Tall Wide Receivers Are Overrated ... Usually

I've long been of the opinion that tall wide receivers were overrated. Sure, Randy Moss is 6-4 and if you block out the two years he spent in Oakland, he's arguably one of the best wideouts to ever run a route. But that's exactly my point: Moss's jaw-dropping ability skews the perception. For every Moss, there are countless counterexamples.

Take the 2004 draft, for example. Larry Fitgerald and Roy Williams were the first two wide receivers off the board, both are 6-2 or taller, and by any sensible measure, both are really good at their jobs. But four of the next wideouts taken in the first round have been duds, and all are at least 6-2: Reggie Williams, Michael Clayton, Michael Jenkins, and Rashaun Woods.

Like any position, drafting a receiver is a crap shoot. But just because a pass catcher is tall, doesn't automatically give an advantage over his shorter counterpart. There's a little more to being a complete wideout than the perception that some 6-5 guy would make a good red-zone target.

So with that as a backdrop, how has this year's first-round crop of wideouts fared? Surprisingly well, especially for the above-six-feet crowd (Player, height, receptions, yards, average, touchdowns):

Calvin Johnson (6-5, 10, 189, 18.9, 2)
Ted Ginn (5-11, 1, 15, 15.0, 0)
Dwayne Bowe (6-2, 18, 299, 16.6, 3)
Robert Meachem (6-2, 0, 0, 0.0, 0)
Craig Davis (6-1, 7, 54, 7.7, 1)

Not too shabby. Ted Ginn has gotten off to a rocky start (though nowhere near as rocky as Robert Meachem), but that's not all on him. For the other guys, pretty impressive ... historically speaking, anyway.