The thing about Jones is that the way he played this year, he's at least going to be a #2, a #1 on some teams. He really stepped it up and I hope he continues that performance. His average over the last 3 years though, definitely a #3 or #2. Cobb's hard to get a handle on since this was his first year where he was integrated into the offense almost full-time, but I agree that he'd be a #3 (a high-end one).
Originally Posted by: Porforis
Jones' problem is that he's a slow WR, who lacks the elite body control to make up for it (asuming you want him as your nr. 1). He's no Fitzgerald, Boldin, Crabtree etc.
Jordy and Jennings are both good players, but they won't pull double coverage or anything. If anything, Jennings is a good, but not great, nr. 1 and Nelson is a high-end 2.
I don't think our receiver group matches up favorably to any of the teams I mentioned, but I see how you could dispute a lot of those claims.
Tamme gives you some consistensy that you don't have with Finley. Thomas is on the brink of being called an elite wide-out, for as far as you can't call him that yet. Eric Decker is a better WR than our nr. 2. As far as Stokley, I'll give that one to us. We have some better depth.
I'm not going to break down every team, but you get the point.
One of the most glaring examples for me is how often Rodgers has no pressure on him for quite some time, with our O-line doing a very, very good job, but he still can't find anyone open. A lot of the throws he makes have to be absolutely pin-point accurate, because there's little to no seperation most of the time. Our guys just aren't getting open and opposing offenses have figured out that whole back shoulder throw fad.
We'll see what happens next year, but I think that, if a guy like Jones or Nelson goes to a different team, they're not close to being as succesful as they are here.
I don't feel like Rodgers finding tons of different targets speaks as much about the talent, per say, as it does about necessity.
If we want to get back to being (one of) the best WR/TE groups, we need to get ourselves a star player. Like blueleopard mentioned, a Walker or Sharpe. Something that would've changed Favre's career, as well, I think, but that's a whole different story.