Factoid

June 27, 2022

Wide receivers on bad teams

How can a loser ever win?

In yesterday's post about rookie receivers, reader Robert McKinlay mentioned being cool on Drake London with him perhaps laboring on one of the league's worst teams this season. This interested me: does a bad team necessarily have lousy wide receivers?

In my mind, I figure a team that loses a lot would be passing more often, and could potentially have a top fantasy receiver. To see whether that's true, I took a look at the worst NFL teams since 2000, and pulled out the top wide receiver (PPR scoring) from each.

I set the loser threshold at fewer than 4 wins, which gave me 46 teams from the last 21 years. Table below shows the No. 1 wideout from each of those teams.

Exactly half (23) of those teams had a wideout finish in the top 30 at their position. That includes Amon-Ra St. Brown, who finished 22nd for the 3-14 Lions last year. Just eight of those teams (17 percent) had one rank in the top 15. The last of those was 2019 Kenny Golladay, who was the 9th-best PPR wideout for 3-12-1 Lions that year.

In the table, top-15 wideouts are in bold, top-30 in italics.

NO. 1 WIDEOUTS ON BAD TEAMS, 2001-2021
Year	Team	Wins	No. 1 WR	No	Yds	TD	Rk
2021	Jacksonville Jaguars	3	Marvin Jones	73	832	4	34
2021	Detroit Lions	3	Amon-Ra St. Brown	90	912	5	22
2020	Jacksonville Jaguars	1	DJ Chark	53	706	5	49
2020	New York Jets	2	Jamison Crowder	59	699	6	39
2019	Washington	3	Terry McLaurin	58	919	7	30
2019	Cincinnati Bengals	2	Tyler Boyd	90	1046	5	17
2019	Detroit Lions	3.5	Kenny Golladay	65	1190	11	9
2018	Arizona Cardinals	3	Larry Fitzgerald	69	734	6	26
2017	Cleveland Browns	0	Rashard Higgins	27	312	2	86
2017	New York Giants	3	Sterling Shepard	59	731	2	42
2016	San Francisco 49ers	2	Jeremy Kerley	64	667	3	53
2016	Chicago Bears	3	Cameron Meredith	66	888	4	38
2016	Jacksonville Jaguars	3	Allen Robinson	73	883	6	26
2016	Cleveland Browns	1	Terrelle Pryor	77	1007	4	20
2015	Tennessee Titans	3	Dorial Green-Beckham	32	549	4	59
2015	Cleveland Browns	3	Travis Benjamin	68	966	5	28
2014	Jacksonville Jaguars	3	Allen Hurns	51	667	6	49
2014	Tennessee Titans	2	Kendall Wright	57	715	6	41
2014	Oakland Raiders	3	James Jones	73	666	6	38
2014	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	2	Mike Evans	68	1051	12	13
2013	Washington	3	Pierre Garcon	113	1346	5	11
2013	Houston Texans	2	Andre Johnson	109	1407	5	10
2012	Kansas City	2	Dwayne Bowe	59	801	3	43
2012	Jacksonville Jaguars	2	Cecil Shorts	55	979	7	26
2011	St. Louis Rams	2	Brandon Gibson	36	431	1	83
2011	Indianapolis Colts	2	Pierre Garcon	70	947	6	22
2011	Minnesota Vikings	3	Percy Harvin	87	967	9	6
2010	Carolina Panthers	2	Steve Smith	46	554	2	66
2009	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	3	Antonio Bryant	39	600	4	59
2009	St. Louis Rams	1	Donnie Avery	47	589	5	50
2009	Detroit Lions	2	Calvin Johnson	67	984	5	22
2008	St. Louis Rams	2	Torry Holt	64	796	3	35
2008	Kansas City	2	Dwayne Bowe	86	1022	7	16
2008	Detroit Lions	0	Calvin Johnson	78	1331	12	3
2007	Miami Dolphins	1	Marty Booker	50	556	1	65
2007	St. Louis Rams	3	Torry Holt	93	1189	7	11
2006	Oakland Raiders	2	Ronald Curry	62	7272	1	43
2006	Detroit Lions	3	Roy Williams	82	1310	7	9
2005	Houston Texans	2	Andre Johnson	63	688	2	42
2005	New Orleans Saints	3	Donte Stallworth	70	945	7	23
2004	San Francisco 49ers	2	Brandon Lloyd	43	565	6	46
2002	Detroit Lions	3	Bill Schroeder	36	595	5	57
2002	Cincinnati Bengals	2	Chad Johnson	69	1166	5	21
2001	Carolina Panthers	1	Donald Hayes	52	597	2	51
2001	Buffalo Bills	3	Peerless Price	55	895	7	30
2001	Detroit Lions	2	Johnnie Morton	77	1154	4	22

One of the things that strikes me from the table is just how lousy things have been in Detroit this century. That team has won 3 or fewer games seven times in the last 21 years. That's terrible, and two more times than the 2nd-worst team, Jacksonville.

Anyway, if we think we can identify who the league's worst teams will be this year -- Atlanta, perhaps, and I suspect Chicago will be in the discussion -- I'd contend there's no reason why they can't have at least a top-30 wide receiver, let's say Drake London or Darnell Mooney. Recent history suggests a 50-50 shot. Top-15 a lot less likely, but there's no chance of either of those guys being selected that early anyway. I don't plan to shy away from wideouts on teams I think will be lousy.

--Andy Richardson

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