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Sterling Sheppard - The Giants' second round-pick this spring, who could end up being the steal of the draft, according to many. Shepard came right out of the box as advertised, catching "everything in sight" and looking very much like a veteran. The Giants are probably going to rely on Shepard to line up as the No. 2 wideout when the season begins. With Victor Cruz still in comeback mode, the Giants will not have much to worry about with Shepard as their No. 2 behind Odell Beckham, Jr. WR Geremy Davis -Davis was lightly-used as a rookie last season and that dropped him from the forefront of everyone's minds this spring. Until he hit the field, that is. Davis showed good hands and a firm grip on the offense, making plays and looking quite impressive in the process. He has gained the confidence of head coach Ben McAdoo, OC Mike Sullivan, and QB Eli Manning. The Giants are suddenly very deep at the WR position. |
It would be one thing if Shepard wasn't making noise thus far but that's not the case. And Cruz is looking good too. It would now come as somewhat of a surprise if either one of Cruz and Shepard failed to produce this season. Throw in the other bodies, including the improving Davis and i'll take my chances with the WRs on this team. We are deep there. Anything can happen from now until September but the same could be said for any team.
Key word there is "possibly".
Nicks, Cruz, and Manningham were big time, big play WRs who did it in crunch time. That was an outstanding trio that is tough to top.
Some of the guys mentioned in this thread.....haven't even produced at the NFL level yet.
Potential yes....but that might not even be realized until a couple years from now.
Odell is the only sure thing here right now.
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but this could quite possibly be our best WR corps ever.
Key word there is "possibly".
Nicks, Cruz, and Manningham were big time, big play WRs who did it in crunch time. That was an outstanding trio that is tough to top.
Some of the guys mentioned in this thread.....haven't even produced at the NFL level yet.
Potential yes....but that might not even be realized until a couple years from now.
Absolutely. I am also looking at depth too. A lot of potential but having a guy like Harris as your number 4 isn't bad at all. Then you have Geremy Davis who seems to be improving. You also have a high ceiling guy like Roger Lewis who Beckham has complimented.
But for right now, not having seen a single regular season snap or being raw (as is the case with Davis), I don't think you can count on anyone to produce just yet.
Shit I am as excited as anyone to see Shepard play, but he's still a rookie.
Are you joking?
The other guys have looked impressive but this is the time of year when everyone looks good. Santana Moss looked good. Ramses Barden looked good. Michael Jennings looked good. Tim Carter looked good.
Early reviews are good though. Hopefully its something that continues.
Randle was a disappointment, but is well above a replacemnt-level player. He's a starting NFL wideout. He might be the 60th-best receiver in the league, but that's still a starter. (32 teams x 2 starters/team = 64 starters)
Lewis and Dable are long shots to even make the 53-man roster. Dable is old for a rookie, has never played organized football at a high level, or against quality competition. He'd have to be miraculously gifted to be better than Randle "right away." Lewis, well, we'll see. I think he'll be on the practice squad.
Combine the hype with JR's top 2 round record with WRs drafted since Sinorice Moss - Steve Smith, Nicks, OBJ - and even his 1:3 with Manningham hitting and Jernigan and Barden bad misses, there's plenty of reason to buy in on the SD hype. And we have never seen anything like it before. The 3d round misses had ?S. Jernigan couldn't field a punt cleanly (something he was specifically drafted for) and Barden looked good catching passes in shorts but was noted by TC as being a slow learner and perhaps more interested in updating his Twitter account than learning the playbook. His desire was questioned early on. There's no question about Shepard really... Just stay healthy, man up vs contact, and continue diining what he's done so far.
Getting past Shepard and Harris who's a decent enough 4 there are plenty of ?. But I think that the trio of Lewis, Powe, and Dable have a heckuva upside compared with most rookie UDFAs and Davis has an NFL body and hands, and White - well there must be some reason Mac wanted him and he simply has made plays in shorts, plenty of them. At the least it seems he has Mac's system down pretty well.
If Cruz comes back you gotta like getting the best 2 from Lewis, Davis, White, Powe, and Dable as our 5th and 6th WRs.
Combine the hype with JR's top 2 round record with WRs drafted since Sinorice Moss - Steve Smith, Nicks, OBJ - and even his 1:3 with Manningham hitting and Jernigan and Barden bad misses, there's plenty of reason to buy in on the SD hype. And we have never seen anything like it before. The 3d round misses had ?S. Jernigan couldn't field a punt cleanly (something he was specifically drafted for) and Barden looked good catching passes in shorts but was noted by TC as being a slow learner and perhaps more interested in updating his Twitter account than learning the playbook. His desire was questioned early on. There's no question about Shepard really... Just stay healthy, man up vs contact, and continue diining what he's done so far.
Getting past Shepard and Harris who's a decent enough 4 there are plenty of ?. But I think that the trio of Lewis, Powe, and Dable have a heckuva upside compared with most rookie UDFAs and Davis has an NFL body and hands, and White - well there must be some reason Mac wanted him and he simply has made plays in shorts, plenty of them. At the least it seems he has Mac's system down pretty well.
If Cruz comes back you gotta like getting the best 2 from Lewis, Davis, White, Powe, and Dable as our 5th and 6th WRs.
Rookie WR's in general are just tough to predict. Rookie anything is tough to predict, especially after the 1st round. Relying on a contribution from him day 1 is risky. Getting raves in shorts is not anything new. but getting raves in camp would be a better indication and then raves in pre-season games, and I'd be more comfortable.
I'm not suggesting others shouldn't buy into the hype, but for me, I'm just more conservative and I need to see it, on the field, in pads, in a game.
So is penciling him in as a star, or even a solid.
We have hopes for him. At this point, that's all.
Same for Cruz. we have hopes he returns to form.
OBJ is the only WR that should be counted on at this point.
I've been to this rodeo before: in the preseason we're gushing about the receiving corp. Very, very rarely have we held that same opinion during the regular season.
Their WR corps is healthy, especially Cruz and OBJ; Davis has really improved that much; Shepard is as good as advertised; Harris doesn't have a drop-off; someone emerges from the competition among the prospects and projects -- yes.
That is a lot of ifs, but not as bad as they sound. It really comes down to Cruz and Davis, even more than Shepard.
OBJ is great.
Shepard is a rookie. But very talented. But a rookie.
Cruz was an elite player. Can he be again? Will he be healthy?
Harris is good.
Davis? Has he really improved that much? Ramses Barden killed it in practice, too.
6th WR from among, what, 8 guys? Will emerge from stiff competition and will primarily be a special teamer, ready to step in as needed as guys deal with inevitable physical issues over an NFL season. If he's playing a lot at WR, though, something's wrong.
If Cruz doesn't come back strong, there isn't anyone behind Beckham, Shepard and Harris.
Although Davis has improved, he may disappear in pads just like last year.
White hasn't shown anything special. Others are UDFAs.
Behind the top 2 are all question marks and/or unknown talents.
But too many question marks for me to say "very deep" right now.
I'd bump you up to 6 and gladly bet the over. There's risk with Cruz, more than most, but the odds are he does in fact play again and for one simple reason--he's employed and has a pretty big contract. Even with his deal being easy to wiggle out of the Giants are giving Cruz every chance he needs to play. Odds are he'l play.
From the videos and from the coaches interviews, it seems fairly obvious that Shepard's moves remind everyone of Beckham. Until the pads are on, who can say different with anymore surety than those who say no. If the coaches are saying you can't tell the difference between Shepard and Beckham, well... that's a good thing. Isn't it?
Assuming the coaches are correct, then we have 2 Beckham level WRs and a healthy Cruz, which is tentative at this point.
So, what we have here with some level of confidence is similar to Green Bay's situation with Nelson (returning from injury) and with Cobb as the slot. In fact, what we have may be better since Beckham is a sure thing and between Shepard and Cruz we may have 1 or 2 really good slot receivers.
Now add in Harris who ain't bad and the potential of Geremy Davis, or one of the free agents, and we might even have the best WR corps in the entire NFL. Obviously, we don't know that for sure yet, but it does look like that could come true.
But assume a light to average injury record this year. So assume 5 people lost all year and 5 an average of 4 games:
assume those losses fall to the safety, cb, de and Wr positions.
Most particularly assume one of the top 4 wr misses 10 of 16 games or is sub par given injuries.
Assume Shepard hits a rookie wall and Cruz takes 4 games to hit 85% of what he was.
In sum, we may easily not have a lot of depth at wr
But assume a light to average injury record this year. So assume 5 people lost all year and 5 an average of 4 games:
assume those losses fall to the safety, cb, de and Wr positions.
Most particularly assume one of the top 4 wr misses 10 of 16 games or is sub par given injuries.
Assume Shepard hits a rookie wall and Cruz takes 4 games to hit 85% of what he was.
In sum, we may easily not have a lot of depth at wr
You know what happens when you "assume"...........
An aside from the WR's is I'm looking for, potentially, big things out of Will Tye.
I think Sheppard will be a nightmare with Cruz Beckham and
the Like's of Davis Powe Lewis White and even King turned
a few Heads .The Potential is there ..
Add to that the TE's and RB's will draw more attention as well .
Every indication is that Shepard is learning fast and "not making the same mistakes twice."
The keys to being "very deep" are the play of Davis and White, or Lewis learning the system unusually quickly for a rookie. All 3 points are serious question marks. Eli and Beckham pushing Lewis are mild indicators, as is Davis being named a "breakout" Spring player on Giants.com.
Why is Shepard only a slot WR? Because he's 5-10? Would you say the same thing about Steve Smith (Ravens) or Antonio Brown?
Excellent point about the TEs and RBs. I'm looking forward to a fierce battle at both positions this summer, but especially at TE, with Adams, LaCosse, and Malleck fighting for spots.
Odell Beckman, Jr. is an elite WR. Sterling Shepard has the potential to reach that level. If Shepard lives up to his billing, they'll become as formidable a duo as you'll find anywhere else in the league. Of course that still remains to be seen, but the early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.
Victor Cruz is, of course, a wild card at this point in time. No one knows what to expect from Cruz in 2016. He could flame out very quickly, he could avoid further injury but still never be the same dynamic talent he was in the past, or he could shock the world and become his old salsa-dancing self once again. Only time will tell.
The rest of the WRs who make the final 53 don't necessarily have to "shock the world" to have a positive impact. They just have to make the most of whatever opportunities that come their way. Above all, they have to play smart, avoid mistakes, and gain Eli's trust, especially in critical situations. They can't choke when the money's on the line.
Excluding Beckham, Shepard, Cruz, and Dwayne Harris, there are nine other WRs currently on the roster who will be fighting for two or three spots this summer. I expect that competition will be fierce (as I do for other positions) and, as I and others say over and over again, hopefully the cream will rise to the top.
I also don t see why a guy like Davis, a draft pick, can t blossom in his second season It s about time this happens again on the Giants.
It's ok to be optimistic. It s not like this franchise doesn t know how to win.
The OP S premise is as valid thoughts presented on BBI
Best: Beckham / Cruz / Shepard / Davis
Best B: Beckham / Shepard / Lewis / Davis
Best: Beckham, Cruz, Shepard
Two proven Pro Bowl WR's in Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb and two young early draft picks in Davante Adams (2014 Rnd 2) and Ty Montgomery (2015 Rnd 3). And as deep as they were, by the end of camp they were desperate to add James Jones.