In the spirit of his boss Peter King at SI.com, Bucky Brooks has tackled a list of his own: the top 25 WRs in the NFL . Here are Brook's 'metrics' for ranking these players:
Of course, most of these criterium are very subjective. How exactly do you measure who has the better set of hands between Steve Smith and Reggie Wayne? What about run-after-catch ability? Nobody would argue that Hines Ward is one of the speediest guys in the league, yet he seems to make enormous plays after the catch all the time.
I'm not going to spend all my time bashing this guy's list--although I have problems with Steve Smith at #1 and Mr. Owens at #5. I'm just here to stick up for our man Hines who comes in at #23 on the list! What a bunch of bull. Hines Ward is apparently worse than Reggie Brown of the Eagles, Mark friggin Clayton of the Ravens, here's one of the best laughers--Laveranues Coles of the NY Jets, Lee Evans, and Plexiglass Buress.
Look, these lists aren't easy to compile and somebody is always going to have a problem with some aspects. I'm just tired of seeing the Steelers get snubbed this offseason due to their poor showing a year ago. Last time I checked Hines was a recent Super Bowl MVP who brings a tremendous amount of explosiveness, experience and versatility to an offense. He's extremely durable, is the best blocking WR in the league, rarely if ever drops passes, runs solid routes, makes big plays after the catch, and can even throw the ball in a gadget-play.
Where would you put Hines?