espn insider K.C. Joyner: Mike Wallace tops Calvin Johnson

[zulater]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7122234/nfl-why-mike-wallace-bigger-gamebreaker-calvin-johnson

Here's the abridged version.


Wallace is almost never mentioned as one of the top five wideouts in the league, much less as the best, but look at how his numbers this season stack up against Johnson in a variety of categories. (Note: all attempt and yardage totals include penalty plays such as defensive holding, illegal contact, pass interference, etc.).

Short passes (aerials thrown downfield 10 or fewer yards)

• Johnson has gained 202 yards on 27 short pass attempts, so 7.5 yards per attempt.

• Wallace has 205 yards on 22 short pass attempts, which equates to a 9.3 short pass YPA.

Medium passes (11-19 yards downfield)

• Johnson has racked up 163 yards on 16 medium pass attempts for a 10.2 medium YPA.

• Wallace has 117 yards on 11 medium pass attempts for a 10.6 medium YPA.

Deep passes (20-29 yards downfield)

• Johnson has posted 59 yards on six deep pass attempts for a 9.8 deep YPA.

• Wallace has been targeted on a deep pass only one time this season and it didn't result in a completion or a penalty, so he has zero yards in this category.

Bomb passes (30 or more yards downfield)

• Johnson has tallied 145 yards on six bomb pass attempts for a 24.2 bomb YPA.

• Wallace has 329 yards on nine bomb passes for a 36.6 bomb YPA.

Vertical (all medium, deep and bomb passes)

• Johnson has been targeted for 28 vertical passes and has gained 367 yards on those throws. That gives him a 13.1 vertical YPA.

• Wallace has been targeted for 21 vertical passes and posted 446 yards on those throws, giving him a 21.2 vertical YPA.

Stretch vertical (all deep/bomb passes -- the ones designed to really stretch defensive coverage)

• Johnson has 12 targets on stretch vertical passes and gained 204 yards on those aerials. That equates to a 17 stretch vertical YPA.

• Wallace has 10 targets on stretch vertical passes and posted 329 yards on those aerials. That equates to a 32.9 stretch vertical YPA.

Yards after catch

• Johnson has been credited with 129 yards after catch this season.

• Wallace has 183 yards after catch this season.

Overall YPA

• Add all of Johnson's totals up, and he has 569 yards on 55 targets, a 10.3 overall YPA.

• Wallace has 651 yards on 43 targets, or a 15.1 overall YPA.

[fansince'76]

Shhhh....he's up for a new contract soon. :nono:

[zulater]

Shhhh....he's up for a new contract soon. :nono:

Oops, ok everyone here promise not to share this with Wallace's agent! :wink02:

[fansince'76]

Oops, ok everyone here promise not to share this with Wallace's agent! :wink02:

We can always hope he doesn't do his homework. :chuckle:

[Psycho Ward 86]

Obviously the player evaluation goes far beyond the stats, and Megatron is still waaaay out of Wallace's league. Maybe even the best wide receiver in the game right now. Some important stats they didnt include: Targets in proportion to catches, yards after contact, etc. And I feel like the yards after catch is a stat to nullify, because Megatron gets as many jump balls as anybody, maybe even more than Fitz

[zulater]

Personally I don't think Wallace in quite with the top tier of wr's. Yet. But I wouldn't rule it out before it's all said and done.

[SteelerEmpire]

Obviously the player evaluation goes far beyond the stats, and Megatron is still waaaay out of Wallace's league. Maybe even the best wide receiver in the game right now. Some important stats they didnt include: Targets in proportion to catches, yards after contact, etc. And I feel like the yards after catch is a stat to nullify, because Megatron gets as many jump balls as anybody, maybe even more than Fitz

I think if Ben was a more accurate passer, Wallace could rival ANY receiver in this league. The QB makes up 1/2 of the receiver, and vice versa.

[BlastFurnace]

If given the choice between the two, I would pick Megatron. There aren't many wide receivers I would take over Wallace though. Maybe Fitz, but that's about it.

[st33lersguy]

Isn't megatron the leader in TD receptions anyway?

[HometownGal]

I think if Ben was a more accurate passer, Wallace could rival ANY receiver in this league. The QB makes up 1/2 of the receiver, and vice versa.

I also think if we had a more stable OL and Ben wasn't running for his life most of the time, that would be a bonus towards those numbers too.

[zulater]

I also think if we had a more stable OL and Ben wasn't running for his life most of the time, that would be a bonus towards those numbers too.

Spot on! :applaudit:

[zulater]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7143360/nfl-drew-brees-arian-foster-lead-week-7-best-performances


If chicks dig the long ball, they must love Mike Wallace. The Pittsburgh Steelers' wideout caught a 95-yard touchdown pass against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, the third time this season and 13th time in his short career that he has scored from at least 40 yards out. As the deep pass becomes a smaller and smaller part of the NFL playbook, Wallace is emerging as the last of the home run threats.

Wallace's three home runs (defined here as a touchdown catch of 40 or more yards) this season tie him with Jordy Nelson of the Green Bay Packers and Pierre Garcon of the Indianapolis Colts for the most in the league. We can give Wallace the tiebreaker, though, since the Steelers have thrown slightly fewer passes (197) than either the Packers (210) or Colts (200). More importantly, Wallace has a track record for this kind of thing -- he had four home runs in his rookie season in 2009 and a league-high six home runs in 2010. Wallace's 13 home runs since he entered the league in 2009 are three more than the next most productive receiver (DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles, who has 10).

Decade 6-HR seasons
1940-1949 2
1950-1959 6
1960-1969 15*
1970-1979 4
1980-1989 5
1990-1999 7
2000-2009 4
* Six in the NFL, nine in the AFL
As Wallace is knocking them out of the park, the rest of the league is moving to a small-ball approach. Since 1940, wide receivers have caught six or more home runs in a season only 44 times. Sorting those seasons by decade shows how the home run threat is a dying breed (see right).

The AFL truly caused a paradigm shift in pro football, but after the merger the league quickly took several steps backward. Expansion, lengthened seasons and liberalized passing rules produced more home run players in the 1980s and 1990s, but then a funny thing happened in the following decade. As further expansion and even more liberal passing rules should have opened up the game like never before, instead we saw fewer and fewer long ball threats. Randy Moss had 10 home runs in his rookie season in 1998 (tied with Elroy Hirsch's 1951 campaign for the most in a single season) and led the league again with six home runs in the Patriots' 16-0 campaign in 2007. In between, nearly a full decade of NFL football, not a single player caught six home runs in a season.

There has been a slight uptick since then -- Greg Jennings tied Moss with six home runs in '07, and Miles Austin and Jackson each had that many in 2009, before Wallace joined the club last year.

We've established Wallace's rare status among his peers; now it's time to place him among the greats in history. Wallace is just the seventh player since 1940 to catch at least 13 home runs in his first three seasons, and he has nine more games this season to add on to his total. While Moss' first-three-years record of 20 is almost certainly safe, we can probably expect Wallace to pass Jerry Rice (15) before December, and by the end of the year he might pass Bob Hayes (17) and stand alone in second place.

When you're talking about the deep ball, it's not enough to compare Wallace to his contemporaries. He already stacks up with some of the greatest names in history.

[steeldevil]

No way. I would trade Wallace for Megatron in a second.

[zulater]

No way. I would trade Wallace for Megatron in a second.

I really don't think that's the point here, or at least for me it's not. All I'm saying is that it's time to recognize Wallace as one the league's elite receivers.

[Psycho Ward 86]

I really don't think that's the point here, or at least for me it's not. All I'm saying is that it's time to recognize Wallace as one the league's elite receivers.

yeah i agree, no need to create hypothetical trade situations that dont exist. Can't argue that there are any better receivers in the game than Megatron, Wallace, Fitzgerald, Welker, and Greg Jennings though.

Would you look at that guys? Last season i think we thought Wallace was a borderline top 10 receiver. I think he just might have snuck in as a top 5 at this point of the season :)

[steeldevil]

I wouldn't say Wallace is top 5. Not well rounded enough yet IMO. Top 10? Yes, I would say so.

[43Hitman]

What Wallace is doing in his third year is recockulous.

[zulater]

yeah i agree, no need to create hypothetical trade situations that dont exist. Can't argue that there are any better receivers in the game than Megatron, Wallace, Fitzgerald, Welker, and Greg Jennings though.

Would you look at that guys? Last season i think we thought Wallace was a borderline top 10 receiver. I think he just might have snuck in as a top 5 at this point of the season :)

The real question, is he better than Stonio?:smokin:

[Austin87]

Wallace has been great so far this season.

[Psycho Ward 86]

The real question, is he better than Stonio?:smokin:

never imagined he would be half of what he is. boy was i wrong :lol:

imo...

Top 5 receivers in the game as of this year:

1) Calvin Johnson
2) Larry Fitzgerald
3) Wes Welker
4) Andre Johnson
5) Mike Wallace or Greg Jennings...?

[SteelerFanInStl]

The real question, is he better than Stonio?:smokin:

He was better than tone last year. This year it's not even close.

[zulater]

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/wr

Here's some numbers that would suggest that there's a good case to be made on Wallace's behalf that he's indeed the league's best receiver for the season to date. At least as far as production is concerned.

I think we take this guy for granted. In all my years as a Steeler fan I've never seen a guy who gets behind the defense as often as this guy does. No one even close in fact. And he's got above average hands as well. Maybe his route running isn't elite yet, but it's improving, it's certainly not a negative. I honestly don't know if I would trade him for anyone?

[TomlinSteelTribe]

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/wr

Here's some numbers that would suggest that there's a good case to be made on Wallace's behalf that he's indeed the league's best receiver for the season to date. At least as far as production is concerned.

I think we take this guy for granted. In all my years as a Steeler fan I've never seen a guy who gets behind the defense as often as this guy does. No one even close in fact. And he's got above average hands as well. Maybe his route running isn't elite yet, but it's improving, it's certainly not a negative. I honestly don't know if I would trade him for anyone?


Agreed. You can't get rid of a guy this fast who also has hands... for anything

[BlacknGoldBabe]

I wouldn't trade him. The comments made about the OL and Ben running for his life make sense. If the OL could keep more pressure off of Ben, there would definitely be more opportunites. Wallace usually takes advantage of those assigned to cover him.