mansquatch wrote:Uhh what? We were about 50 yards short of having 2 guys with over 1000 yard receiving.
It was more like 130. Diggs was almost 100 yards short of a 1000.
We haven't had that since Carter/Moss. How many teams in the league have TWO guys putting up those kinds of numbers?
Last year there were at least 8 other than the Vikings. New Orleans, Washington, Oakland and Denver all had more than one receiver actually go over 1000 yards. Detroit and Green Bay both had a pair of receivers who topped the 900 mark like Diggs and Thielen and in both cases, one of those receivers went over 1000 yards.
Seattle and Carolina both had 2 players (each) who fit that description too but in those cases, one of the receivers was a TE.
Anyway, it's not
that unusual and there are obviously variables that impact it like how frequently players are targeted, whether the offense has an elite receiver who gets a disproportionate number of targets, etc.
They may not be elite, alpha WR like Julio Jones, but I do not think it would be fair to call them average either.
It's not only fair, it's accurate. Others may not see it this way but I don't think calling an NFL player average is an insult. A player who's in the middle of the pack at his starting position in the NFL is usually a good player.
Further explanation: in simple terms, there are 32 teams in the league which means there are basically 64 starting receivers. I realize some teams run a lot of 3 WR sets, some run 2 TE sets, etc., which is why I’m using the word “basically”. Statistically, Diggs and Thielen fall pretty squarely into the middle of that pack of 64 when it comes to receiving yardage (they were 34th and 27th respectively), which is one of the reasons I describe them as average. They are in the middle: not exceptional, not bad, just solid receivers. If one of them was a red zone scoring machine or something, that might change the equation a bit but neither player has been exceptional when it comes to scoring TDs. Last season, Diggs had 3 and Thielen had 5.
The frequently expressed opinion among Vikings fans that players like Thielen and Diggs are above average is one of the reasons I consider the receiving corps is overrated. They're a far cry from Carter and Moss. Thielen isn't another Jordy Nelson either, at least not yet. They were both good, solid starters last year.