Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus recently released his 'Early 2023 NFL Draft Wide Receiver Rankings,' and has new USC Football WR Jordan Addison outside his top three. Of course, that's blasphemous. This year, there were SEVEN wide receivers taken in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Addison was better than all of them.
SEE MORE: Ranking the 15 best USC wide receivers of all-time
Literally. Addison won the Biletnikoff award over every single one of them in 2021. Of course, he wasn't better than Drake London, who didn't win the Biletnikoff award because he got hurt in the eighth game of the season and had to miss the rest of the year. Addison wasn't as good as London, but he was better than all six of the others.
So therefore how is Kayshon Boutte (ranked first), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (ranked second), and Quentin Johnston (ranked third) all above Addison in Renner's rankings?
Well, let's face it--it was obviously a poor ranking if Addison is somehow fourth on this list. That being said, Renner did bring up a great point about the lone deficiency in Addison's game: Drops.
Renner wants to see USC Football WR Jordan Addison improve on his drop deficiencies in 2022.
On USC Football WR Jordan Addison's tendency to drop a bit too many passes, here's what Renner had to say:
"We'd love to see him improve on the concentration drops. He’s dropped at least 10 passes in each of his seasons at Pittsburgh, posting an 11.6% career drop rate. If this persists at USC, it could scare potential teams in next year's draft."Michael Renner, PFF
Well, dropping 10 or more passes in both of his seasons is certainly less than ideal. That's especially the case given that his first season was only 10 games long due to the coronavirus pandemic. And yes, it could scare potential teams in next year's draft if it persists.
So, does Renner have a point here? In terms of justifying his decision to rank Addison outside of his top three--no. However, it at least shows where exactly he was coming from, and does bring up a flaw that very few seem to talk about outside of the analytics crowd. He's clearly done his homework.