2024 WR Depth

[CbusCuse]

There was some discussion of WR depth in other threads of other topics so decided to make a new one.

People want to put a lot of blame of the poor offensive production last year on the WR play and I don't think it was that bad. It wasn't great but we took some big hits early last year with injuries losing OG (Huge) and Isaiah Jones and even Pena for pretty much the entire year. Those hindered us significantly. But much of the passing game struggles were due to QB and OL injuries in the second half of the season as has been the case a lot recently. I love Shrader but his arm, elbow, shoulder or whatever just couldn't hold up for an entire season while at SU on top of all the other injuries he also incurred.

OG is a stud addition to add as a starter obviously and I'd guess he gets moved around between WR and TE/Slot Receiver. If he's healthy this year he kills it with McCord.

I think Alford and Hatcher play quite a bit of snaps still.

I've never been that high on Alford. I think mentally he needs to want it more. Alford will be better as not being the #1 WR. His issues are he doesn't consistently create much separation. And he needs to get some dawg in him and be more physical and use his body. He's huge for F's sake. But I do think we should have thrown it up to him more often. He can go up and get it. I mean he wasn't going to let others win the ball from him and he could get a high percentage of jump balls if the ball is thrown a bit more accurately... and not out of bounds. With him being either option 2, 3 or 4 and Alford throwing to him his success rate should be much better this year. He does have pretty good hands just loses focus on easy catches occasionally.

Hatcher will look better in 2024 as well with McCord. Hopefully he can add a little more muscle each year. He just isn't all that strong to fight for 50/50 balls. With McCord's better accuracy that shouldn't be as much of an issue. Think he blocks pretty well for his size. Good effort. He does have good hands as well but has had a drop or two. Who hasn't?

I think Yazeed has what it takes to win a starting roll especially since he'll be playing spring ball. We'll see.

Meeks will get snaps but i'm not sure how much. I don't think he wins a starting role.

With Tremble's combination of size and athleticism I think he could play a lot as a freshman but maybe not to start the season. Hard to pencil in players who haven't played any college ball yet and are just getting their feet wet. Even OG barely did much of anything as a true frosh.

Long and Cahoon I'm not sure. I think both could be transfer candidates and one of them is probably the likely rumored WR transitioning to defense, but that is just a guess.

I don't think Ross and Hornsby start at all this season coming in as freshman in the fall. Like them for depth this season and for the future though.

Brown and Gill will see some time this year as well. Brown shows promise as does Gill, especially if he can gain some weight. Pena is still here right? not sure what to expect there.

I could see Ja'Meer Thomas getting a specials role along with Yazeed. Maybe Yazeed as a kick returner and Thomas as a Punt returner? Thomas should be an explosive game changer. He will eventually be a very good slot guy for us.
Mang and Clement will play situationally as TE's.

Like Elijah Washington for the future.

Now lets get another OL or two please.

Edit: will be interesting to see how Villari does solely at TE. He should be really good once he gets the ball in his hands. He will get a fair amount of TE snaps but I think OG gets some there too. And he will need to split some snaps with the bigger traditional TE’s in Mang and Clement as well.

 

[SURules]

I would like to see another good to really good Portal WR but solidifying the OL is much much more important. Getting OG back healthy and some new additions will help. Haynes and Meeks will be solid help to the existing WR’s and I would expect Haynes to be a starter.

 

[GoSU96]

I would like to see another good to really good Portal WR but solidifying the OL is much much more important. Getting OG back healthy and some new additions will help.

They need to shed some WR’s, not add.

Between the new guys and those returning the unit is fine.

 

[SURules]

They need to shed some WR’s, not add.

Between the new guys and those returning the unit is fine.

I agree on numbers.. I want quality ;-)

 

[upperdeck]

The fact that our QBs throwing windows were about 10yds not 2-3 ft wide helped a bunch of our WR issues.

 

[shu 49]

I would like to see another good to really good Portal WR but solidifying the OL is much much more important. Getting OG back healthy and some new additions will help. Haynes and Meeks will be solid help to the existing WR’s and I would expect Haynes to be a starter.

In my mind u have the big 4 in Og, Haynes, villari, and Alford with Brown, Meeks, Hatcher, and Tremble. Thats loaded for us wow.

 

[CbusCuse]

Just want to reiterate what we lost this past season injury wise at receiver. We all know we lost OG after just 1 game and he was a preseason All American.

We also lost Isaiah Jones who I think was set to have a monster year himself and was going to clearly be our #2. I really wish he stayed for his final year. He played two full games last year to start the year. He had 3 rec for 71 yds and 2 TD’s. And then 5 rec for 86 yds in his two games. Compare that to Alford’s 3 rec for 27 yds and a TD and 1 rec for 15 yds in those first two games.

And then we lost Peña for the entire season and he was set to be our starting slot receiver. Coaches were saying some good things about him coming into the season.

Basically we lost our top 2 and another starter for the entire year. Just a horrible situation.

 

[Cuse12]

Just want to reiterate what we lost this past season injury wise at receiver. We all know we lost OG after just 1 game and he was a preseason All American.

We also lost Isaiah Jones who I think was set to have a monster year himself and was going to clearly be our #2. I really wish he stayed for his final year. He played two full games last year to start the year. He had 3 rec for 71 yds and 2 TD’s. And then 5 rec for 86 yds in his two games. Compare that to Alford’s 3 rec for 27 yds and a TD and 1 rec for 15 yds in those first two games.

And then we lost Peña for the entire season and he was set to be our starting slot receiver. Coaches were saying some good things about him coming into the season.

Basically we lost our top 2 and another starter for the entire year. Just a horrible situation.

Completely agree. But, is it a good unit if we can’t sustain some injuries and still be productive? Every team should expect that every single position group will lose a starter for the year (besides from qb). It’s unfortunately apart of the game. You need a stable of quality. This year we have a stable ready to go.

 

[kcsu]

Pena OG Alford Brown Dan Hatcher plus Trembel and the other newbies should be fine if we stay healthy.

 

[shu 49]

The problem as i have said multiple x is we had guys open enough to throw the ball. Guys talk about getting seperation but against good CB u dont get good seperation so the qb has to throw the reciever open or throw to spots they can get it. I thought ED did this well and looks like McCord has same ability. Our recievers are good. The new ones make us better.

 

[CbusCuse]

Completely agree. But, is it a good unit if we can’t sustain some injuries and still be productive? Every team should expect that every single position group will lose a starter for the year (besides from qb). It’s unfortunately apart of the game. You need a stable of quality. This year we have a stable ready to go.

As I said that was basically 3 starters and your two best. Every unit shouldn't expect that. So no the unit wasn't what we hoped it would be/. But i do think the unit was a little better than the perception of it. Because the WR unit was downgraded due to major injuries, the fact we didn't have a healthy QB that could pass the ball effective enough, and we didn't have a very good pass blocking OL, we basically abandoned the passing game and put a TE at QB to mainly run the ball. They certainly were not going to produce after that.

 

[MamesJungro]

Alford doesn't high point the ball. Despite his obvious physical tools, he won't be consistent at this level until he does. Did not help that Shrader maybe had Tommy John surgery last offseason

 

[upperdeck]

Alford doesn't high point the ball. Despite his obvious physical tools, he won't be consistent at this level until he does. Did not help that Shrader maybe had Tommy John surgery last offseason

I think he shown a few of those, but the ball needs to be thrown in the window as well

 

[SURules]

In my mind u have the big 4 in Og, Haynes, villari, and Alford with Brown, Meeks, Hatcher, and Tremble. Thats loaded for us wow.

You all seem more optimistic than I am on the WR group Fran inherited. I hope you are right. Losing Isaiah Jones was a hit as after OG, he was the best w3 had. I’m not sold on Alford like you all seem to be. He can make some spectacular catch then drops the next few. Alford needs to prove he is consistent. Adding Haynes is a really good thing and if we could get one more like him, it would really help out our offense. We have lots of WR’s but can this WR group be in the top 1/3 at least in the ACC? I just have my doubts on that.

 

[shu 49]

You all seem more optimistic than I am on the WR group Fran inherited. I hope you are right. Losing Isaiah Jones was a hit as after OG, he was the best w3 had. I’m not sold on Alford like you all seem to be. He can make some spectacular catch then drops the next few. Alford needs to prove he is consistent. Adding Haynes is a really good thing and if we could get one more like him, it would really help out our offense. We have lots of WR’s but can this WR group be in the top 1/3 at least in the ACC? I just have my doubts on that.

I really think they can be. Look, Alford does drop some although i would like to see the dropped percentage of all of them but im too lazy. Alford never misses when we need it though. He does have the occasional this isnt super important so i can not focus moment. He is the or one of the best blockers we have. Again he was open way more but even if he wasnt, unless the cb is 6'4" then he is open in my book cause he is almost 6'6". His catch radius is really big. We have the guys all over here and if Alford isnt kicking ass that day we have Hatcher in his spot or even Brown who i absolutely love in the future. We got guys. Now we need blocking.

 

[baggerbob]

I really think they can be. Look, Alford does drop some although i would like to see the dropped percentage of all of them but im too lazy. Alford never misses when we need it though. He does have the occasional this isnt super important so i can not focus moment. He is the or one of the best blockers we have. Again he was open way more but even if he wasnt, unless the cb is 6'4" then he is open in my book cause he is almost 6'6". His catch radius is really big. We have the guys all over here and if Alford isnt kicking ass that day we have Hatcher in his spot or even Brown who i absolutely love in the future. We got guys. Now we need blocking.

Fix the OL, no more situations where our QB gets leveled just after he lets the ball go.

 

[SURules]

Fix the OL, no more situations where our QB gets leveled just after he lets the ball go.

OL is by far my biggest worry. Then WR and a backup QB but OL OL OL please!!!

 

[Etown]

I wonder about Pena. He is an interesting option. Could he have been the one that was a possibility to go to CB??

 

[sufandu]

Alford doesn't high point the ball. Despite his obvious physical tools, he won't be consistent at this level until he does. Did not help that Shrader maybe had Tommy John surgery last offseason

I saw him high point it. They just weren't catches because he was out of bounds.

 

[sufandu]

Fix the OL, no more situations where our QB gets leveled just after he lets the ball go.

That can't be eliminated. It happens to everyone from time to time. But we do need a much higher percentage of drop backs with clean pockets so we can let patterns develop and stretch the field.

 

[upperdeck]

That can't be eliminated. It happens to everyone from time to time. But we do need a much higher percentage of drop backs with clean pockets so we can let patterns develop and stretch the field.

You watch the better teams and the big plays and then you see how long they had to let those plays develop. the few times we ran those plays and got time we missed them anyway it seemed. But when you cant run those long underneath drag routes its harder to hit those big plays.

To get time then we blocked TE/RB and suddenly we have 3 out against 6-7 and it didnt work.

 

[Chip]

You all seem more optimistic than I am on the WR group Fran inherited. I hope you are right. Losing Isaiah Jones was a hit as after OG, he was the best w3 had. I’m not sold on Alford like you all seem to be. He can make some spectacular catch then drops the next few. Alford needs to prove he is consistent. Adding Haynes is a really good thing and if we could get one more like him, it would really help out our offense. We have lots of WR’s but can this WR group be in the top 1/3 at least in the ACC? I just have my doubts on that.

If we’re healthy, we should be fine. If we’re not, we’ll struggle. We’ve seen it a million times.

Losing OG the way we did was incredibly bad luck. I was hopeful on Jones, but he really never did much, always seemed to be banged up. Alford has at least made plays and stayed healthy. He could thrive if he’s the 3rd option.

 

[sdhall01]

I like our old WRs fine, but Ross is a composite four star receiver. He is almost certainly better than the other WRs on our team. He might not start, but he’s going to play. Same goes with the Georgia transfers. They were rated higher—as transfers—than any of the WRs on our team. I think they are playing WR. I think the WRs on our team last year will play rotational roles or on specials.

I gotta think Alford is going to play situationally. He wasn’t consistent enough to be in on every down.

 

[tep624]

If we’re healthy, we should be fine. If we’re not, we’ll struggle. We’ve seen it a million times.

Losing OG the way we did was incredibly bad luck. I was hopeful on Jones, but he really never did much, always seemed to be banged up. Alford has at least made plays and stayed healthy. He could thrive if he’s the 3rd option.

Yeah I don’t get the commentary on Jones and never did. He could never stay healthy. You can’t have huge years if you’re not on the field. It will be interesting to see if the injury bug follows him to New Mexico or not. Unfortunately I just don’t think he’s physically durable enough.

 

[CbusCuse]

Yeah I don’t get the commentary on Jones and never did. He could never stay healthy. You can’t have huge years if you’re not on the field. It will be interesting to see if the injury bug follows him to New Mexico or not. Unfortunately I just don’t think he’s physically durable enough.

Anae said he had the best spring of all the receivers in 2022. I assume that excludes OG as he was probably considering him a TE. But he got injured and missed that entire season. Then in 2023 he was the most productive receiver we had the first two games and then got hurt again. Jones didn’t have super production due to injury but I think he may have been the most talented of our group of WR’s. Unfortunately we never got to see much of him in Orange.