Quarterbacks are the face of the franchise, and driving force of the NFL’s offensive revolution, but the wide receiver position has become more vital than ever in recent years.
The breadth and depth of high-caliber wide receivers in recent NFL Draft classes underscores just how important the receiver position has become in today’s NFL. Nowhere is that more evident than with the very real possibility that four pass-catchers get chosen in the top-10 picks on Thursday night.
“These receivers are bigger and faster than ever,” Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians tells FanSided. “They also have the benefit of playing in all of these seven-on-seven leagues in high school, in spread offenses in college with three or four of them on the field every snap.”
All of that additional playing time before even arriving at the NFL Draft has helped lead the revolution that has transformed the NFL into “a passing league.”
The data is almost jaw-dropping.
Last season, quarterbacks completed 11,752 passes, which on the surface is an eye-popping number, but is, even more, stark an indicator of where the game is headed when compared to how many the league’s quarterbacks completed in 1990.
During the 1990 NFL season, 30 years ago, quarterbacks completed just 7,568 passes.
That means passing is up 155.29 percent over the past three decades.
But, what has powered this evolution of the sport, and how did the NFL go from not having a receiver chosen in the first round of the 1990 NFL Draft to potentially as many as four expected to come off the board in the top-10 picks of Thursday’s 2021 NFL Draft? FanSided spoke to current and former executives, trainers, and coaches to find out what has been at the root of these changes and the dramatic transformation of how the receiver position is played.
Improved quarterback play and the fact that the aerial attacks have replaced plodding three yards and a cloud of dust offenses in college football helps, but the wideouts on the receiving end of all those passes are more specialized and experienced than ever when they take their talents from Saturdays to Sunday afternoons.
Pass-catchers, not quarterbacks, will be the story of the 2021 NFL Draft
“The systems in high school, colleges, and the NFL,” Former NFL general manager Scot McCloughan tells FanSided is the biggest reason for the explosion of explosive receiver talent. “And with that come big-time opportunities. You get guys now who catch 70 or 80 balls in college, and they’re the third-leading receiver on the team. Back in the 1990s through the early 2000s, that would have been a hell of a year.”
The average college game is also longer than it has been in decades, with 80 to 90 offensive snaps becoming the norm, and upwards of two-thirds of those plays being passes.
“Mike Holmgren told me once,” McCloughan says. “I think I’m pretty good at play-calling, if you give me more opportunities to call plays in a game, you have more opportunities to score points, and that’s how you win games.”
All of those plays, and all of that passing have helped teams increase scoring … as Holmgren predicted it would.
Last season, teams averaged 24.8 points per game, up from 22 points per game in 2008, and up significantly from 19 points per game in 1991.
“It all comes back to the receivers,” an AFC personnel executive tells FanSided. “Offensive coaches get paid and promoted by scoring points, so they are attracted to guys who can catch all of those touchdowns.”
Touchdowns are how coaches climb the ladder, and also how receivers shine.
Thanks to the proliferation of spread offenses in college football that have made the sport indistinguishable from the one played on Sundays across the country, wide receivers have entered the NFL more prepared than ever to be elite playmakers.
Especially when it comes to the quality that teams covet most.
“I worked for an owner [Al Davis] who was renowned for prioritizing speed,” CBS Sports analyst and former Raiders CEO Amy Trask recently told FanSided. “An uttered phrase repeatedly from our scouts, player personnel people, and executives was ‘speed kills,’ and an expression uttered by our coaches, coincidentally, was also ‘speed kills.’
“While different organizations and different evaluators within an organization prioritize speed differently, speed can help an offense.”
In a lot of ways, Davis was a revolutionary owner and far ahead of his time. This is just another.
Speed certainly plays a factor in pushing playmakers up the board and increasing their chances of being impact players at the next level. LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase was clocked in a blazing 4.38 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the Tigers’ pro day, after weighing in at 6-feet and 207 pounds.
Just how much have times changed?
Thursday night, Chase, Alabama’s DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle might all be top-10 selections, and there is a very legitimate chance Florida’s tight end/wide receiver Kyle Pitts is the premier player in this class and first non-quarterback chosen.
Last spring saw four wide receivers chosen in the first round, including Justin Jefferson, who caught 88 passes for 1,400 yards and seven touchdowns. The 2020 receiver class also included Henry Ruggs and Jerry Jeudy, both first-round picks, who averaged 17.4 and 16.5 yards per reception, respectively.
Even going back 12 years to 2008, not a single wide receiver was chosen in the first round of the NFL Draft. The same goes for 1990 when Alexander Wright was the first receiver off the board … with the first pick of the second round.
Today’s receivers are simply better prepared to play at a high level immediately, and that comes from specialized training that begins all the way from childhood.
“The pattern [of movement] that we evaluate everybody based off of was identified in early-childhood development in indigenous communities around the world that we studied,” Gary Scheffler, the owner of GOATA movement tells FanSided. “In super-athletes, like Deion Sanders, Simone Biles, Serena Williams, these athletes that play at the highest level for a long time and never have an injury.”
Scheffler has worked with some of the NFL’s premier wide receivers to help maximize their movement and speed.
The results and impact on not just the NFL Draft, but the league, have been tangible.
Even with the uncertainty surrounding players who opted out of last year’s college football season, the amount of tape and background information on prospects has never been more plentiful, and teams are far better suited to identify a difference-maker than in decades prior. That’s particularly true at the outside receiver position.
This class, and those that have preceded it in the past half-decade, have married specialized training with a college game that maximizes their opportunities to shine.
“Route running, flexibility in the hips, getting in and out of breaks, all that good stuff,” McCloughan says. “Speed is speed. Strength is strength. Explosion is explosion. It’s all God-given gifts. But, in today’s age, you’re seeing more of it because they are asked to do it more in every game.”
When Smith, Waddle, Chase, Pitts, and every other receiver puts on their team’s NFL Draft hat on Thursday night, they are doing so entering a league that is tilted more in their favor than at any point in recent history.
“Think back to the 1990s,” McCloughan says. “Ronnie Lott, Steve Atwater, it was a big man’s game and tough man’s game. If you have a receiver scared of running across the middle, that takes away a third of the field, at least.
“Nowadays, these receivers are like ‘hit me, touch me, I’m going to get a penalty no matter what, even if I don’t get the catch.'”
Put it all together; the spread offenses taking root at all levels of football, more specialized training, and a sport whose rules favor the offense, and maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that the receivers in this year’s class and the one that preceded it offer little resemblance to those of 12, 20, and 30 years ago?
“It’s just how the game is now,” an AFC scout tells FanSided. “Running backs are valued today like receivers were in decades past. A guy who can dictate coverage is valuable. Think of guys like Marvin Harrison, teams were so afraid of him that they never played cover-two against him, and a guy like Ja’Marr Chase who can win on all three levels and be physical is rare. DeVonta Smith is like Marvin was back then.
“The bottom line is … Explosive playmakers are where the game is at right now.”
And this NFL Draft class has no shortage of those.
Matt Lombardo is the site expert for GMenHQ and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday for FanSided. Follow Matt on Twitter: @MattLombardoNFL