Roy Williams (WR) for a 2nd Round Pick?

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

I agree with the majority of this assessment but disagree with the bolded part. For those of you with "tall receiver" fascination one name: Steve Smith.

In the receiver dept. what we need is a receiver, regardless of height, who gets open in the endzone inside the redzone and takes some of the coverage away from Cooley. Height is helpful but not determinative. It certainly comes in handy on corner fades and the occasional jump ball, but, other than that, it is short area separation, not height, that is most important.

For whatever reason, neither Moss nor ARE seem particularly suited for the redzone (not sure what their stats there are - but would not be surprised to see the majority of their TD's come from 20 yards or beyond). But M. Harrison, who is not gigantic by any means seems to do well in the short field, ditto Steve Smith.

Not sure where we find the red-zone Cooley compliment that we need. But whereever we look, we should not say that only WR's 6' 2" and over need apply.

No one is saying a small wide receiver can't succeed. Look at Moss a couple years ago. What people are saying, me included, is that you need a tall compliment to a small speedy WR. You mentioned Steve Smith, so look at these numbers:

2006 Panthers 15th in passing yards...had a 6'4" Keyshawn Johnson that caught 70 balls.
2007 Panthers 29th in passing yards...2nd best receiving threat on the team was TE Jeff King.
It's no coincidence that the Panthers passing game went to pot after losing a large target like Keyshawn. Of course the injured Delhomme hurt too, but Smith had 83 catches in 06, and 87 in 07.

You raise a good point about Harrison, however, Peyton could have a crew of midgets and he would make it work. Harrison and Wayne are some of the best route runners in the league.

Still point remains, we're not saying to never pick up small wr's again, but we need one due to the fact that we have small wr's now. They compliment each other. Will it be the end of the world if we don't get one? No, but it will free up Moss and Randle El to do other routes and be more effective for their sizes and our team concept.