Tag: wide receiver rankings

Chargers’ Keenan Allen named NFL’s second-best slot receiver

Keenan Allen is one of the league’s most under-appreciated players.

Despite proving himself on the field and having the stats to back it up, Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen still doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves to this day.

In the eyes of Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar, however, Allen is regarded as the second-best slot receiver in this league, only behind Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill.

Below, Farrar justifies Allen’s ranking with a brief explanation and numbers from this past season.

Allen has been one of the NFL’s more underrated receivers since the Chargers selected him in the third round of the 2013 draft out of Cal. Allen doesn’t blow you away with explosive plays — he doesn’t really have the straight-line speed for that — but when it comes to understanding and exploiting coverages from anywhere on the field, there are few better.

In 2020, Allen caught 43 of 60 slot targets for 441 yards and six touchdowns. Those numbers put him behind other slot receivers on this list, but the tape really doesn’t. When a defensive back doesn’t have the advantage of the boundary to deal with Allen’s route trickiness, the task becomes exponentially more difficult.

Early on in his professional career, Allen was dinged by injuries. However, he has managed to stay healthy over the course of the past four seasons, averaging 100 receptions and over 1,000 receiving yards in that timespan en route to four Pro Bowl appearances.

This upcoming season, despite the change in offensive system, Allen, who’s established himself as one of the league’s most efficient route-runners, should do what he does best by getting open consistently to leave a wide-open target for quarterback Justin Herbert.

I’m predicting Allen to finish the year with 157 targets, 106 receptions, 1,273 yards and eight touchdowns.

James Jones gives high praise to Chargers WR Keenan Allen

Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen cracked the top-5.

Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen has been the model of dominance for years now, putting up numbers that stack up among the league’s best wideouts.

However, he still doesn’t get the credit that he deserves.

Credit was given by former Packers WR and current NFL Network analyst James Jones recently, as he tabbed Allen as the No. 4 wide receiver heading into the 2020 season.

“Keenan Allen off the line of scrimmage and his route-running is absolutely special,” Jones said. Every time you see Allen catch a ball, you really don’t see a defensive back too close to him because he is special at getting separation and special at making tough catches.

James notes the fact that Allen isn’t given the recognition that he deserves because he plays for a team that “doesn’t win a lot of games.”

Since 2013, Allen has had more than 1,100 receiving yards each of the past three seasons and has been named to the Pro Bowl in all three of those seasons.

Perhaps the league’s most prolific route-runner, Allen has the opportunity to have another great campaign even with the change at quarterback and offense switching to a run-heavy approach.

The former Cal product is slated to be a free agent after this season.

CBS Sports names Cooper sixth-best WR heading into 2020

Amari Cooper ranked sixth best wide receiver heading into 2020.

Wide receiver Amari Cooper is coming off of his fourth Pro Bowl selection in his first five years in the NFL. In his first full season with a star in his helmet, Cooper set career highs in yards (1,189), touchdowns (8), and yards per catch (15.1).

Even with his struggles on the road last season (catching only 27 passes) he was still one of the league’s best. So much so that Jared Dubin of CBS Sports ranked the top 10 receivers entering the 2020 season and Cooper came in at No. 6 on the list (5th in the NFC), ahead of more highly-regarded names such as Odell Beckham (10) and Mike Evans (7).

6. Amari Cooper, Cowboys

I can hear the complaints already. Cooper ahead of Evans? Really?

Well … for his career, Evans averages an 82-1,291-9 line per 16 games. Since arriving in Dallas, Cooper has averaged 84-1,225-9 per 16 games, and he’s done it on considerably lower target volume. (He’s played all 25 games.) He’s also got a much higher catch rate (67.2 percent), so even though his yards per catch average (14.6) trails that of Evans, he’s still been a bit more efficient on a per-route basis (2.24 yards per route run). That advantage holds even if you take out Evans’ rookie season, where he was something of a co-No. 1 option alongside Vincent Jackson.

Cooper changed life instantly for the Cowboys in 2018 after being acquired via trade from the then-Oakland Raiders in exchange for a 2019 first-round pick. In the nine games he played, The Alabama star caught 53 passes for 725 and six touchdowns. The Cowboys went 7-2 and captured the NFC East crown for the second time in three seasons.

Heading into 2020, Cooper has a chance to have his best season yet with the other weapons around him at the receiver position. Michael Gallup elevated his game to 66 receptions for 1,107 yards and six touchdowns in 2019, doubling bis numbers from his rookie campaign. CeeDee Lamb, regarded by many as the best wide receiver in the NFL Draft, fell to the Cowboys at No. 17. His ability to play not only in the slot but also on the outside allows the Cowboys to move Cooper around, who also can play multiple positions.

Having so many threats around Cooper could see things open for him more than ever in an offense that will certainly attack through the air regularly under Mike McCarthy and his West-Coast approach mixed in with Kellen Moore’s vertically-attacking philosophy.

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