Where does Khalil Shakir rank in terms of NFL WRs?

[Kirby Jackson]

This is a topic that has been kicked around in countless threads this summer. The opinions seem to vary greatly. Figured we should have one place to discuss. It might be some interesting debate over these last few days before camp really kicks in.

 

In terms of ranking, THIS IS NOT ABOUT FANTASY FOOTBALL. This is meant to be, “if the league drafted every WR tomorrow, at the same salary, what number would he be picked with?” I haven’t made my list yet but intuitively I feel like he’s probably somewhere between 25-30. Curious as to what others think…

Edited 3 hours ago by Kirby Jackson

[WotAGuy]

Oh good!  I love it when we fight!

[Kirby Jackson]

Just now, WotAGuy said:

Oh good!  I love it when we fight!

[RoscoeParrish]

I’ll make a list:

 

Chase

Jefferson

AJ Brown

BTJ

London

ARSB

Jeudy

Nabers

Lamb

Ladd

JSN

Wilson

McLaurin

Sutton

Davante

Flowers

Ridley

Nico

Evans

Jamo

DK

Mooney

Nacua

Moore

Hill

Tee

Pickens

Addison

Smith

Pittman

Waddle

Tank

Godwin

 

Shakir

 

He’s right around Jakobi Meyers, Deebo, Pierce, Downs, Jennings, Reed territory. 34 ish?

 

Honestly, WR talent in the NFL is supremely stacked.

 

Edit:

 

I realize I left out hurt dudes like Olave/Aiyuk/Rice.

 

That probably pushes Shakir to like 38ish? Top 40?

Edited 3 hours ago by RoscoeParrish

[LEBills]

6 minutes ago, RoscoeParrish said:

I’ll make a list:

 

Chase

Jefferson

AJ Brown

BTJ

London

ARSB

Jeudy

Nabers

Lamb

Ladd

JSN

Wilson

McLaurin

Sutton

Davante

Flowers

Ridley

Nico

Evans

Jamo

DK

Mooney

Nacua

Moore

Hill

Tee

Pickens

Addison

Smith

Pittman

Waddle

Tank

Godwin

 

Shakir

 

He’s right around Jakobi Meyers, Deebo, Pierce, Downs, Jennings, Reed territory. 34 ish?

 

Honestly, WR talent in the NFL is supremely stacked.

 

Yea he was 39th in the NFL of WRs for yards per game last year and 58th for touchdowns. A good player and is valuable to us, but in a vacuum he would be ranked in the 30s around those players you mentioned.

[BuffaloBillyG]

I'd probably have him in the 50-75 area. And the difference is what style nof offense I happen to run.

 

This also has more to do with WR talent around the league than it does any knock on talent Shakir himself has. Now if you're talking about SLOT WRs, he would obviously shoot up the list.

Edited 3 hours ago by BuffaloBillyG

[Sojourner]

14 minutes ago, RoscoeParrish said:

I’ll make a list:

 

Chase

Jefferson

AJ Brown

BTJ

London

ARSB

Jeudy

Nabers

Lamb

Ladd

JSN

Wilson

McLaurin

Sutton

Davante

Flowers

Ridley

Nico

Evans

Jamo

DK

Mooney

Nacua

Moore

Hill

Tee

Pickens

Addison

Smith

Pittman

Waddle

Tank

Godwin

 

Shakir

 

He’s right around Jakobi Meyers, Deebo, Pierce, Downs, Jennings, Reed territory. 34 ish?

 

Honestly, WR talent in the NFL is supremely stacked.

 

Hard to argue there. 

[KOKBILLS]

1st...

 

In my heart... 

[Mikie2times]

I don't think we can separate fantasy just from the standpoint that fantasy is production and that has to be meaningful. So I'm at least starting out with a production based list. 

 

71 players had at least 40 targets last year and 5 Fantasy points a game.  This excludes a guy like Rashee Rice, but I'm not trying to be perfect here. 

 

33 of those 71 are below, with all of them likely ranking below Shakir from my view. Some closer than others, but got to start somewhere. 

 

 

 

That leaves 38 players below. The stack ranking is by fantasy points per game and it has Shakir at 32. Which is probably pretty close. I'm sure some here would prefer Shakir to Shaheed, Jeudy, Reed etc. But it's pretty close in that 30-40 range and that is likely where he is. Probably closer to the top half of it.  

 

 

I think what's also key to understand with Shakir is how important he is for OUR system. He is so difficult to tackle and is elite in the short passing game. Brady probably prefers him to many who are likely better just based on his skill set. Sort like an Edleman with the Patriots. I'm not sure if he was ever considered an elite WR, but what he did for the Patriots was critical to the success they had and as a result his value to them was likely much higher than the rest of the league.  

[davefan66]

Top on our team at the moment.

 

Hard to say where he ends up this year other than flashy deep route guys are usually the ones considered “top 10”.  
 

Where does he end up stats wise? 800-900 yards, so most likely just around top 25?
 

 

[Johnnycage46]

So, the question is where we think he would be drafted in a WR re-draft? Or where do we think he ranks among WR options across the league? I ask, because I think those two things are very, very different.

[Simon]

I don't know anything about rankings but he's really smart, really tough, really clutch and may have the best contact balance I've ever seen in my life.

His field vision and reliability make him a primary option on one of the very best offenses in the NFL and any team in the league would be thrilled to have him.

[26TrapDraw]

10 minutes ago, Simon said:

I don't know anything about rankings but he's really smart, really tough, really clutch and may have the best contact balance I've ever seen in my life.

His field vision and reliability make him a primary option on one of the very best offenses in the NFL and any team in the league would be thrilled to have him.

Ohh really? what are you a Bills fan or something?

[Kirby Jackson]

18 minutes ago, Johnnycage46 said:

So, the question is where we think he would be drafted in a WR re-draft? Or where do we think he ranks among WR options across the league? I ask, because I think those two things are very, very different.

I think it’s the redraft version. Otherwise I think you start factoring in role on team, quality of playcaller, quality of QB, etc… It’s really meant to be, “if teams could pick any guy, without having to worry about the contract because they’re all the same, when would he be selected?” The point is to try to remove “situation” from the equation. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Kirby Jackson

[Johnnycage46]

5 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

I think it’s the redraft version. Otherwise I think you start factoring in role on team, quality of playcaller, quality of QB, etc… It’s really meant to be, “if teams could pick any guy, without having to worry about the contract because they’re all the same, when would he be selected?” The point is to try to remove “situation” from the equation. 

 

Ok gotcha...in that case I would say, outside the 1st round in a re-draft. Maybe middle-second round.

[GoBills808]

6 minutes ago, Kirby Jackson said:

I think it’s the redraft version. Otherwise I think you start factoring in role on team, quality of playcaller, quality of QB, etc… It’s really meant to be, “if teams could pick any guy, without having to worry about the contract because they’re all the same, when would he be selected?” The point is to try to remove “situation” from the equation. 

im not sure about the redraft but i think in terms of tiers he's in the middle-top of the third tier

 

first tier are the bonafides like chase, jefferson, lamb etc. for me it's not a huge tier, maybe 5-8 guys

 

second tier is deep w guys not quite best-of-the-best but good enough to be legit 1s regardless of scheme plus older former legit guys- nico collins, drake london, nacua, addison, arsb, waddle, adams, kupp etc. probably like 20-25 guys here

 

third tier is also pretty deep w young guys and just-outside-second tier wideouts- btj/nabers/mhj, your calvin ridleys/dj moores/brandon aiyuks...i think shakir is comfortably in this one too, maybe in the 35-40ish range?

[BullBuchanan]

He's the best in the league at the thing that he does, and that's what matters. Put him on Philly and he probably doesn't see the field. In Buffalo he's our Julian Edelman, and that makes him the most important weapon on the team, even if we had a guy like Metcalf who's clearly a tier or two ahead from a pure WR standpoint.

[Kirby Jackson]

8 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

He's the best in the league at the thing that he does, and that's what matters. Put him on Philly and he probably doesn't see the field. In Buffalo he's our Julian Edelman, and that makes him the most important weapon on the team, even if we had a guy like Metcalf who's clearly a tier or two ahead from a pure WR standpoint.

Help me understand this because this kind of thing confuses me. Are you saying that, “if they had a guy, that we all agree is better, he would be less impactful than Shakir?” If the Bills traded Shakir, straight up for Metcalf, they’d be worse off? Wouldn’t that mean that Shakir belongs ahead of him then? We aren’t factoring in “situation.” It is meant to be, “where would he be drafted if every WR in football were available to be picked?” 

[DapperCam]

I would rank him somewhere in the 30s, but I think there is a big group of WRs from about 20th ranked to 40th ranked that are very similar in value and impact.

[RoscoeParrish]

21 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

He's the best in the league at the thing that he does, and that's what matters. Put him on Philly and he probably doesn't see the field. In Buffalo he's our Julian Edelman, and that makes him the most important weapon on the team, even if we had a guy like Metcalf who's clearly a tier or two ahead from a pure WR standpoint.

The problem with this line of thinking is cause and effect.

 

The Pats ran their slot offense when their best weapon was a slot. They also ran a bombs away offense when they had Randy Moss. 
 

I love Shakir, but if we had JJ or Chase instead, I don’t think we are using him the same way exclusively.