Yahoo sports ran an interesting article yesterday about how smaller recievers are making such a big impact this year.
Thanks to passing offenses that are providing greater opportunity, six wideouts under 6-feet are on pace to break 1,000 receiving yards this season – Jennings, Santana Moss of the Washington Redskins, the Buffalo Bills’ Lee Evans, Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers, the Philadelphia Eagles’ DeSean Jackson and Wes Welker of the New England Patriots. Two others (the New Orleans Saints’ Devery Henderson and the New York Jets’ Laveranues Coles) are on pace to break 950. If all eight were to top 1,000 receiving yards, it would be the first time in NFL history that so many players under six feet had gone over the mark.
Of course, no discussion about small WRs in the NFL these days could exclude the Eagles rookie phenom Desean Jackson who leads all rookies with 505 yards. Jackson said his size certainly hurt him in the draft.
"The wide receiver coach with the Eagles has told me ‘If you had a couple more inches on you and weighed about 185, I guarantee you would have been a top five or top 10 pick,’ " Jackson said. "(Size) definitely didn’t help me. … When I went to the combine, they made a big deal out of every little centimeter and every single pound. I went in at 169 pounds and they wouldn’t round it off to 170. I was like 5-9¼ and they wouldn’t even give me 5-10."
Jackson's stats so far this year,
There's no doubt that Jackson's slide in the draft has left him with a chip on his shoulder, which no doubt has helped motivate him.
Maybe Jackson said it best this week, while reflecting on the NFL teams that passed him over because of his size.
"There are a lot of people," he said, "eating their words right now."