There are three guarantees in life – death, taxes and the Pittsburgh Steelers turning young wide receivers into stars. The team has held an excellent track history of developing wide receivers, turning young wide outs into superstars almost at will.
The team has produced big time stars in Santonio Holmes, Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and now JuJu Smith-Schuster. But that is not to say that the team has not struck out on its fair share of prospects. Limas Sweed was a colossal failure and the biggest blunder of the group. Sammie Coates could not catch a cold and Markus Wheaton never developed into a legitimate second option. Some in Pittsburgh are ready to throw James Washington’s name into the bunch but let the rookie season of Plaxico Burress serve as a history lesson as to why giving up on receivers early is often a foolish decision.
Long before Washington was struggling, Burress was dropping footballs left, right and center as a rookie. Washington’s 42.1 catch percentage fails in comparison to Burress’ rookie numbers. Burress caught just 22 of his 65 targets during his rookie year, good for a 33.8 catch percentage, in fact, only one wide receiver has posted a lower catch rate during their rookie season than Burress (min. 35 targets).
An excerpt from former NY Times writer Mike Freeman really hits home when describing the struggles Burress went through during his rookie year.
“He had so many drops that the news media, even teammates, began anticipating when the ball would slip through his mitts instead of when he would make a play. He soon got the nickname Plexiglass.
Compounding the problem was that Burress was having trouble reading defenses and running precise pass routes, a difficulty for every rookie. But because Burress was such a high draft selection, more, perhaps unfairly, was expected of him.”
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Originally Posted by Fire Goodell
doesn’t mean much but I do expect him to be more productive.
