, certainly a high upside, but a lower basement/higher bust potential than a lot of other guys.





Jon Baldwin
James Hardy
Stephen Hill
Malcolm Kelly


All receivers who got similar hype as to what Benjamin has received, all guys who had similar limitations and fizzled out in the NFL. To me his ceiling is Plaxico Burress or Alshon Jeffery, his basement would be a guy like Chaz Schilens. The existing questions about his work ethic are also of course troubling.


Very scary pick, like playing with dynamite, could be a stellar performer or he could blow up completely in your face.

Originally posted by kronik:
Did u say Benjamin is fast?? No way

Several site have talked about his speed...particularly for his size. So the combine will be interesting in his case.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
One of the best systems I saw for evaluating wide receivers from a few years ago broke down as the following:



1. Production based on college system and QB performance.

2. Weight, strength and speed.

3. Quality of hands/drop percentage

4. Route running ability

5. Height



I need to see if I can find the copy I had on PDF, it was quite fascinating and made a good argument that physical size, weight, actually indicated potential success more than height did. College production was a huge factor, they had a nifty way of ranking based on performance against tougher defense's as well as accounting for lousy QB performance. There was a huge emphasis on weight, statistically speaking, a guy that is 5'10 and 200 pounds was shown to be a lot more likely to be successful than a guy who was 6"0 and 190. They didn't nearly find the same correlation with height or other factors.

Looking forward to more info on this from you. Some of the write-ups on Benjamin talk about his strength, speed and ability to adjust his route quickly. Those are factors I like and after Jenkins it would be nice to see someone who can fight for the ball. If he runs a decent 40 at the combine I would expect him to be a sure first rounder based on potential alone.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

To me Benjamin is a huge project, choppy feet, lacks burst off the line, limited as a route runner, high drop rate, yes he's good in the red-zone, but generally you want a guy who can get it done the other 80 yards of the field as well. Not as sold on him as some, certainly a high upside, but a lower basement/higher bust potential than a lot of other guys.





Jon Baldwin
James Hardy
Stephen Hill
Malcolm Kelly


All receivers who got similar hype as to what Benjamin has received, all guys who had similar limitations and fizzled out in the NFL. To me his ceiling is Plaxico Burress or Alshon Jeffery, his basement would be a guy like Chaz Schilens. The existing questions about his work ethic are also of course troubling.


Very scary pick, like playing with dynamite, could be a stellar performer or he could blow up completely in your face.

There is concern with any pick in the draft. There are never any guarantees with any prospect. For all we know Sammy Watkins could end up being mediocre. Just because Benjamin has similar size and questions as former flame outs doesn't mean he is going to be on the same track as them. Sure he has questions on several areas but the difference between your references and Benjamin resides in his ability to go up and high point the ball better than any prospect in this draft.

I'm not saying the guy is going to be an All Pro but there is a reason many have a 1st round grade on him.

Originally posted by RumorHasIt:
There is concern with any pick in the draft. There are never any guarantees with any prospect. For all we know Sammy Watkins could end up being mediocre. Just because Benjamin has similar size and questions as former flame outs doesn't mean he is going to be on the same track as them. Sure he has questions on several areas but the difference between your references and Benjamin resides in his ability to go up and high point the ball better than any prospect in this draft.

I'm not saying the guy is going to be an All Pro but there is a reason many have a 1st round grade on him.

There's degrees of concern. Some guys are riskier than others, its just the way it goes. I'm far more assured of Watkins being a high quality receiver in the NFL than I am with Benjamin. He's a very raw project and with a team that seems to have less than stellar coaching of its receivers, I don't know if he's a good fit here. Too many questions regarding his route running, his hands, his attitude, his lack of burst off the line which is a HUGE factor against a team like Seattle which will blanket the s**t out of you if you can't get off the line quickly. The advantage of throwing it up to a big receiver is somewhat muffled when the opposing cornerback is 6'3" or 6'4" as well.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by RumorHasIt:
There is concern with any pick in the draft. There are never any guarantees with any prospect. For all we know Sammy Watkins could end up being mediocre. Just because Benjamin has similar size and questions as former flame outs doesn't mean he is going to be on the same track as them. Sure he has questions on several areas but the difference between your references and Benjamin resides in his ability to go up and high point the ball better than any prospect in this draft.

I'm not saying the guy is going to be an All Pro but there is a reason many have a 1st round grade on him.

There's degrees of concern. Some guys are riskier than others, its just the way it goes. I'm far more assured of Watkins being a high quality receiver in the NFL than I am with Benjamin. He's a very raw project and with a team that seems to have less than stellar coaching of its receivers, I don't know if he's a good fit here. Too many questions regarding his route running, his hands, his attitude, his lack of burst off the line which is a HUGE factor against a team like Seattle which will blanket the s**t out of you if you can't get off the line quickly. The advantage of throwing it up to a big receiver is somewhat muffled when the opposing cornerback is 6'3" or 6'4" as well.

I think Benjamin has a chance to be pretty good, but I don't think he matches up well vs Seattle's DB's.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
He's got decent speed, certainly faster than Mike Evans, but another long strider. As much as people hype up big, physical wide receivers, the only one I've found that had any real success against Seattle was Brandon Marshall and more than half his yards came from two broken plays, including one where Sherman was uncharacteristically sloppy, pulled a Whitner trying to go for a game-ending pick.

Speed and quickness, speed and quickness, you get guys to a spot faster than their DB's can get there, you have them take so many twists and turns, make cuts so sharp that they can't hold up and pretty soon you got guys running wide open all over the place.

Speed and quickness is not something Benjamin has tho. Although he's great at jump ball situations, I'm not sure he will ever get much separation in the NFL

Originally posted by kronik:
Speed and quickness is not something Benjamin has tho. Although he's great at jump ball situations, I'm not sure he will ever get much separation in the NFL

And that's what worries me. Seattle made Calvin Johnson look pretty pedestrian and Calvin Johnson is faster, a better route runner, better agility, better quickness off the line and has better hands than Benjamin.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by kronik:
Speed and quickness is not something Benjamin has tho. Although he's great at jump ball situations, I'm not sure he will ever get much separation in the NFL

And that's what worries me. Seattle made Calvin Johnson look pretty pedestrian and Calvin Johnson is faster, a better route runner, better agility, better quickness off the line and has better hands than Benjamin.

The way I've adjusted my POV regarding Benjamin is such......Sure he's 6'4 or 6'5 but how long are his arms? If he's got averaged sized arms than he'd only be a good choice because of his obvious vertical leaping ability (see national title winning TD).

So sure it would be nice to have someone of his size but if his catch radius is barely larger than say Crabtree's whose radius rivals or is equal to that of Calvin Johnson (Can't remember what that Sport Science said about him exactly), then what is the point of getting someone like Benjamin when we already had a rookie TE in McDonald who we saw could've been a great RZ target and was never used as such. After all that is supposedly Benjamin's best trait.

My outlook on this class is that we need 1 dynamic WR that we can maybe afford to take time to acclimate to the NFL see Robert Herron, Josh Huff, Odell Beckham, etc. but we need a player that we know can come in and make plays immediately even if it means going after a different type of receiver like Allen Robinson, Donte Moncrief, Jarvis Landry, etc.

Ideally we'd find a way to snap up Marqise Lee in the first and perhaps a player like Moncrief in the 3rd but hey that is just wishful thinking on my part.

Originally posted by sfout:
The way I've adjusted my POV regarding Benjamin is such......Sure he's 6'4 or 6'5 but how long are his arms? If he's got averaged sized arms than he'd only be a good choice because of his obvious vertical leaping ability (see national title winning TD).

So sure it would be nice to have someone of his size but if his catch radius is barely larger than say Crabtree's whose radius rivals or is equal to that of Calvin Johnson (Can't remember what that Sport Science said about him exactly), then what is the point of getting someone like Benjamin when we already had a rookie TE in McDonald who we saw could've been a great RZ target and was never used as such. After all that is supposedly Benjamin's best trait.

My outlook on this class is that we need 1 dynamic WR that we can maybe afford to take time to acclimate to the NFL see Robert Herron, Josh Huff, Odell Beckham, etc. but we need a player that we know can come in and make plays immediately even if it means going after a different type of receiver like Allen Robinson, Donte Moncrief, Jarvis Landry, etc.

Ideally we'd find a way to snap up Marqise Lee in the first and perhaps a player like Moncrief in the 3rd but hey that is just wishful thinking on my part.

His arms are very long, so the catch radius is gigantic.

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
His arms are very long, so the catch radius is gigantic.

Well something is amiss with Benjamin whether it is his arm length or vertical or broad jump because according to Sports Science the difference in their catch radius is staggering despite physically similar traits in height and weight.

Benjamin: 3,100 cubic feet - http://a.espncdn.com/media/motion/2014/0103/dm_140103_ncf_sportscience_benjamin/dm_140103_ncf_sportscience_benjamin.jpg
Johnson: 4,009 cubic feet - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdTYsrbdnrs

I used the 8 heads high theory of body proportion, With a height of 6'5" -- Benjamin's arms are projected to be 34 inches long. Which puts him right about the 9 or 10 inch hands mark as well.

Compare that to Calvin Johnson's measurables
6'5" height
45-inch vertical jump
33 3/8-inch arm length - This is honestly the length I found reported on every draft site I could find.
9 7/8-inch hands.

Add it Crabtree's
6'1"
34-inch veritcal jump
34 1/4-in arch length - All of the draft sites said this is essentially the reach of someone who is 6'6"+
9 1/4-inch hands

Pretty sure I remember SS saying that Crabtree's catch radius in between 3,500 - 3,800 cubic feet. Someone correct me on this please.

We don't need another player like Benjamin unless he runs a sub 4.45. We already have 1 elite big catch radius guy under contract, 1 likely coming back, and 1 promising youngster of similar proportion. We need to go after much more dynamic players this year.

Odell Beckam Jr is your answer.

Johnson has a wingspan around 6'8-6'10.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
There's degrees of concern. Some guys are riskier than others, its just the way it goes. I'm far more assured of Watkins being a high quality receiver in the NFL than I am with Benjamin. He's a very raw project and with a team that seems to have less than stellar coaching of its receivers, I don't know if he's a good fit here. Too many questions regarding his route running, his hands, his attitude, his lack of burst off the line which is a HUGE factor against a team like Seattle which will blanket the s**t out of you if you can't get off the line quickly. The advantage of throwing it up to a big receiver is somewhat muffled when the opposing cornerback is 6'3" or 6'4" as well.

Thank you. At least one zoner who is not in blind love with this project.

Guys, if you want to work on a project, then take Bryant.