Randy Moss Fast, James Jett Faster

Patriots safety Rodney Harrison made an interesting comment last week about his teammate, wide receiver Randy Moss. Harrison was asked about Moss's speed, and he said Moss is the second-fastest wide receiver he's ever seen. The fastest? Former Raider James Jett.

That shouldn't be a big surprise, I guess, seeing as Jett won a gold medal in the 4 x 100-meter relay at the 1992 Olympics. But it raises an interesting point about the way some players with blazing speed are actually able to become complete wide receivers, whereas others are the guys who can just go long.

Moss is, obviously, in the former group: When he actually feels like playing hard, as he has this season, Moss runs good routes, has good hands and is generally an all-around excellent player. But Jett was in the latter group. Although he had a solid rookie year, averaging 23.4 yards a catch on 33 catches, he never built on that. For his entire career he was just a guy who tried to outrun the secondary, and once he lost a step in his late 20s, he was done.

I don't know if Moss is as fast now as he was in his rookie season, but he's as good a wide receiver as ever. That's the difference between being a complete wide receiver and just being a fast guy.