I understand that the salary cap has gone up, with more money in play. But the contracts signed by Tutu Atwell and Dyami Brown surprised me. Both will make $10 million this year.
In the case of Atwell, all of the money is guaranteed. He’ll be the Rams’ third receiver this year, with Demarcus Robinson signing with the 49ers.
With Brown, he signed with Jacksonville. That’s an interesting fit, with Liam Coen having done great things with the Bucs offense last year.
With both of these receivers, neither has done much in his first four seasons. Brown (pictured) helped his cause by playing well in Washington’s two playoff wins.
But via PPR scoring, Brown has never ranked higher than 97th among wide receivers in a season. Atwell has caught 4 touchdowns in his first four seasons. His best season came in 2023, when he ranked 62nd among wide receivers; he finished 79th last year.
Typically, if a receiver hasn’t done much in their first four years, it just doesn’t happen. I would have thought those receivers would have gone for less than half as much, with the teams instead using those dollars elsewhere on their rosters.
In this century, I see only 13 wide receivers who didn’t have a top-60 receiving season in their first four years, but then posted top-50 numbers in their fifth year. It’s happened three times in the last four years, and all were players originally drafted by the 49ers – Kendrick Bourne, Richie James and Jauan Jennings.
The Patriots have been the best in this category, with Julian Edelman, David Patten and Reche Caldwell all breaking through in their fifth year. Bourne had his breakout season with them, and the Patriots also had Troy Brown in the ‘90s.
Only one of the receiver in the chart below didn’t have a season that was better than the best season Dyami Brown has had in his first four years.
| LATE-BLOOMING WIDE RECEIVERS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | No | Yds | TD | PPR | Rk | Prev |
| 2001 | David Patten, N.E. | 51 | 749 | 4 | 169.6 | 35 | 65 |
| 2006 | Reche Caldwell, N.E. | 61 | 760 | 4 | 163.5 | 34 | 87 |
| 2007 | Kevin Walter, Hou. | 65 | 800 | 4 | 178.0 | 31 | 102 |
| 2007 | Justin Gage, Ten. | 55 | 750 | 2 | 142.0 | 47 | 80 |
| 2007 | Bobby Wade, Min. | 54 | 647 | 3 | 135.8 | 50 | 67 |
| 2007 | Shaun McDonald, Det. | 79 | 943 | 6 | 209.5 | 21 | 61 |
| 2011 | Laurent Robinson, Dall. | 54 | 858 | 11 | 205.8 | 20 | 78 |
| 2013 | Julian Edelman, N.E. | 105 | 1056 | 6 | 251.7 | 14 | 82 |
| 2017 | Marquise Goodwin, S.F. | 56 | 962 | 2 | 168.6 | 31 | 85 |
| 2019 | Chris Conley, Jac. | 47 | 775 | 5 | 156.5 | 44 | 80 |
| 2021 | Kendrick Bourne, N.E. | 55 | 800 | 5 | 182.8 | 32 | 61 |
| 2022 | Richie James, NYG | 57 | 569 | 4 | 138.5 | 50 | 102 |
| 2024 | Jauan Jennings, S.F. | 77 | 975 | 6 | 210.5 | 24 | 90 |
—Ian Allan