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By John R. Kinsley
It’s not the most loaded class of its kind, but the free agent wide receiver class of 2018 still has some big names to keep in mind. These include Allen Robinson of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Albert Wilson of the Kansas City Chiefs, Paul Richardson of the Seattle Seahawks, Taylor Gabriel of the Atlanta Falcons, Adam Humphries of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Marqise Lee of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Sammy Watkins of the Los Angeles Rams.
Sammy Watkins, 24, is one of the more hyped receivers of this free agency class. For casual fans that have checked out a boxscore stat sheet, this may come as a surprise. In his lone season with the Rams, Watkins only had 39 catches for 593 yards. He did, however, manage to put up eight touchdowns and 15.2 yards per reception, but wouldn’t his raw stats suggest he’s not that good of a receiver?
Actually, there’s more to it. When watching Watkins, I noticed there wasn’t a decline in athleticism that one would expect from a receiver who put up under 600 yards of receiving and made less than 40 catches. As a matter of fact, two major circumstances greatly impacted how limited his statistical performances were.
First, Rams quarterback Jared Goff could not stop missing him.
In 2017, Watkins was paired with an inaccurate downfield passer in Goff. Goff may be a Pro Bowl quarterback who had improved in his sophomore season, but he was largely carried by an outrageous supporting cast, including head coach Sean McVay, Todd Gurley, Watkins, Robert Woods, Tyler Higbee, Gerald Everrett, Cooper Kuup, and a strong offensive line. Receivers were constantly open thanks to McVay’s heavy use of play action and run pass option plays, so Goff wasn’t asked to make difficult throws.
Even then, Goff’s accuracy on throws of 16+ air yards was 43.9%. In the offseason I regularly do The Deep Ball Project, where I study quarterbacks throwing downfield, and Goff’s percentile would’ve ranked 25th if it were charted for the 2016-17 edition.
Needless to say, this showed up regularly when Goff was throwing to #12.
The separation created on this play is phenomenal. It’s against Cover 1 (Notice how the high safety is guarding part of the field instead of a player like in man coverage) and Patrick Peterson is lined up against Watkins. Watkins gets ahead of Peterson by cutting inside, then catching the corner off-guard with a fake crossing route. He manages to get wide open and unfortunately is missed by his Goff.
You’d like see this route on social media if Goff was even close to throwing an accurate pass, but that wasn’t the case.
On this play, the Rams are faced against a Cover 1 Robber defense, meaning all the underneath routes are covered. Watkins is able to cut inside then jets back outside, leaving safety P.J. Williams in the dust and giving Goff an open receiver. Goff does not have the massive arm talent needed to make this pass work, as it is grossly underthrown and tips off Watkins’ hand as he tries to make a play, leading to Williams picking it off.
Even though his hand tipped the ball to the safety, the interception isn’t on Watkins. It’s on Goff for wasting a play where his receiver created enough separation to fit a perfectly thrown ball into.
To put more of an emphasis on how screwed Watkins was, Goff was only accurate on six of 20 passes to him on throws of 16+ air yards. 30% of Goff’s throws to this area or more were accurate, which is horrible.
Unfortunately, this has been the case for Watkins all of 2017. He’s consistently creating separation and yet still gets the short end of the stick from his quarterback. His low numbers aren’t a reflection of his quality.
The second circumstance that prevented Watkins from obtaining big numbers was how Sean McVay was generally using him.
When he was the offensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins from 2014-2016, McVay would use famed downfield receiver DeSean Jackson to create space for other receivers. McVay understood how much defenses feared Jackson, and even when he wasn’t the main target, he was able to attract defenders to him and leave other receivers uncovered.
Last season, McVay used Watkins the exact same way.
On this play, the Giants’ linebackers are playing zone coverage, and Watkins, positioned next to Cooper Kuup, is assigned to a simple shallow crossing route. He stops on the middle right of the field, attracting a swarm of defensive backs. This leaves Kuup, running a deeper crossing route, completely uncovered, allowing Goff to find him on the run and set up a huge 35-yard pass play.
Watkins obviously wasn’t the main target on this play, but his diversion was mainly responsible for Kupp being so wide open, and he’s been frequently used to do such by McVay. It explains why Watkins didn’t have the statistical impact fans expected from him.
...CONTINUED
It’s not the most loaded class of its kind, but the free agent wide receiver class of 2018 still has some big names to keep in mind. These include Allen Robinson of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Albert Wilson of the Kansas City Chiefs, Paul Richardson of the Seattle Seahawks, Taylor Gabriel of the Atlanta Falcons, Adam Humphries of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Marqise Lee of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Sammy Watkins of the Los Angeles Rams.
Sammy Watkins, 24, is one of the more hyped receivers of this free agency class. For casual fans that have checked out a boxscore stat sheet, this may come as a surprise. In his lone season with the Rams, Watkins only had 39 catches for 593 yards. He did, however, manage to put up eight touchdowns and 15.2 yards per reception, but wouldn’t his raw stats suggest he’s not that good of a receiver?
Actually, there’s more to it. When watching Watkins, I noticed there wasn’t a decline in athleticism that one would expect from a receiver who put up under 600 yards of receiving and made less than 40 catches. As a matter of fact, two major circumstances greatly impacted how limited his statistical performances were.
First, Rams quarterback Jared Goff could not stop missing him.
In 2017, Watkins was paired with an inaccurate downfield passer in Goff. Goff may be a Pro Bowl quarterback who had improved in his sophomore season, but he was largely carried by an outrageous supporting cast, including head coach Sean McVay, Todd Gurley, Watkins, Robert Woods, Tyler Higbee, Gerald Everrett, Cooper Kuup, and a strong offensive line. Receivers were constantly open thanks to McVay’s heavy use of play action and run pass option plays, so Goff wasn’t asked to make difficult throws.
Even then, Goff’s accuracy on throws of 16+ air yards was 43.9%. In the offseason I regularly do The Deep Ball Project, where I study quarterbacks throwing downfield, and Goff’s percentile would’ve ranked 25th if it were charted for the 2016-17 edition.
Needless to say, this showed up regularly when Goff was throwing to #12.
The separation created on this play is phenomenal. It’s against Cover 1 (Notice how the high safety is guarding part of the field instead of a player like in man coverage) and Patrick Peterson is lined up against Watkins. Watkins gets ahead of Peterson by cutting inside, then catching the corner off-guard with a fake crossing route. He manages to get wide open and unfortunately is missed by his Goff.
You’d like see this route on social media if Goff was even close to throwing an accurate pass, but that wasn’t the case.
On this play, the Rams are faced against a Cover 1 Robber defense, meaning all the underneath routes are covered. Watkins is able to cut inside then jets back outside, leaving safety P.J. Williams in the dust and giving Goff an open receiver. Goff does not have the massive arm talent needed to make this pass work, as it is grossly underthrown and tips off Watkins’ hand as he tries to make a play, leading to Williams picking it off.
Even though his hand tipped the ball to the safety, the interception isn’t on Watkins. It’s on Goff for wasting a play where his receiver created enough separation to fit a perfectly thrown ball into.
To put more of an emphasis on how screwed Watkins was, Goff was only accurate on six of 20 passes to him on throws of 16+ air yards. 30% of Goff’s throws to this area or more were accurate, which is horrible.
Unfortunately, this has been the case for Watkins all of 2017. He’s consistently creating separation and yet still gets the short end of the stick from his quarterback. His low numbers aren’t a reflection of his quality.
The second circumstance that prevented Watkins from obtaining big numbers was how Sean McVay was generally using him.
When he was the offensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins from 2014-2016, McVay would use famed downfield receiver DeSean Jackson to create space for other receivers. McVay understood how much defenses feared Jackson, and even when he wasn’t the main target, he was able to attract defenders to him and leave other receivers uncovered.
Last season, McVay used Watkins the exact same way.
On this play, the Giants’ linebackers are playing zone coverage, and Watkins, positioned next to Cooper Kuup, is assigned to a simple shallow crossing route. He stops on the middle right of the field, attracting a swarm of defensive backs. This leaves Kuup, running a deeper crossing route, completely uncovered, allowing Goff to find him on the run and set up a huge 35-yard pass play.
Watkins obviously wasn’t the main target on this play, but his diversion was mainly responsible for Kupp being so wide open, and he’s been frequently used to do such by McVay. It explains why Watkins didn’t have the statistical impact fans expected from him.
...CONTINUED
