The Falcons are lean enough at wide receiver than Bryan Edwards has a decent chance of being a starter for them. He makes some sense with a speculative late-round pick in larger leagues.
Edwards, of course, didn’t do much in his two seasons with the Raiders. They traded him away for a late-round pick. He began his rookie season as a starter, but he caught only 3 passes in the first two games before suffering an ankle sprain at New England that sent him down into a lesser role for the remainder of the season. (The injury allowed Nelson Agholor to leapfrog him in the offense.)
Edwards logged starter-type minutes all of last year, but without making much of an impact. He caught only 37 passes and 3 TDs in 17 games including the playoffs. The Raiders released Henry Ruggs halfway through the season, giving Edwards every opportunity to be more of a factor, but he caught only 19 passes for 266 yards and 2 TDs in his final 10 games.
| BRYAN EDWARDS, GAME LOGS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk | Opp | Score | Tgt | No | Yds | TD |
| 1 | Balt. | W 33-27 | 5 | 4 | 81 | 0 |
| 2 | at Pitt. | W 26-17 | 3 | 3 | 40 | 0 |
| 3 | Mia. | W 31-28 | 5 | 3 | 89 | 0 |
| 4 | at LAC | L 14-28 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | Chi. | L 9-20 | 6 | 2 | 22 | 0 |
| 6 | at Den. | W 34-24 | 4 | 2 | 67 | 0 |
| 7 | Phil. | W 33-22 | 4 | 3 | 43 | 1 |
| 8 | at NYG | L 16-23 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | K.C. | L 14-41 | 4 | 3 | 88 | 1 |
| 10 | Cin. | L 13-32 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | at Dall. | W 36-33 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 0 |
| 12 | Was. | L 15-17 | 5 | 3 | 30 | 0 |
| 13 | at K.C. | L 9-48 | 3 | 2 | 24 | 0 |
| 14 | at Cle. | W 16-14 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 1 |
| 16 | at Ind. | W 23-20 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | LAC | W 35-32 | 5 | 4 | 63 | 0 |
| 18 | at Cin. | L 19-26 | 6 | 3 | 41 | 0 |
Edwards caught only 57 percent of the passes thrown his way, which isn’t great, but he at least was running primarily deep routes. He averaged 16.5 yards per catch.
With Atlanta, Edwards is hopeful he’ll get more opportunities while also being used differently. Specifically, Edwards is a larger receiver. He’s listed at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds. He says he expect to get more chances to run shorter routes, allowing him to use that size.
“I just knew he (coach Arthur Smith) liked the big-bodied receiver and they ran a lot of in-breaking routes with a lot of guys who could get YAC and make big plays off YAC,” Edwards said in an article posted at The Athletic. “When I heard I was coming here, I felt like it was a really good fit for me, probably as good as it was going to get.”
Most notably, the Falcons don’t have much else at wide receiver. It can be argued that Kyle Pitts is more of a wide receiver than a tight end, and they’re counting on him to be a breakout guy. But it falls off after that. Calvin Ridley has been suspended for the season. They drafted Drake London with a top-10 pick, but he may need some time to adjust to the pros. The top returning wide receiver from last year is Olamide Zaccheaus, who caught 31 passes last year. Zaccheaus made the team as an undrafted free agent back in 2019.
Edwards played his college ball at South Carolina. While there in 2018, his numbers were pretty similar to teammate Deebo Samuel, who’s gone on to develop into an elite receiver for the 49ers. Edwards last until the third round of the 2020 draft, but he probably would have gone a round earlier if not for breaking his foot in February of that year.
I don’t see Edwards as a later-round priority. My personal tendency is to get the wide receiver handled, then focus more on backup running backs. I’m not a big fan of modest receivers trapped on lesser offenses. But Edwards is looking like a wide receiver who probably should be drafted late in larger leagues.
—Ian Allan