Is Lee Evans a True #1 Receiver?

[Benjamin Barker]

Lee Evans is a good receiver, and any team would be happy to add him to their receiving corps. The knock on him is that he is more of a specialized deep ball threat than the complete package. He has great speed, and is surprisingly good in jump ball situations despite his height, making some spectacular long ball catches. However, he's not a big physical presence for short and medium yardage passing, and when he does catch a short pass he doesn't show top elusiveness and the ability to break bunch of tackles for a big gain. Every receiver is going to have their strengths and their weaknesses, though.

 

To get a better if Lee is a true #1, we can list receivers that are clearly better than Evans for this particular season (without regard to future potential, etc.) and see how many their are. I'm sure I'm forgetting some guys, and I also just quickly lumped these guys into the two categories so I'm sure some rankings are debatable. Obviously some of these guys play in the slot or whatever, I'm just looking to get a baseline ranking for receiver quality. These are listed in no particular order.

 

 

Definitely Better than Lee Evans

Andre Johnson

Randy Moss

Calvin Johnson

Miles Austin

Roddy White

Larry Fitzgerald

Greg Jennings

Reggie Wayne

Marques Colston

Brandon Marshall

Anquan Boldin

Michael Crabtree

Chad Ochocinco

Sidney Rice

Wes Welker

 

 

On Par with Lee Evans

Santonio Holmes

Dwayne Bowe

Vincent Jackson

Steve Smith

Jeremy Maclin

DeSean Jackson

Hakeen Nix

Steve Smith

Percy Harvin

Terrell Owens

Santana Moss

Johnny Knox

Pierre Garcon

Mike Wallace

Mike Williams

Donald Driver

 

 

So by my estimate, I have him roughly somewhere between the 16th and 32nd best receiver in the league. I don't know, maybe I'm being a little generous here, what do you guys thinks? Anyways, in conclusion:

 

Lee Evans is probably a #1 caliber NFL receiver, albeit a below average one.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Benjamin Barker

[SouthGeorgiaBillsFan]

Well he is our #1 receiver, and truth be told, I really wish we didn't have to say that.

[Thurman#1]

Lee is somewhere between 10th and 20th in the league, IMHO, tending towards 10th. But he has no way to show it until he gets a good QB throwing to him.

[sweatpantsjoe]

Maybe if the Bills got a #1 quarterback he'd have better numbers.

[Wooderson]

What has Crabtree shown to make him "definitely better" than Evans? He's been in the league for half of a year.

[The Dean]

Not this tired discussion AGAIN.

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

On the Bills this year: looks like it

 

Last year: TO was #1 in stats

 

He has no QB

 

He can’t throw himself the ball

 

He is paid too much

 

He would be a #3 on most teams

 

With a good QB he would have 8000 yards a season and break every record in the history of the league.

 

 

 

DONE. Close thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mr. WEO]

Someone's gotta be.

[PDaDdy]

This topic was already started in another thread and it included a quote from sullivan clearly stating how negatively Trent Edwards impacts Lee's numbers. Matter of fact I think you posted in the other thread. The guys you list as better are a complete joke. Some haven't done a darn thing in the NFL yet. Stop the anti Lee crusade. He his one of the actual bright spots on this team and you negative whiners are always trying to find something wrong!!!!

[papazoid]

This topic was already started in another thread and it included a quote from sullivan clearly stating how negatively Trent Edwards impacts Lee's numbers. Matter of fact I think you posted in the other thread. The guys you list as better are a complete joke. Some haven't done a darn thing in the NFL yet. Stop the anti Lee crusade. He his one of the actual bright spots on this team and you negative whiners are always trying to find something wrong!!!!

 

....what he said !

[muffmonster]

This topic was already started in another thread and it included a quote from sullivan clearly stating how negatively Trent Edwards impacts Lee's numbers. Matter of fact I think you posted in the other thread. The guys you list as better are a complete joke. Some haven't done a darn thing in the NFL yet. Stop the anti Lee crusade. He his one of the actual bright spots on this team and you negative whiners are always trying to find something wrong!!!!

 

Maybe, we can knock out our quota of yearly Evans #1 threads sooner rather then later?

[JPS]

Not this tired discussion AGAIN.

+1

[CountDorkula]

Wes Welker is not better than Lee Evans. He was a glorifed punt returner in Miami. If you actually watch any Patriot games, he receives mostly swing passes and follows his blocks.

 

QB's make receivers good.

 

Ive asked this 1,000 times. Name me a receiver that had a great stats year with a bad QB?

[Brainiac72]

i did it a little differently, and found there are about 10 teams with a WR better than Evans... 10 with their best WR on par with Evans... and ~10 where Evans is better than anything they have.

 

so if you call a WR #1 because he's good enough to be the best on the team, then i'd say he's good enough... around middle of the pack. we are clearly better with him than without him though, so what matters beyond that?

[CountDorkula]

i did it a little differently, and found there are about 10 teams with a WR better than Evans... 10 with their best WR on par with Evans... and ~10 where Evans is better than anything they have.

 

so if you call a WR #1 because he's good enough to be the best on the team, then i'd say he's good enough... around middle of the pack. we are clearly better with him than without him though, so what matters beyond that?

 

This

[Gugny]

Wes Welker is not better than Lee Evans. He was a glorifed punt returner in Miami. If you actually watch any Patriot games, he receives mostly swing passes and follows his blocks.

 

QB's make receivers good.

 

Ive asked this 1,000 times. Name me a receiver that had a great stats year with a bad QB?

I think Randy Moss could have good numbers with any QB. I think Wes Welker is an awesome receiver, too.

 

That said ... I think Lee Evans has been a #1 receiver with a #28 QB with a #32 coaching staff.

 

Maybe things will improve this year. Let's get more than 1/16 into the season to have this tired discussion.

[Guest dog14787]

Lee Evans is depending on TE/QB to get him the ball, so far during the regular it has not happened on a consistent basis, at least not since JP Losman was the starting QB for the Buffalo Bills.

 

Its real hard to accurately determine where Lee Evans stands in my opinion. The Bills lack size at the WR position as a whole. Add the fact that the Buffalo Bills haven't had a premiere Tight End in years to work the middle of the field. Trent Edwards has already commented on how easily Roscoe Parish gets lost out there and its sometimes hard to find him because of his size with huge lineman blocking Trents view.

 

All things considered the Buffalo Bills have one of the worse most inexperienced receiving Corp in the NFL.

 

QB's have to be able to work the middle of the field to be successful on a consistent basis, smallish WR's, smallish/average TE's are a recipe for disaster in this day and age in the NFL in my opinion.

Edited September 16, 2010 by dog14787

[Hplarrm]

It is a simple fact in terms of contractual amount that like it or not Evans is our #1 WR. I generally agree with the original assessment in this thread that in general he ain't as good as we want but does have some talents that are #1 like.

 

We are not going to get a player capable of being the #1 (except the odd TO circumstance like last year or taking the good and downsides of a Randy Moss) so I think the real question is how to we find a #2 which accentuates the positive and minimizes the negatives of Evans.

 

Johnson is not it. He seems to have some OK fundamentals like good route running and size but alas he simply has not been the demonstrated threat that makes it difficult for the opposing DC to simply take Evans out of the game with a dt.

 

INHO, the Bills would have (and potentially still can) profit the most from using Spiller as the #2.

 

The downside is that he has not demonstrated yet he has the route running ability to be the standard possession WR of an NFL #2. I do not think this is a stopper in that the big advantage of having Spiller on the opposite wing to Evans is that it makes it a lot more difficult for the opposing DC to dt Evans or have his fastest or his best cover guy assigned to Evans.

 

Also, if we can do this, it allows us to routinely put Jax, Lynch and Spiller all on the field at the same time. It also allows us to give Jax and Lynch the number of RB touches they seem to need to most effective.

 

This maneuver also gets Spiller outside and in space immediately were he seems to be most effective (imagine Spiller lined up wide and the opposing DC decides to leave his CB on an island with Spiller (if he had decided to neurtalize Evans with an over and under dt). The CB on Spiller either had to try to sit on Spiller's route to cut off the quick pass and thus be vulnerable to the fly flag pattern or instead he gives Spiller cushion which makes the quick pass even easier and Spiller simply needs to make the one guy miss.

 

My sense is that a Evans Spiller duo actually forces the opposing DC into a zone. If we are running a 3 WR set with Parrish the dc almost must nickel (if not dime) up. Jax or Lynch would then have a field day running against a spread D rather than facing 8 guys in the box.

 

This approach would lessen the # of touches Spiller gets. but given our failed attempt to try to have Spiller carry us in a stadard RB role on Sunday I am willing to sacrifice this for using Spiller all the time to get the D we want and some of the time on quick passes, fly patterns (when TE and Spiller read the CB as cheating to the LOS) and sometime lining Spiller up as RB even though he is my #2WR in our base O.

 

I am confident that Spiller can learn the #2 WR role as he has run routes before as a receiving threat in motion from the RB slot. The work is different but not that different from what he is used to.

[Rico]

Evans is a helluva lot closer to being a true #1 receiver than Stevie Johnson is to being a #2.

[CountDorkula]

I think Randy Moss could have good numbers with any QB. I think Wes Welker is an awesome receiver, too.

 

That said ... I think Lee Evans has been a #1 receiver with a #28 QB with a #32 coaching staff.

 

Maybe things will improve this year. Let's get more than 1/16 into the season to have this tired discussion.

 

I agree with you about not having this discussion. I dont think we should have it at all this year. We should wait untill next year, adn if we get a new QB, see how Evans plays then.

 

I honestly still believe that Evans secretly wishes JP was still here, he at least gave Lee a fighting Chance. I just dont think Lee likes Trent. But that is my opinion, and we will never know the truth.