STrib: Who might emerge as the Gophers' top receivers?

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BleedGopher

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per STrib:


Up for grabs

Who could replace Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman, the Gophers’ top receivers of a year ago?

Chris Autman-Bell

Demetrius Douglas

Seth Green

Daniel Jackson

www.startribune.com

Who might emerge as the Gophers' top receivers?

Who could replace Tyler Johnson and Rashod Bateman, the Gophers' top receivers of a year ago?
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!
 


I hope DD makes me eat all the crow in the world, but I have very little optimism about him being a #2 receiver.
 

Nobody will "replace" these two. They're 2 of the top 3 receivers in program history. The passing game will suffer immensely. I'm sure Autman-Bell and Douglas will catch a few more balls than they would've otherwise, but otherwise I'm thinking Spann-Ford and one of the frosh will have a much bigger role than would've been expected.
 

Gophers1992 said:
I hope DD makes me eat all the crow in the world, but I have very little optimism about him being a #2 receiver.
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I don't see why we shouldn't have some optimism. DD seemed productive when actually given opportunity.
 


MGGopher said:
Nobody will "replace" these two. They're 2 of the top 3 receivers in program history. The passing game will suffer immensely. I'm sure Autman-Bell and Douglas will catch a few more balls than they would've otherwise, but otherwise I'm thinking Spann-Ford and one of the frosh will have a much bigger role than would've been expected.
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I'm not so sure about that. We still have Morgan, CAB and DD have experience, and I have a ton of confidence in Fleck being able to coach up our WRs.
 


btowngopher said:
I'm not so sure about that. We still have Morgan, CAB and DD have experience, and I have a ton of confidence in Fleck being able to coach up our WRs.
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I would very much agree. Throughout PJs and Simon's career I don't think he's ever had a season without a WR drafted. Someone can check my history on that but it bodes well that we regularly have players waiting in the wings at WR.
 

Daniel Jackson likely steps in with a season close to what Bateman has as a freshman... BSF will pick up some slack at TE... Our WR room will be just fine. Morgan actually could really increase his stock if he is as good this year without our main horses from last year. I’m also thinking Mo is going to have a huge year as well.

We need the line to start where they ended last year, but if that happens I think we still have a very strong offense.
 




We won’t throw the ball as much as we did last year. So there is that. A lot of the catches will instead be runs.
I bet Morgan’s pass yards and touchdowns go down this year but yards per attempt stay pretty similar
 

btowngopher said:
I don't see why we shouldn't have some optimism. DD seemed productive when actually given opportunity.
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I'm sorry, but when were these moments of productivity? He has about 250 yards in 2 seasons.
 

Gophers1992 said:
I'm sorry, but when were these moments of productivity? He has about 250 yards in 2 seasons.
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On 3rd and 26

He is okay.
Not as good as Johnson or Bateman but not many are. But he hasn’t been on the field much and will produce okay.

he would’ve been the best wideout in any team in between decker and Johnson IMO
 



Daniel Jackson is my dark horse to emerge. I’m surprised so many are sleeping on a 4-star WR recruit who had 27 TDs last season, after an ACL tear less than a year prior. Emilien seems to be getting more buzz. Hopefully, both can contribute early.
 

Gophers1992 said:
I'm sorry, but when were these moments of productivity? He has about 250 yards in 2 seasons.
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When they threw him the ball. As a previous poster mentioned, we lose to georgia southern without his production.
 

As some have noted, I see us throwing more to the TE's this year. The catches will be much more spread around this year.
 

PitinoFan said:
Daniel Jackson is my dark horse to emerge. I’m surprised so many are sleeping on a 4-star WR recruit who had 27 TDs last season, after an ACL tear less than a year prior. Emilien seems to be getting more buzz. Hopefully, both can contribute early.
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I agree, Jackson seems like he'll be a stud to me.
 




CAB and Douglas are the obvious candidates. Would be great to see one of Geary / Green improve their receiving game to give MN a third option. I don't know anything about the freshman but he had a lot of stars so that must be a good thing.
 

Some guy said:
On 3rd and 26

He is okay.
Not as good as Johnson or Bateman but not many are. But he hasn’t been on the field much and will produce okay.

he would’ve been the best wideout in any team in between decker and Johnson IMO
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You say he is okay, and then say he would've been the best wideout on the team in any season between 2009 and 2016. Those two statements are contradictory. At minimum, McKnight, Maye, and Wolitarsky were all better and more productive. He hasn't even been 3rd in production yet, and it's not like CAB is an all-time great.
 

dpodoll68 said:
You say he is okay, and then say he would've been the best wideout on the team in any season between 2009 and 2016. Those two statements are contradictory. At minimum, McKnight, Maye, and Wolitarsky were all better and more productive. He hasn't even been 3rd in production yet, and it's not like CAB is an all-time great.
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I appreciated McKnight as much as anyone, but he was the #1 option on his offense. Comparing his stats to Autman-Bell's or Douglas' is kinda BS when they have been vying for playing time behind two NFL receivers. McKnight barely touched the ball when Decker was on the field.

Autman-Bell has looked very good when the ball has gone his way, and Douglas is a great athlete. CAB is a rising junior and certainly has 1,000-yard season potential over the next two years. Douglas hardly got reps last year so it's hard to say anything about him one way or the other, but he has been a contributor for Minnesota in the past.
 

WR position is going to be very interesting this fall. Obviously there is no way to fully replace guys like Bateman and Johnson but we have all been very impressed with Simon and the talent they have been recruiting at the position. Although we have been conditioned to think otherwise under previous regimes, WR is a spot where a guy can come in and have an immediate impact as a true or redshirt freshman. Lineman need lots of time, but good skill guys can hit the ground running right away.

It is entirely possible that one or more of the guys from 2019 and 2020 could explode onto the scene without Bateman and Johnson in the picture. Add in the fact that we have an extremely accurate QB working behind and experienced O-Line which should give him lots of time to read the D and make decisions.

My guess is there will probably be a wider distribution in the catches among the receivers but I am not convinced our passing game will fall off the face of the Earth without Bateman. CAB has been waiting for his opportunity and now he gets the chance to be the man....time to find out if he can fill those shoes.
 

The current WR corps is still significantly better than what Fleck had in year 1. Autman-Bell is good enough to put up 1,000+ yards. Douglas isn't quite as explosive, but I think he can be a solid 2.

I think Mike Brown-Stephens could emerge as the #3, with Spann-Ford getting more looks split out and as a TE.

Then we pretty much become the all hyphenated receiving corps with Autman-Bell, Brown-Stephens, and Spann-Ford.
 

dpodoll68 said:
You say he is okay, and then say he would've been the best wideout on the team in any season between 2009 and 2016. Those two statements are contradictory. At minimum, McKnight, Maye, and Wolitarsky were all better and more productive. He hasn't even been 3rd in production yet, and it's not like CAB is an all-time great.
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I dunno if those 3 were all better. None of them were productive until their junior or senior years. They all posted roughly 50-70 catches for 600-800 yards. I think DD should post similar number if he wins the #2 spot outright and usage trends similar to the last 2 years.
 

When I first heard of Bateman opting out I was devastated, but the more I thought about it the more I felt like we'll be ok. We're going to see a lot more diversity with who is catching passes this year. Everyone in the stadium knew Bateman or Johnson would get the majority of the targets last year. Sanford and Simon will need to be much more creative, mixing it up and using a variety of weapons in the passing attack. Spann-Ford and the tight-end group will obviously see a bigger role. I'd also be interested to see how they use Trey Potts as a pass catcher lining up in the backfield or as a slot receiver. One of the young guys will almost surely break out with significant action, whether that's Jackson, Emilien, Brown-Stephens, Nnamdi, etc. It obviously hurts to lose Bateman, but we still have a ton of capable pass catchers and a top QB in the country. As long as Morgan is lining up at QB I wouldn't worry too much about our passing game.
 

dpodoll68 said:
You say he is okay, and then say he would've been the best wideout on the team in any season between 2009 and 2016. Those two statements are contradictory. At minimum, McKnight, Maye, and Wolitarsky were all better and more productive. He hasn't even been 3rd in production yet, and it's not like CAB is an all-time great.
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I agree with you he was less productive. I think he is better than all 3 of those guys just based on watching. He hasn’t had as many opportunities.
 

Some guy said:
I agree with you he was less productive. I think he is better than all 3 of those guys just based on watching. He hasn’t had as many opportunities.
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We'll agree to disagree I guess. Maye and Wolitarsky both drew professional paychecks, and Wolitarsky is still playing in the CFL. Gray is another one I didn't even mention before - he was also better as a Gopher than Douglas. I'd be absolutely floored if Douglas is even invited to an NFL camp, and in fact I wouldn't at all be surprised if he sees the field this year as little as he did last year.
 

dpodoll68 said:
We'll agree to disagree I guess. Maye and Wolitarsky both drew professional paychecks, and Wolitarsky is still playing in the CFL. Gray is another one I didn't even mention before - he was also better as a Gopher than Douglas. I'd be absolutely floored if Douglas is even invited to an NFL camp, and in fact I wouldn't at all be surprised if he sees the field this year as little as he did last year.
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Gray wasn’t a wideout for most of his time. He was a better wideout than Douglas.
We can agree to disagree.

I was never a big wolitarsky guy admittedly. He may be better than I think he is.
 

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