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It’s Easy to Draft Great Receivers with a Great QB
Yinzer Crazy • November 4, 2020
This is a story that I’ve been wanting to write for quite some time.
It all started with the emergence of 2020 2nd round draft pick Chase Claypool.
Don’t get me wrong - Claypool is an absolute stud and has a chance to be one of the best wide receivers in the league.
As long as he has a great quarterback.
And that’s currently what he has, as two-time Super Bowl Champion Ben Roethlisberger has returned to his old form after missing nearly the entire 2019 season with a significant elbow injury that resulted in a laborious recovery if he wanted to continue pioneering the offense of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ben has been surgical so far in 2020.
At 38, he’s in the top ten in the league in Quarterback rating and has thrown 15 touchdowns to only four interceptions.
And oh by the way - he has the Steelers at 7-0 - the lone unbeaten left in the NFL.
However, each time the black and gold pluck a receiver out of the NFL draft - the narrative from the national and local media typically looks a little something like this.
Field Yates
@FieldYates
·Oct 12
The Steelers did not use a single first round pick on a wide receiver during the last decade. The Steelers did draft Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Chase Claypool, Martavis Bryant, Diontae Johnson and James Washington during the last decade.
Brett Kollmann
@BrettKollmann
·Aug 16, 2018
I feel like at this point whenever the Steelers draft a wide receiver I'm just going to automatically assume they are going to be really good. Burress, Holmes, Wallace, Sanders, Brown, Bryant, JuJu... We might as well lock in James Washington to be the next freakin' Jerry Rice.
Ol Ball Coach
@Vice_Roy
·Nov 1
I wish I could do anything as well as the Pittsburgh Steelers can Draft Receivers
Now I’m not by any means saying this isn’t true.
What I will point out is that the narrative should instead be slanted towards - “it’s easier to play Wide-Receiver when you have a Hall of Fame Quarterback.”
Ben Roethlisberger should get more credit.
Yet, for some reason he doesn’t.
In his 16-year career Roethliberger has yet to receive a single vote for NFL's Most Valuable Player.
But what is one thing that all of the receivers in the tweet above by Founder of "The Film Room", Brett Kollman have in common?
They all played with Roethlisberger as their QB.
Outside of Emmanuel Sanders, who has been excellent for a handful of teams following his departure from the Steelers - each of those players production has fallen off notably after leaving the Steelers.
Santonio Holmes was the Super Bowl MVP in 2008. And in 2009, he caught 79 passes for 1248 yards prior to being traded to the Jets the following season for a fifth round pick.
Fans of the Black and Gold were left feeling sick.
How could they trade a young, super-bowl champion in his prime?
Holmes never posted another season where he caught more than 52 balls.
In his four years with the Steelers (2009-12) wideout Mike Wallace caught 32 total touchdowns.
In his next six years with the Dolphins, Ravens, Vikings & Eagles - he caught a total of 25 combined scores.
With Roethlisberger, troubled receiver Martavis Bryant at times looked like he had the talent similar to Chase Claypool.
He caught eight touchdowns as a rookie in 2014, and then posted two consecutive years with 50 grabs combined for 1,368 yards.
Bryant was traded to the Oakland Raiders during the 2018 draft for a third round pick.
He caught 19 passes in eight games with zero touchdowns.
And has been out of the NFL ever since.
Do I even need to tell you about Antonio Brown?
You guys can fill in the rest of the blanks by now in regard to his story - as I don't need to regurgitate his name once more around these parts.
Moral of the story is that I’m here to tell you that I’ve grown a bit tired of this portrayal of Kevin Colbert constantly picking the cream of the crop at the receiver position in the draft.
Yes - he’s done an excellent job.
But would we be talking about these Steelers receivers in the same context if Mason Rudolph, Duck Hodges or Landry Jones had been the signal-caller for the past decade plus?
That answer is a resounding No.
Take just last year as proof.
JuJu Smith-Schuster was consistently under the microscope for under-performing.
A year after being voted the team’s Most Valuable Player, he caught just 42 passes in 12 games, while posting three touchdowns.
In just seven contests so far in 2020, Smith-Schuster already has 39 catches and three touchdowns.
He’s clearly well-ahead of his 2019 pace, and will likely eclipse 80 receptions once more.
Are you starting to catch my drift?
But somehow, each time the Patriots drafted a wide-out and he had success it was because of the outstanding ability of Tom Brady to make every player around him substantially better.
You rarely heard someone say, "Man - these Patriots can really identify playmakers!"
Yet, players such as Wes Welker, Danny Amendola and even Julian Edelman have posted solid-numbers without Brady under center.
By no means am I saying Roethlisberger > Brady.
But “Tom Brady doesn’t have elite weapons,” is a mantra often uttered by the biggest of Patriots supporters.
And that's also wrong.
So why does Big Ben not get the same love?
Maybe it’s because of his early alleged transgressions that have created a national bitterness towards him.
Or it's because of what I like to call the “Fantasy Football Factor.”
Ben was never drafted in the first round in your fantasy league draft, so he wasn’t looked at in the same context as Brady, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers & Drew Brees.
Like it or not - all he does is win and make the guys around him better.
His career winning percentage is .674 - well ahead of Rodgers & Brees.
And his playoff win-percentage is a full .100 points higher than Peyton Manning. (Ben is 13-8 all-time in the playofs, Manning is 14-13.)
But those don’t count for much in fantasy football.
Sure - I may be writing this article with Steelers-colored glasses on.
But the facts are the facts.
I think Steelers All-Pro Center Maurkice Pouncey said it best a few weeks ago when asked on NFL Inside Access about the Steelers ability to draft wide receivers.
Pouncey
- “It’s just something about when you have a great quarterback and you have a skill set like that, that you can just attack different areas of the football field. Looking at it from a long time of playing, I can just appreciate it. That’s the aspect I look at it from. Maybe other people have different views. And don’t get me wrong, Kevin Colbert plays a part in it, picking guys, and picking the guys that he likes and stuff, in my opinion, it always comes down to the leader of the organization, and that’s the quarterback.”
We have the same view, Maurkice.
And I’m here to tell you so should you.
Smith-Schuster, Claypool and Diontae Johnson all have the makings of potential Pro-Bowl and All-Pro careers.
But there’s only one sure-fire Hall of Famer taking the field on offense for these Steelers.
Story by Mike Nicastro, your local Big-Ben Campaigner.
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