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Unpopular opinion - WRs

Moonman

Moonman

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I believe the general consensus is that the WR position is the biggest question going into this season. It's reasonable to assume that we're not just going to replace our all-time leading receiver. Having said that, I think we may be at once over and under estimating the reality of our WR position both entering this season and last season.

Let's rewind.

We entered 2024 with three receivers who had gained over 1,000 yards from scrimmage. I realize and accept that using yards from scrimmage instead of pure receiving yards will lead to some contention. That's fine. That's the stat I've chosen to use. We can debate about it. Debate is good. Moving on.

Those three receivers were:

Name - Plays, Yards, TDs
George - 79, 1184, 10
Restrepo - 131, 1717, 10
Brown - 113, 1394, 7

George was polarizing, with the majority recognizing that he was a playmaker with flaws. Notably, he lacked discipline and was prone to draw stupid penalties fairly consistently. However, going into 2024 he had shown promise with a breakout season in 2023, catching 57 passes for 864 yards and 8 TDs in what otherwise a disappointing campaign. He was also the only remaining (and lowest ranked) WR recruit from the transition class of 2021, which unfortunately put him in an unfavorable category.

Restrepo was Restrepo. Quick digression; not trying to stroke my own ego, but I was an X man from the moment the kid signed with Miami. The unmistakeable "Dog mentality" that this kid possesses was what our greatest teams were founded upon. Anyways, he'd just caught 85 passes for 1,000+ yards...so of course we knew.

Lastly, Sam Brown was (at least we hoped) a transfer who would come in and give us a spark. He had compiled close to 1,400 yards and shown big play ability in the previous two years at Houston.

The remainder of the receiving corps consisted of:

Isaiah Horton (14 rec, 174 yds)
Ray Ray Joseph (6 rec, 36 yds)
Robby Washington (2 rec, 27 yds)
Jojo Trader TF
Ny Carr TF
Chance Robinson TF
Shemar Kirk (¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Obviously, given that we were the #1 offense in the country in 2024, that receiving corps was excellent. But was it really something that we *knew* going into last season?

Let's look at the results.

X was phenomenal, explosive, reliable, legendary.

George and Brown were about what we expected.

The player who really elevated his game and became an integral part of our success was Isaiah Horton. He improved from 14 rec and 1 TD in his two previous seasons, to 56 rec and 5 TDs in 2024.

And here's where I begin to argue that I think our WRs are better than last season.

Screenshot_20250731-012501.png

Here's what he have entering 2025:

Name - Plays, Yards, TDs
Daniels - 148, 2439, 22
Johnson - 112, 1147, 13
Marion - 105, 1261, 12
Joseph - 12, 110
Trader - 6, 91, 1
Carr - 1, 8
Robinson - SO
Moore - TF
Toney - TF
Upshaw - TF


As you can see, our WRs entering this season have scored close to 50% more career TDs collectively than our WRs entering 2024. Sure, that's just a stat...it can be dismissed easily with the old "lies, liars and statistics" meme.

Let's set aside our biases for a moment and think critically. If I gave you four spots to fill, how would you rank the following players by position?

George
Restrepo
Daniels
Horton
Johnson
Marion
Joseph
Trader
Carr
Robinson
Moore
Toney
Upshaw
Brown
Washington (gone)
Kirk (gone)

I'll go ahead and post my list for the sake of argument:

X: Daniels, Horton, Moore
Z: Trader, George, Carr
SL: Restrepo, Johnson or Toney
+1: Marion, Brown, Upshaw

Again, this is a thought experiment/discussion thread so feel free to dive into it/tear it apart.

I welcome the discourse.

Go CANES!
 
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People forget we had just as many concerns if not more going into last year. All the top receivers except Brown overperformed those expectations. On paper, our WR group this preseason is better than last season. If we can find 3 to meet expectations we'll be fine. My money is on Daniels, Trader and Toney, though any one of the other two transfers or young receivers could rise up and become a go-to-guy for Beck. We have enough weapons now.
 
grover said:
People forget we had just as many concerns if not more going into last year. All the top receivers except Brown overperformed those expectations. On paper, our WR group this preseason is better than last season. If we can find 3 to meet expectations we'll be fine. My money is on Daniels, Trader and Toney, though any one of the other two transfers or young receivers could rise up and become a go-to-guy for Beck. We have enough weapons now.
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I don’t know about that first part. We were bringing back people that had already produced

Some were worried about Colbie Young leaving (I felt Horton was better so was not one of them)

But we are replacing our Top 6 receiving leaders from last year

No way around the fact that’s a question mark
 
No doubt X was legendary, but he lacked physical gifts you can’t teach. JG3 lacked mental and physical gifts, Sam Brown couldn’t catch. All 3 went undrafted for completely different reasons.

From a pure talent standpoint, this room is on another level with Carr, JoJo and Chance a year older. Add TF Moore and Toney.

Add in future NFL pick CJ Daniels, and the P4 vets.
 
MumbleRap said:
No doubt X was legendary, but he lacked physical gifts you can’t teach. JG3 lacked mental and physical gifts, Sam Brown couldn’t catch. All 3 went undrafted for completely different reasons.

From a pure talent standpoint, this room is on another level with Carr, JoJo and Chance a year older. Add TF Moore and Toney.

Add in future NFL pick CJ Daniels, and the P4 vets.
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The best way to put it is that the ceiling of this room is higher than last year's. The talent is certainly there. Now go out and prove it to the country
 
JHallCanes said:
I don’t know about that first part. We were bringing back people that had already produced

Some were worried about Colbie Young leaving (I felt Horton was better so was not one of them)

But we are replacing our Top 6 receiving leaders from last year

No way around the fact that’s a question mark
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Alright maybe it was just me.

I (and perhaps some others on this board) was complaining about the lack of a guy who could blow the top off coverage and no big depth behind Horton who I knew would be good but didn't know if he could be consistent. We also had no idea about Dawson. I am less concerned at WR across the board, tbh. My bigger concern is replacing Arroyo.
 
ST26 said:
The best way to put it is that the ceiling of this room is higher than last year's. The talent is certainly there. Now go out and prove it to the country
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Kevin Beard talking his **** too, he knows he’s got a talented room. Let them eat.
 
This is the type of stuff the off season brings out of miami fans lol, people look at a room and clearly see we should be concerned but then as the off season goes on we start to squint at that same room, then start to reach at past situations to compare then with the hope and cope for the best case scenario to happen we come up with posts like these to get us thru

Then after the year we’re like how did that room underachieve? Because we always overrate what we have
 
grover said:
Alright maybe it was just me.

I (and perhaps some others on this board) was complaining about the lack of a guy who could blow the top off coverage and no big depth behind Horton who I knew would be good but didn't know if he could be consistent. We also had no idea about Dawson. I am less concerned at WR across the board, tbh. My bigger concern is replacing Arroyo.
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Replacing Arroyo is by far the hardest, Lofton is being billed up, but physically speaking he’s not Arroyo. Elijah is gonna be a top 5 TE in league within 2 years. Gotta money ball that position this year lol
 
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grover said:
Alright maybe it was just me.

I (and perhaps some others on this board) was complaining about the lack of a guy who could blow the top off coverage and no big depth behind Horton who I knew would be good but didn't know if he could be consistent. We also had no idea about Dawson. I am less concerned at WR across the board, tbh. My bigger concern is replacing Arroyo.
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Gotcha yeah I think talent wise there’s a lot to like here

Dawson jumped us up like 100 spots from Gattis with essentially the same cast of characters so yeah I’ve been a fan of his even before last year

All in all question marks yes, but I think we are going to have a really really good offense
 
E1k said:
This is the type of stuff the off season brings out of miami fans lol, people look at a room and clearly see we should be concerned but then as the off season goes on we start to squint at that same room, then start to reach at past situations to compare then with the hope and cope for the best case scenario to happen we come up with posts like these to get us thru

Then after the year we’re like how did that room underachieve? Because we always overrate what we have
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In fairness, this exact post could’ve been said bout our WR room last year too.

That’s what NFL QBs do, Beck will elevate.
 
Am not concerned that the quality of our pass catchers (including TEs & backs too) much worse than last year. Probably roughly equal to slightly better if we stay pretty injury free.

Am concerned that we don't have dynamic bona fide #1 outside WR just like last year. Even with our putrid efense last year I think that cost us in both the GT & Cuse games.
 
MumbleRap said:
In fairness, this exact post could’ve been said bout our WR room last year too.

That’s what NFL QBs do, Beck will elevate.
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Not true at all. X and jacolby were proven top acc wrs, sam brown was a wr1 on a different team. Arroyo we all knew what he was we just needed health to be on his side

There is no similarities to this year and Beck didn’t elevate uga room last year so idk why we think its guaranteed he does here
 
E1k said:
Not true at all. X and jacolby were proven top acc wrs, sam brown was a wr1 on a different team. Arroyo we all knew what he was we just needed health to be on his side

There is no similarities to this year and Beck didn’t elevate uga room last year so idk why we think its guaranteed he does here
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Beck receiver group at uga after Ladd mackonkey and bowers is not as talented as what he has in Miami this year
 
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brock said:
Beck receiver group at uga after Ladd mackonkey and bowers is not as talented as what he has in Miami this year
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I agree but we have to see it first. Im banking on dawson being better than bobo more so than i am our wr room being that much better
 
E1k said:
Not true at all. X and jacolby were proven top acc wrs, sam brown was a wr1 on a different team. Arroyo we all knew what he was we just needed health to be on his side

There is no similarities to this year and Beck didn’t elevate uga room last year so idk why we think its guaranteed he does here
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We had people praying neither X or JG3 came back to roster before 2024 season lol
 
I think we all agree we will score. But the committee may be larger. Last year we had the top 4 receivers and arroyo.

This year we will have Daniels trader Johnson/toney as a most likely top 3/4. Then the tight ends who will catch passes will be lofton and bauman with schott maybe having a role. It’s a bit more uncertain and I bet the rotations will be larger. Just a thought because Moore may be ready to contribute and ray ray apparently will contribute as well as Marion playing a gadget role
 
Moonman said:
I believe the general consensus is that the WR position is the biggest question going into this season. It's reasonable to assume that we're not just going to replace our all-time leading receiver. Having said that, I think we may be at once over and under estimating the reality of our WR position both entering this season and last season.

Let's rewind.

We entered 2024 with three receivers who had gained over 1,000 yards from scrimmage. I realize and accept that using yards from scrimmage instead of pure receiving yards will lead to some contention. That's fine. That's the stat I've chosen to use. We can debate about it. Debate is good. Moving on.

Those three receivers were:

Name - Plays, Yards, TDs
George - 79, 1184, 10
Restrepo - 131, 1717, 10
Brown - 113, 1394, 7

George was polarizing, with the majority recognizing that he was a playmaker with flaws. Notably, he lacked discipline and was prone to draw stupid penalties fairly consistently. However, going into 2024 he had shown promise with a breakout season in 2023, catching 57 passes for 864 yards and 8 TDs in what otherwise a disappointing campaign. He was also the only remaining (and lowest ranked) WR recruit from the transition class of 2021, which unfortunately put him in an unfavorable category.

Restrepo was Restrepo. Quick digression; not trying to stroke my own ego, but I was an X man from the moment the kid signed with Miami. The unmistakeable "Dog mentality" that this kid possesses was what our greatest teams were founded upon. Anyways, he'd just caught 85 passes for 1,000+ yards...so of course we knew.

Lastly, Sam Brown was (at least we hoped) a transfer who would come in and give us a spark. He had compiled close to 1,400 yards and shown big play ability in the previous two years at Houston.

The remainder of the receiving corps consisted of:

Isaiah Horton (14 rec, 174 yds)
Ray Ray Joseph (6 rec, 36 yds)
Robby Washington (2 rec, 27 yds)
Jojo Trader TF
Ny Carr TF
Chance Robinson TF
Shemar Kirk (¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Obviously, given that we were the #1 offense in the country in 2024, that receiving corps was excellent. But was it really something that we *knew* going into last season?

Let's look at the results.

X was phenomenal, explosive, reliable, legendary.

George and Brown were about what we expected.

The player who really elevated his game and became an integral part of our success was Isaiah Horton. He improved from 14 rec and 1 TD in his two previous seasons, to 56 rec and 5 TDs in 2024.

And here's where I begin to argue that I think our WRs are better than last season.

View attachment 331295

Here's what he have entering 2025:

Name - Plays, Yards, TDs
Daniels - 148, 2439, 22
Johnson - 112, 1147, 13
Marion - 105, 1261, 12
Joseph - 12, 110
Trader - 6, 91, 1
Carr - 1, 8
Robinson - SO
Moore - TF
Toney - TF
Upshaw - TF


As you can see, our WRs entering this season have scored close to 50% more career TDs collectively than our WRs entering 2024. Sure, that's just a stat...it can be dismissed easily with the old "lies, liars and statistics" meme.

Let's set aside our biases for a moment and think critically. If I gave you four spots to fill, how would you rank the following players by position?

George
Restrepo
Daniels
Horton
Johnson
Marion
Joseph
Trader
Carr
Robinson
Moore
Toney
Upshaw
Brown
Washington (gone)
Kirk (gone)

I'll go ahead and post my list for the sake of argument:

X: Daniels, Horton, Moore
Z: Trader, George, Carr
SL: Restrepo, Johnson or Toney
+1: Marion, Brown, Upshaw

Again, this is a thought experiment/discussion thread so feel free to dive into it/tear it apart.

I welcome the discourse.

Go CANES!
Click to expand...
Holy **** @TheOriginalCane has an alt account t
 
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