Don’t count these WRs out despite low receiving numbers

Question: What do receivers Jalen Reagor of TCU, Donovan Peoples-Jones of Michigan, Van Jefferson of Florida, Bryan Edwards of South Carolina and Laviska Shenault of Colorado have in common?

Answer: None of them had a 1,000-yard receiving season.

All of them, however, are considered top-100 prospects by many draft analysts heading into the Scouting Combine, Feb. 23-March 2.

The five have something else in common: shaky quarterback play in 2019.

Reagor and Edwards played with freshmen quarterbacks. Peoples-Jones and Shenault played with veteran QBs who had disappointing seasons. And Jefferson played most of the time with a QB who hadn’t started since his freshman year – in high school.

So you can understand why their numbers might not have been what they were hoping for.

2019 By The Numbers

Reagor: 43 receptions, 611 yards, 14.2 yards per catch, 5 touchdowns

Peoples-Jones: 34-438-12.9-6

Jefferson: 49-657-13.4-6

Shenault: 56-764-13.6-4

Edwards: 71-816-11.5-6

It's really too bad that Van Jefferson is going to be in a walker next year and not be able to do this at the NFL level.

Hopefully coaching goes well. I'm gonna miss him. pic.twitter.com/0CYUwDumZI

— DaltonBMiller on TikTok (@DaltonBMiller) February 16, 2020

Figuring out where to slot players like that is tricky.

“Evaluating a WR that is dealing with poor QB play can make things tougher on a couple of levels,” said Steve Shoup, Fanspeak co-owner and On The Clock draft simulator creator. “Overall the offense isn’t going to function as well, so there will likely be fewer opportunities and production will take a hit. Then on actual targets to the wide receiver, you will see fewer catchable passes or see plays that totally breakdown where it’s tough to judge the receiver’s route running.

“At the end of the day you just have to trust your gut more and try to extrapolate from what you could see, but it does make things more difficult.”