As was argued in the three part biomechanical borrowing series, projecting NFL success for college WRs is very difficult, due to the inherent demands of the position making early success a poor long-term predictor. This then, is my attempt to find the WRs that show the best long-term projection, using criteria as outlined in part 3 of the biomechanical borrowing series. The WRs are broken down into 3 categories
Month: April 2020
Orange Overview: April 20, 2020
Orange Overview: April 19, 2020
Orange Overview: April 18, 2020
Prodigies, Child Actors, and Wide Receivers: Biomechanical Borrowing During Development (Part 3)
Among football positions, wide receiver benefits uniquely from biomechanical borrowing. The same kind of exaggerated dramatic movements that make an actor communicative on stage, help wide receivers free themselves from defenders– both at the line of scrimmage and when breaking into routes. Dramatic sudden movement helps wide receivers to quickly/ cleanly get off the line of scrimmage, sudden exaggerated movement helps wide receivers break free of coverage on a route, and borrowed movement helps again (in a slightly different manner) when trying to secure the ball. As such, young wide receivers are subject to many of the same pitfalls of youth borrowing as actors and prodigies. And evaluating young wide receivers for their potential as adult professionals is made difficult by the inherent tradeoffs of becoming successful at a position that benefits so strongly from this borrowing.