2011 Draft- Wonder: WIDE RECEIVER
Urban legend: “Why do you rob banks, Willie?”
Willie Sutton: “‘Cause that’s where the money is.”
Supply and Demand. Wonder noticed an interesting thing in the pool of available WRs FOR THE 2011 DRAFT: loads of very good WRs, many of which are big, strong and fast. Does this sound a little odd? There once was a time when you had very few of these guys available. Now they are becoming the prototype. Everyone wants to be Keyshawn, Fitzgerald, or Andre Johnson. So the kids in high school and college with talent migrate to what pays big NFL dollars these days- WIDE RECEIVER. Who wants to be a LBer when those guys get paid a lot less and then get taken out of the game anyway for these nickel and dime packages?! More demand for WRs and less demand for LBers.. okay, let me see if I can be a WR!
We’ll admit into evidence Niles Paul. He’s 15th on Wonder’s WR draft board, a ‘4’ replaceable starter. Pedestrian, right? The guy is 6’1″ 225 lbs and ripped! Obviously he has plenty of speed to be a WR. Try a 4.5 40 yd dash. But he has 24 bench presses. Those are LINEBACKER’S numbers! The linebackers are becoming WRs!!!
Now obviously this an oversimplification. And this blog does not have the time (at least not here in April, perhaps we can do it in May or June) to track the changes in the combine numbers of these sets of positions to see the migration. But it is clear to us that when Passing in the NFL gets paid, the people with skill are naturally going to move to where the money is.
The draft stock of WRs is incredible this year. The number of players with a 4 rating or better from Wonder nearly doubled from the previous year. The Giants should be able to find more than a few nuggets available, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT GO HIGH FOR THESE PLAYERS. The Giants already have the talent and have expended vast resources on this position only recently. With Smith a question mark healthwise, grab someone from this list in R4 or R5. Take a SLOT WR, which the Giants are weaker on anyway. With the supply of WRs high and the supply of LBers low, draft the LBer HIGH and draft the WR low. WR role player (or potential sleeper nugget) in mid to later rounds, got it?
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