Edelman and Welker? Nah, the new big-time slot receivers are Davante Adams & Mike Evans. At least, that's where the league is heading, says _RyanFowler_. FrontOffice33
When you idealize a typical slot receiver, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? The Julian Edelman, Wes Welker-type with shiftiness and sure hands? While the NFL is a constantly evolving machine where its yearly successes are constantly built upon and modernized for the offensive scheme each team looks to deploy, the days of the “smaller” slot have slowly begun to faze out of the picture.
The frame of a nickel corner is somewhat similar across the entire league. An average of 5-foot-10, 190 pounds, the fleet of foot defenders in the past have slotted nicely opposite some of the league’s best in-space water bugs. Whether it was Edelman, Welker, the likes of Cole Beasley, Danny Amendola – all with similar frames and similar skill sets – the performance ceiling for said talent remained capped considering each receiver’s athletic profile and target share within an offense.
Aligned off the line of scrimmage where corners are left without the ability to immediately jam and disrupt timing, the insertion of bigger bodied, more physical and just flat out more talented pass catchers inside the formation has seen an increased rise in usage over the last few seasons. From Mike Evans to Davante Adams, DeAndre Hopkins and A.J. Brown, placing an inferior corner on these bigger-bodied weapons has seen offenses create mismatches across the board.
Where the newfound home of bigger bodies takes a step further is in the run game. Where smaller, lighter players weren’t much of a threat in displacing bodies to create holes for ball-carriers, a 215-pound wideout has presented offenses with a further extension of the offensive line, acting as almost another tight end just a few yards outside the hash. In prior years, teams would flex out a tight end, or bring in another offensive lineman as an eligible receiver on short-yardage situations.
Given that these big boys on the interior can now threaten with speed, physicality through the contact window and as a mover of men in the ground game, the reign of smaller stature wideouts as static slot receivers is coming to an end.
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