Originally posted by Joecool:
Too bad stats don't show how a player forces a defense to play outside its comfort level and make adjustments.
Actually, they kinda do. As you can see in the article, Bill Barnwell uses the Football Outsiders statistics, which have developed advanced metrics for situational evaluation of players, is this case DVOA.
You can see the full stats for last season and the explanation behind the stat here:
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/wr
The thing is, Barnwell acknowledges the tendency of DVOA to underrate deep threats like DeSean Jackson, but the also makes the (in my opinion very interesting and valid point) that players with a similar kind of playing style like Steve Smith (the Carolina one) have managed to be much better pure receivers with an accordingly higher DVOA than DeSean Jackson at the same point in their careers.
The direct comparison: Steve Smith (the Carolina one
) actually led all receivers in DVOA in his 3rd full season as a starter while DeSean Jackson was 44th in his corresponding 3rd starter season (last year), sandwiched between Jabar Gaffney and Michael Jenkins (Funny enough, even Michael Crabtree ranked slightly higher than Jackson in this). He also had 11 drops in 2010, the fourth-highest in the league.I think what Barnwell says and I would tend to agree with is not that DeSean Jackson is not a dangerous player, but that he has yet to truly develop as a receiver and that this may be the reason the Eagles, which of all teams are usually very quick to give young, ascending players long-term contracts are reluctant to give him one yet. You might disagree with that and I have no quarrel with you if you do, but as long as the Eagles do not give in to Jacksons demands, at least their front office must harbor some similar feelings as well.