Rating the wide receivers

For those several teams that will consider using their first-round selection on a wide receiver in this year's NFL Draft, said to be the best in years and in which talented pass-catchers represent the deepest position, this cautionary alarm: Buyer beware.

Even with a 2001 draft class that includes explosive prospects like David Terrell of Michigan, Clemson's Rod Gardner, Koren Robinson of North Carolina State and Santana Moss of Miami, a decision to draft a receiver can still blow up in a team's face and haunt if for years.

Although it would seem to be a skill position at which rookies could render an immediate impact, much like at running back, wide receiver has traditionally been a sore spot -- especially in the first round. And while this year's draft could set a record for first-round wide receivers, with as many as seven going off the board in the first 31 picks April 21, history indicates few will be stars, or for that matter even starters, in their debut NFL season.

Randy Moss is the rare exception of a former first-round pick who had at least 1,000 receiving yards his rookie season.(Allsport)

"It's probably the position," Green Bay Packers general manager Ron Wolf said, "at which teams make the most first-round mistakes."

In the past five drafts, 20 wide receivers were chosen in the first round. While several have developed into top-flight performers, few made a splash as rookies.

As a group, the wide receivers selected in the first round from 1996-2000 averaged just 8.9 starts, 39.1 receptions, 532.5 yards and 4.2 touchdowns. Only seven registered more than 700 yards in their first year. Just eight had more than 50 catches and six had more than five touchdowns. Two of the first-rounders -- Terry Glenn of New England ('96) and Minnesota's Randy Moss ('98) -- posted 1,000-yard seasons as rookies but were the exception and not the rule.

The 2000 contingent was indicative of how rookie wide receivers, even those chosen in the first round, are prone to problems. The fourth overall choice in the draft, Peter Warrick, came to the Cincinnati Bengals exuding confidence and big-play ability but caught just 51 passes. Before he was sidelined by a wrist injury, Plaxico Burress proved he was a sloppy route-runner. Enigmatic R. Jay Soward of Jacksonville demonstrated a poor work ethic and was eventually undone by a substance abuse problem.

Of the 31 wide receivers drafted overall in 2000, just Warrick and Kansas City first-round pick Sylvester Morris started at least 10 games. The leading rookie receiver last year was Seattle third-round choice Darrell Jackson, the 80th player chosen overall and the 14th wide receiver to go off the board.

That could well be the case again in 2001, when wide receivers who are projected as second- or third-round choices in this draft -- say, a Ken-yon Rambo of Ohio State, Justin McCareins of Northern Illinois or Kansas State's Quincy Morgan -- could catch more passes than any of the No. 1 picks. But that apparently won't stop teams from expending first-round choices on wideouts, then spending big money to sign them.

Terrell almost certainly will be a top-five choice and could be gone with the third pick to the Cleveland Browns, who have him as the top overall prospect on their board.

Even after a poor workout last week, and the fact he has turned off several teams with his surly attitude and dubious work ethic, Robinson could still be in the top 10, as could the fast-rising Gardner. Moss, Chris Chambers of Wisconsin, UCLA's Freddie Mitchell, Oregon State's Chad Johnson and Reggie Wayne of Miami all have first-round grades on various teams' draft boards.

Not since a 1988 draft that produced six wide receivers in the first round and included standouts such as Tim Brown, Michael Irvin, Sterling Sharpe and Anthony Miller has one boasted of so many talented pass-catchers. And, fact is, teams simply like to select wide receivers because, in spite of the track record, clubs feel they can contribute right away.

Since the 1970 merger, 94 wide receivers -- or an average of more than three per year -- have been selected in the opening round. Nine franchises have chosen four or more first-round wideouts in that period. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati took six each.

"Despite the rather uneven results, it's still a position people look to," Minnesota Vikings vice president of player personnel Frank Gilliam said. "You're always looking for the guy who can hit the home run for you. Unfortunately, those guys sometimes strike out, but that doesn't mean that you quit looking. And I'm guessing that, this year, there will be a lot of looking going on. There should be plenty of shopping for wide receivers."

And, as always, there will be some bad deals. Ten years from now, when some relatively nondescript wide receiver selected in the fourth round of this draft is still playing and most of the 2001 first-rounders are out of the league, scouts still will be making egregious errors at the position. People forget, for instance, that Cincinnati took Cris Collinsworth in the second round of the 1981 draft but, before choosing him, selected the eminently forgettable David Verser in the first.

The reasons there are so many high-round wide receiver failures in the NFL are many, but the most common denominators are the speed of the game, the sophistication of NFL offenses and the caliber of cornerback they must compete against. Those components can combine to transform a receiver who has great hands and runs the 40 in under 4.4 seconds into a butterfingered buffoon who couldn't run out of sight in a week.

Even with college passing games upgraded over the past 20 years, few star wide receivers at the campus level go up against a quality cover player most weeks. And college playbooks cannot begin to approximate the telephone directory-sized tomes that NFL clubs distribute to rookies in their first orientation weekend.

"I would think for any young wide receiver, no matter how much success he had in college, his head is going to be swimming in that first exposure to the NFL," longtime receivers coach Milt Jackson said. "I mean, some things don't change, like a '9' route is a '9' route at every level of the game, OK? But now you throw in all the route adjustments in the NFL, you ask a player to read the secondary on the run and maybe break off a pattern in certain situations, and paralysis sets in. You can almost see the wheels turning in these kids' heads. And now suddenly, because he has to think instead of react, that 4.5 guy isn't as fast anymore, is he?"

Nor can college wide receivers prepare for the NFL by practicing against cornerbacks with the kind of coverage skills of a Deion Sanders or a Charles Woodson. There are few colleges that will play "press" coverage, with a cornerback right up in a receiver's face counting sweat beads on his forehead. Throw a rookie wide receiver into even a seven-on-seven passing drill, and he is apt to confront tighter coverage than he has ever experienced in a college bowl game.

Add the lack of maturity with which some wide receivers enter the pro game, and the struggle all of them face to fit into a new system and a playbook that must read like hieroglyphics, and it is a prescription for potential failure.

"It's a tough position," said Indianapolis Pro Bowl performer Marvin Harrison , one of those few first-round wide receivers taken in the past five years who has succeeded.

"There's so much going on, especially at this level, that it takes a lot of hard work to master it. The guys who just come in and think they're going to get by on athleticism alone are in for a shock."