2078 Pre-training camp report: receivers
Awesome, we drafted the fastest player in the league: Rico Techen! Well, we all know that's not worth a lot if you can't turn that speed into football skills, but a 6th round pick is worth that gamble. We're coming off a season where J.R. Mills played a season that we thought impossible to ever see happen. 1,500 yards was considered the golden standard for excellence, but after a 2,200 yard season, anything below 1,600 yards will be a disappointment. Techen is the only new face in camp, with nobody of the 2077 roster disappeared. Let's take a look at the scouting report:
| cur/fut | pos | name | age | strength | weakness
|
| 60/60 | WR | J.R. Mills | 31 | route running, big-play ability | drops, endurance
|
| 59/59 | WR | Brody Stevens | 28 | big-play ability, no real weaknesses | no real strentghs
|
| 57/57 | TE | Monty Elliott | 24 | good blocker, ok receiver | big-play ability
|
| 50/50 | WR | Dennis Nadell | 24 | route running | endurance
|
| 42/42 | TE | Randal Curtis | 30 | ok blocker | route running, endurance
|
| 41/41 | TE | Branden Schwirzke | 29 | good receiver | can't block, endurance
|
| 36/36 | WR | Patrick Henry | 30 | cohesion | no real strengths
|
| 23/30 | WR | Rico Techen | 22 | big-play ability | route running, cohesion
|
| 23/23 | WR | Mickey Allen | 30 | big-play ability, cohesion | declining
|
| 21/21 | TE | Markell Ellison | 29 | ok run blocker, cohesion | lack of receiving skills
|
At tight end, it's nice to have a guy that can run block and be a force in the passing game as a receiver. But with the rules of the game demanding teams to carry at least 3 tight ends, it's cheaper to have some run blocking experts and have some receiving type players. Thankfully we landed Elliott in the 6th round of the 2076 draft, making him still a cheap player for the near complete tight end that he is. Schwirzke is the better receiver and Curtis can catch a short pass on third downs or in the end zone. Curtis is also our second best blocker, which is great for third down situations. Ellison has proven to be able to play third down tight end. But most likely he will spend the third straight season inactive.
At wide receiver, Mills is our best guy, by far. Stevens has been up and down, being down last season, eventually making me put Nadell second in the pecking order. Nadell's route running appears to also be a double team magnet to liberate Mills, but that's not by design at all. It will be interesting to see if Techen will be good enough to replace Allen as our fifth receiver on the roster.