Quote:
Originally Posted by scott free
While its true that most stats can be spun either way, that doesnt tell the whole story about Bowe imo.
Who's the truly elite WR who has made more with less over the last 5 years? maybe Andre Johnson until Schaub arrived? Some say Bowes being force fed the ball, which is true, but cant that be said for Fitzgerald the last two years?
What i'm saying, is compare the consensus elite guys against the situations Bowe has had to endure, put Bowe in a stable environment with a starter quality qb & he's going to give you top 5 numbers.
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And Fitzgerald has been almost exactly 10% better than Bowe the last 2 years.
2300 yds vs. 2550
153 catches vs 170
Bowe has more TDs, but I think it's time to start looking at that TD stat for what it was - the outlier.
Think about it - if you take those 15 and make them, I dunno - 10, then he had 80 catches for 1,100 yards and 10 TDs. In other words - just a pretty nice season. And then last year he'd have done the same thing. So at the apex of his career, he would've been an 75 catch, 1100 yard, 7-10 TD/season guy.
Those are all very good numbers, but Fitz is better than those by about 10% with a QB situation that has been every bit as bad as Bowes. And when Fitz had a legitimate HOF quarterback in Warner, was he challenging 20 TDs? Nope, not even close. Fitz is a better wideout than Bowe, I don't see that as open for discussion. And with one of the best pure passers of his generation at the helm, he didn't 'approach single season records'.
People are overstating a QBs impact on an individual #1 WRs numbers. The massive benefit of an elite quarterback is not that he makes 1 WRs numbers better, but that he knows so much more about what is going on that he makes every player on the field a legitimate weapon. Sure, there are going to be times that Manning sees Bowe open when Cassel wouldn't have. Then again, there are going to be times that he sees Breaston as 'more' open than Bowe was and throws the ball to Breason when Cassel would have forced it into Bowe.
History doesn't lie here. Aaron Rodgers would make Baldwin and Breaston significantly more valuable, but he wouldn't create a massive leap in Bowe's numbers.