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Washington Football Team wide receiver Terry McLaurin is already one of the top wide receivers in the NFL. A former third-round pick in the 2019 NFL draft, McLaurin has over 2,000 yards receiving in the first two seasons of his career.
Yet, McLaurin remains underappreciated around the NFL.
Cynthia Frelund is NFL.com’s analytics expert and recently went through every NFL roster to find each team’s most underappreciated player. Frelund used her own metrics by combining the player’s snaps, contributions, and salary, among other things, to determine who was underappreciated.
Frelund’s model led to McLaurin as Washington’s choice:
Not going to lie: This selection is a super-fortunate function of the parameters I laid out in the intro. McLaurin isn’t likely to be eligible for this list going forward, so I will take the low-hanging fruit right now, because not only do my metrics think he’s the most underrated player on the team, but he’s one of the most valuable players at his position across the league. McLaurin’s 638 receiving yards on in-breaking routes were the second-most in the NFL. His +154 yards after the catch over expected ranked fourth in the NFL. One more juicy NGS tidbit on McLaurin: He generated 2.5 yards of separation per target against press coverage (fourth-most, min. 25 targets).
Frelund is absolutely right. The 2021 season will be the last time McLaurin will be considered as underappreciated.