Much can be said about the quality of this year's class of rookie wide receivers. Sammy Watkins, Odell Beckham Jrand Mike Evans are living up to the hype that comes with being high first round picks at that position. Kelvin Benjamin has been a disappointing player, but a productive fantasy option in a tough situation. Jordan Matthews and Davante Adams have benefited from playing in favorable situations, while Brandin Cooks, Paul Richardson Jr, Marqise Lee and Allen robinson have shown promise if not sustained success.
Excluding Cody Lattimer, who hasn't spent enough time on the field, every single one of the receivers selected in the first two rounds of this year's draft have shown off the potential of long term starters.
The final receiver who fits that description is Jarvis Landry. Landry was the 63rd overall pick of the 2014 draft, the 12th wide receiver. The LSU prospect fell into the shadow of Beckham Jr during the draft process, but the Miami Dolphins still considered him worthy of their second pick in the draft. Landry wasn't used on offense in Week 1 against the New England Patriots and two fumbles over the first four weeks of his season threatened to take away from his potential playing time moving forward.
Rough starts for rookie receivers aren't surprising. It's not an easy position to immediately understand. That doesn't necessarily excuse Landry's fumble issues, because his first two came on special teams. In a stricter environment, Landry's role on offense could have been hurt by his fumbles on returns. However, the Dolphins aren't exactly stacked with receiving options despite their heavy investments in Mike Wallace and Brian Hartline. Landry was able to carve out a role in the offense as a possession receiver early in the season.
His role hasn't dramatically changed as the season has gone on, but his usage has grown as Tannehill's trust in him takes a step above his trust in Wallace.
Landry has 63 receptions for 573 yards and five touchdowns on the season. Over the past five games he has 33 receptions for 272 yards and three touchdowns. With Tannehill making more of an effort to throw to shorter and intermediate routes to counter the absence of Branden Albert, this should come as no surprise. The increase in production from Landry has given us a greater sample to examine the rookie's skill set moving forward and to try and guage just how valuable a fantasy asset he can be.
Although Landry isn't an exceptional route runner, he is very consistent working short and intermediate routes with impressive speed through his movement.
On this play, Landry motions from the right slot to form a bunch on the left side of the formation. He isn't working against press coverage, instead initially facing a defensive back who is lined up outside of him and dropping into a zone at the snap. Landry wants to create space infield for him to run into, so he angles his body towards the outside shoulder of the defensive back before planting his outside foot hard to push back infield. This isn't the most difficult assignment for a wide receiver, but he executed the route perfectly at speed.
That gave the outside defender no chance of breaking on the football in front of him.
Within the Dolphins offense, Landry doesn't need to be a spectacular route runner. He is rarely pressed at the line of scrimmage and he is regularly put in positions to succeed by the design fo the play. It's very difficult for defensive backs to cover him when he lines up in bunches or in simple off coverage because of Landry's quickness and body control. He is a very balanced player with the acceleration and catch radius to make plays on the ball in tighter areas or while moving at speed. He is an ideal fit as the slot receiver for the Dolphins offense.
To go along with his ability to get open underneath and on intermediate routes, Landry also has the explosiveness and strength to make plays after the catch.
On this simple out route, he doesn't create any separation after initially chipping a defender at the line of scrimmage. As is often the case, Landry is bigger and stronger than the slot cornerback covering him. On this occasion, that cornerback is the impressive Chris Harris. Harris is draped over Landry when he makes a hands catch away from his body, but he is unable to drag the receiver down. From there, Landry shows off his balance to stay in bounds before accelerating down the sideline for a 20 yard gain.
Landry's lack of height actually helps him on plays such as this one because he can use his strength and ball skills to reel the ball in while still possessing the movement ability to turn downfield.
As a kick returner, Landry regularly shows off his vision, acceleration and decisiveness cutting. However, his elusiveness moving laterally is also a positive trait that he possesses. Landry isn't Antonio Brown or Kendall Wright in terms of his movement, but he is a fluid athlete with the ability to adjust quickly to potential tacklers.
Landry is an ideal fit in his current role for the Dolphins. Over the long term, he should become an improvement over Brian Hartline as the team's primary possession receiver. Landry is more physically gifted and technically consistent than Hartline, but it's unclear if he stays primarily as a slot receiver or moves to the outside.
Regardless of where he spends most of his time lining up, Landry should be a consistent but unspectacular fantasy producer. Unless the Dolphins decide to take their offense in a completely new direction, something that seems unlikely even if Philbin is fired, Landry's production should grow slightly more as he develops into a veteran player. If you exclude his debut game from this season, Landry's stats project to 84 receptions for 764 yards and seven touchdowns.
Presuming he improves instead of stagnates or regresses over the coming years, Landry should be able to be a consistent 1,000 yard receiver with 60+ catches in each season.
Sticking with somewhat overlooked young wide receivers, the Minnesota Vikings appear to have found a reliable starter for Teddy Bridgewater in Charles Johnson. Johnson has only been in the NFL since 2013, but he has already bounced around the league. He was originally a seventh round pick of the Green Bay Packers before finding his way to the Cleveland Browns. Once the Browns let him go, the Vikings picked him up. Despite his lack of experience with the team and his uncelebrated past, Johnson has started for Cordarrelle Patterson over the past two weeks.
Patterson was proving to be a major problem for the Vikings passing game because he was incapable of running routes down the field. Johnson hasn't had the same issues and as a result, he has totalled 15 receptions for 283 yards and two touchdowns over the past four games.
On his first target last week against the New York Jets, Johnson showed off his athleticism and route running ability. Working against off coverage, Johnson was able to deceive the defensive back with a well-timed and well executed double move route. He showed off good overall athleticism and impressive fluidity moving down the sideline. Bridgewater found Johnson with an accurate throw that allowed Johnson to run underneath the ball without breaking stride.
Comfort through his routes is something that Johnson consistently shows off. For his second long touchdown in this game, he made a similar move.
Johnson is lined up to the left side of the screen and begins his route working across the field on a deep crossing route. At the perfect time, he swivels back towards the opposite sideline. His quick movement and the precise time that he made the move caused the defensive back covering him to be completely taken out of the play. Johnson has had no issue creating separation during his time with the Vikings. He and Bridgewater have formed a rapport together very quickly.
He has shown off decent versatility and reliability over a short sample.
Even if Johnson isn't a long term starter for the Vikings, he should be a third or fourth option entering next season. Entering next season the Vikings are unlikely to retain Cordarrelle Patterson in a starting role, while Greg Jennings could be released because of his salary. Johnson's presence could help them ease that transition away from their starting receivers from the beginning of the season. He may not have huge long term value, but Johnson is a player worth keeping an eye on for dynasty purposes moving forward.