How much does Crabtree suck out loud?

[NinerSickness]

Despite my hatred for Crabtree and his face, he actually had a decent anount of yards per game this year. However, is this just because Davis is the primary target and he was the next best option on the team?

How much suck does crabtree suck with his sucking face? Or does he not suck any more because his foot is healed? Bear in mind, if memory serves, Morgan had more receiving yards than Crabby did when he got injured last year.

Here's another way to put it: Is Crabtree a better than any of the following WRs?

Morgan, Brandon Lloyd, Andre Caldwell, Jerome Simpson, Mario Manningham, Lee Evans, Pierre Garcon, Plaxico Burress, Washed-up-Randy-Moss?

Wright, Hill, Sanu, Randle?

 

[shouldakepowens]

He's better than evans and caldwell

 

[bigninerfan56]

I'm not a huge fan of Lee Evans and I think we'd be equally frustrated with Mario Manningham if he were in Crabtree's situation.

 

[MHSL82]

Where's Iquana? He must be busy.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

I don't think Crabtree sucks at all. He's not what he should be given his draft position, but once you get past that, he's a decent receiver with the potential to be pretty good.

To date, Crabtree has two big problems in my mind: his failure to play in the preseason/training camp, and his penchant for dropping easy balls. His straight-line speed is a problem, but not such a big problem that it would preclude him from succeeding. The problem is that he doesn't get the kind of separation a burner would. He needs his QB to hit him coming out of his breaks, ideally in stride. Given that he doesn't play in the preseason, his chemistry with Smith has never been all that great. Factor in the easy drops, and Smith is understandably reluctant to throw it to him when he's covered, even if he has a half-step ("open" to a top QB). I think this is primarily a concentration thing, as Crabtree clearly has good, natural hands generally speaking. If he and Smith can get on the same page, I think he has a chance to be a very good possession receiver and threat across the middle.

As for how he has stacked up against our receiving corps, he was targeted significantly more than Morgan when they were both in, but Morgan did end up with more yards prior to the injury. It's very possible, even likely, that Davis draws more attention from the D than Crabtree, but Crabtree was more effective for most of the year than Davis. Other than an explosion of productivity against Cincy, Vernon was mediocre until the last three weeks of the season (averaged 42 YPG prior to that mark, 81 after that mark; that goes up to 107 if we include the playoffs). Crabtree led the team in receiving in 8 of his 14 full games, including virtually the entire middle stretch of the season.

Obviously Crabtree still has a lot of room to grow, and his ceiling is probably beneath the elite level, but if you divorce his play from where he was picked, I think most people would be reasonably content with it.

As for those other guys, I don't have a strong sense for most of them. I'd rank Garcon and Lloyd ahead of Crabtree right now. The rest I think are all question marks. If Morgan can return to the way he was playing when he got injured, he's got a chance to be the better player. But Morgan gets taken out of games (by the D, by the playcalling, by the QB, by his inconsistencies; I can't really say which with any conviction) too often for my taste.

 

[wartyOne]

"Despite my hatred for Crabtree, and his face..."

Awesome.

To answer the question, I'd say megaphone out loud. You know, not quite PA system out loud.