Michael Thomas or Jarvis Landry (1 Viewer)

[VPCajun]

Watching Miami, Thomas and Landry seem very similar. I know some wanted to draft Landry in the 2nd rd.

Curious to see which has a better career. Stats may be hard to help decide which is better. Thomas has Drew and Landry well he has somebody.

Both have sure hands and physical runners.

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Well, for a Fair Contest, the Saints should sign Landry...

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[reason2believe]

Landry is so much better than Snead it's not close. I love landrys game. So sad we coulda had him, Allen Robinson or Moncrief instead of sjb who's not even in the league anymore. Landry reminds me of a quicker anquan boldin/ Hines ward.

This. No comparison.

 

[2009ring]

Landry is so much better than Snead it's not close. I love landrys game. So sad we coulda had him, Allen Robinson or Moncrief instead of sjb who's not even in the league anymore. Landry reminds me of a quicker anquan boldin/ Hines ward.

I wouldn't say that "it's not even close", and I would also say that since we went WR already in the 1st, Kony Ealy would have been the right pick instead of SJB.

 

[bobad]

Thomas, without a doubt.

Both are great receivers, Landry is faster, Thomas is bigger and younger.

 

[BoNcHiE]

This. No comparison.

There's a comparison. The line up in similar positions and run a lot of the same shoe and intermediate routes. Landry will do more hitches. Snead is just as physical.

Landry is really good, but he's also force fed the ball, win or lose. Willie Snead, as a clear number 3 here still had 72 catches for 900 yards and 4 TDs to Landry's 94 for 1140 and 4 TDs and he did it with a 1/3 less targets and a higher catch ratio.

Give our guys some credit. As to whether I'd rather have Thomas or Landry, that's the comparison that's not even close.

 

[TheMike62987]

So I assume knowing what we know now. Most would keep Thomas over Landry?

Nope. You can't look at these comparisons like that. Landry has Ryan Tannehill throwing to him. Thomas has a first ballot HOF QB who is statistically one of, if not the most accurate passer to ever play the game. Huge difference in who is getting the ball to the receivers. I bet that Landry would put up similar number to what Thomas did if he were a Saint.

 

[BoNcHiE]

Nope. You can't look at these comparisons like that. Landry has Ryan Tannehill throwing to him. Thomas has a first ballot HOF QB who is statistically one of, if not the most accurate passer to ever play the game. Huge difference in who is getting the ball to the receivers. I bet that Landry would put up similar number to what Thomas did if he were a Saint.

That's just not how that works. Plenty of great WRs thrive with average QBs precisely because they are average and don't spread the ball around. Landry gets 145 targets a year (the same amount Graham was getting when everyone crybagged about him being forced the ball).

He's not hurting or being held back by Tannehill. He's got an entire offense basically built around him and he's gonna get 9 targets a game no matter what.

 

[Optimistic Ozzy]

For what it's worth, I wanted Landry over Cooks in that draft.

 

[dutar76]

There's a comparison. The line up in similar positions and run a lot of the same shoe and intermediate routes. Landry will do more hitches. Snead is just as physical.

Landry is really good, but he's also force fed the ball, win or lose. Willie Snead, as a clear number 3 here still had 72 catches for 900 yards and 4 TDs to Landry's 94 for 1140 and 4 TDs and he did it with a 1/3 less targets and a higher catch ratio.

Give our guys some credit. As to whether I'd rather have Thomas or Landry, that's the comparison that's not even close.

I agree with everything you said here. I like Landry, Thomas, and Snead. I think Thomas has the higher ceiling. If he were in an offense where he was the featured WR, like say Julio Jones, and got 10+ targets every week, in his second season he'd be good for 100+ catches, 1400+ yards and 12+ TD's. Heck, that could actually be his stat line next season anyway.

Landry in the Saints offense would be good for 80 catches, 1100 yards, and 10 TDs.

Snead will be good for 70+ catches, 900-ish yards, and 5-ish TDs a season, which is not shabby at all for a 3rd WR.

Hard to compare WRs in different systems, with different QBs, and different roles.

 

[CountWhoDat]

Landry would be huge in Payton's offense. But no way we could have picked Cooks and Landry.

When all is said and done, I think Thomas will be the better player. And that is coming from the guy who thought Jarvis Landry would be a better player than OBJ.

I also believed Landry would be better than Beckham in the pros. I thought Beckham was a reach at 12. Reason #26,817 I'm not an NFL GM

I still think that Landry could end up having a longer, steadier career than Beckham. He's a do-everything player who showed up big in big games at LSU, whereas Beckham accumulated the vast majority of his - admittedly impressive - stats against schools like Towson, UAB and Furman. Both are tremendous NFL receivers. I like the Hines Ward comparison for Juice; he was a vicious special teams ace at LSU in his freshman year.

But I don't think Michael Thomas is comparable to either of them. As much as y'all might hate me for this, I see a lot of Roddy White with a better head on his shoulders in Thomas. Physical, sure-handed and able to create YAC. Roddy was a little faster, but Thomas is bigger and has a greater ability to make acrobatic catches. I think Thomas will end up being a better receiver than White was, which is saying something because Roddy, despite his antics and lack of common sense, was a 10,000 yard receiver.

 

[TheMike62987]

That's just not how that works. Plenty of great WRs thrive with average QBs precisely because they are average and don't spread the ball around. Landry gets 145 targets a year (the same amount Graham was getting when everyone crybagged about him being forced the ball).

He's not hurting or being held back by Tannehill. He's got an entire offense basically built around him and he's gonna get 9 targets a game no matter what.

If you don't think the offensive system, and the QB involved doesn't have an impact on a receiver's production, then you have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[BoNcHiE]

For what it's worth, I wanted Landry over Cooks in that draft.

I wouldn't trade them today.

We've already got two guys who can do what Landry does to a large extent, and some extra with Thomas. Cooks adds an element to this offense that is unique and highly effective. Landry is nowhere near the deep receiver he is.

Cooks had 11 passes over 20 yards (in the air) this year. Landry had 3. And it isn't because Tannehill doesn't have a great arm or can't throw a deep ball.

 

[El Caliente]

I would take Landry over Snead, but then again I think that in a better system Landry could be better than OBJ.

They are both very good receivers, and both are performing as well as can be expected in their current systems, and both has another level that they can reach if given more time.

That said, what an abortion that 2014 draft was. We got Brandin Cooks, and nothing else. We could have drafted any one of the 8 guys taken after SJB and been better off than had we taken him.

 

[BoNcHiE]

If you don't think the offensive system, and the QB involved doesn't have an impact on a receiver's production, then you have no idea what you're talking about.

By your logic, no great WR can ever exist under an average QB. History says differently. A QB's top level ability doesn't always dictate how a specific WR will do under him. Joe Horn caught 1400 yards from Aaron Brooks here. You think he'd of suddenly been a 1700 yard receiver under a better QB? I don't. Eli Manning is basically an average QB, yet Odell Bechkham Jr. thrives under him. Mike Evans caught 1320 yards from Jameis Winston this year. Ryan Tannehill is also not a bad QB. He dealt with injuries this year, but last year he threw for 4200 yards and 4000 the year before, completing 62+% of his passes each year. He's above average in most cases. It's not like Jarvis Landry is suffering under Colin Kaepernick or Brock Osweiller.

And you bring up a good point. Offensive system does matters. That's basically my point, and it means a player like Landry, who has the Miami passing offense built around him and getting him the ball, probably has an advantage over a lot of guys. He got 145 targets this year. He has as many called plays for him as anyone not named Antonio Brown.

Plenty of WRs reach their ceiling of production with QBs other than Drew Brees and Tom Brady. Some less than ideal QBs have big arms, focus on one guy, and are able to produce big numbers with specific WRs despite not being nearly as efficient as the elite guys in the league.

Landry's production would likely drop if he came here simply because Brees isn't going to force him 9 passes every game and he wouldn't get near as many called plays (i.e. first read WR screens, hitches, and slants). And I believe Cooks' production could go up if he played for the Dolphins precisely because they'd focus the offense around him much more and he'd get more targets. Cooks had 1176 yards on 118 targets this year (his best season). Jarvis Landry had 1156 on 165 targets in 2015 (that's his best season). You don't think Cooks could better his production with 40 more targets?

But I realize Landry went to LSU, so even though Cooks outperformed him this year on less targets, he's still gotta be better.

But if we don't want to go with total yards, we can go with analytical stats, like Fooball Outsiders Defensive yards adjusted value, which seeks to rank the total value of wide receivers on a per snap basis, not just top line stats. Cooks is 15th. Landry is 27th. BTW, Michael Thomas is 2nd. I.E. they think we could have the next Julio Jones on our hands.

I don't understand why it's so hard to just give our wide receivers credit. We are always looking to handicap them while pretending some guy who has a pretty good QB and an entire passing offense built around getting him the ball is being kneecapped or something.

 

[thetownedrunkard]

There's a comparison. The line up in similar positions and run a lot of the same shoe and intermediate routes. Landry will do more hitches. Snead is just as physical.

Landry is really good, but he's also force fed the ball, win or lose. Willie Snead, as a clear number 3 here still had 72 catches for 900 yards and 4 TDs to Landry's 94 for 1140 and 4 TDs and he did it with a 1/3 less targets and a higher catch ratio.

Give our guys some credit. As to whether I'd rather have Thomas or Landry, that's the comparison that's not even close.

Snead is no where near as physical as Landry. Thomas is pretty close. And that's a two way street. Teams know Landry is the number one and will get force fed the ball and yet he still delivers. Snead is a clear number three option with teams more worried about Cooks and Thomas.