I’ve been mulling whether to slot Cordarrelle Patterson or Greg Jennings as the best of the Minnesota receivers. With Patterson, you get the great raw skills, and he scored 9 TDs as a rookie (including 5 on runs and kickoff returns). With Jennings, you get a more polished and savvy veteran. He knows what he’s doing, and he averaged 70 yards in Matt Cassel’s seven games last year, with 4 TDs. There’s a chemistry there.
Keep in mind, however, a couple of things with these guys.
For starters, Cassel could really struggle in that offense. He’s not a great deep ball thrower. Better than Quarter Ponder With Cheese, yes, but really not very good. And he forces way too many balls. Over the last three years, Cassel has the worst interception percentage in the league – worse than Mark Sanchez, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Brandon Weeden and everyone else. 30 picks in 800 attempts.
Ask him to hold the ball longer for those slow-developing routes, and Cassel will become a problem.
And note that Turner doesn’t rely heavily on his wide receivers, which works against both Patterson and Jennings.
I am aware that Josh Gordon had the mega-numbers last year, but in his previous seven seasons, only one other wide receiver caught more than 60 passes in a Norv Turner offense.
In Turner’s system, the tight ends and backs are heavily involved. For him, he wants the wide receivers catching fewer balls. They’re running the heavy-damage routes downfield. For Turner, his No.1 wide receiver is typically a guy who might catch about 57 passes and average about 18 yards per catch.
Typically, only about 6-10 teams per year complete fewer than half of their passes to wide receivers. With Turner, it’s happened eight years in a row.
| NORV TURNER'S WIDE RECEIVERS (receptions) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | WR | Team | Pct |
| 2006 | 49ers | 111 | 257 | 43.2% |
| 2007 | Chargers | 113 | 281 | 40.2% |
| 2008 | Chargers | 131 | 312 | 42.0% |
| 2009 | Chargers | 153 | 338 | 45.3% |
| 2010 | Chargers | 151 | 359 | 42.1% |
| 2011 | Chargers | 148 | 366 | 40.4% |
| 2012 | Chargers | 142 | 338 | 42.0% |
| 2013 | Browns | 188 | 379 | 49.6% |
—Ian Allan