How MRMADD has made me Peerless Price's b!tch

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

Oy, I feel like a coke whore who just scored a kilo.

Thanks to MRMADD and his CNNSI reception percentage link, I now have some insight into the WR free-agency situation.

Lots of folks have been touting Peerless Price for our team, and I've been pretty ambivalent, particularly about his ego. Some people said he wasn't even the #1 WR for the Bills (Moulds was), so how do we know he deserves to be our #1?

Well, count me in on the Peerless Price bandwagon, if he doesn't break the bank. Get a load of the Price/Moulds comparison for reception percentage:

Moulds: 100 catches, thrown at 180 times (55.6%)

Price: 94 catches, thrown at 148 times (63.5%)

Folks, that's a huge difference, favoring Price. Moulds was thrown at *32* more times, and pulled in only 6 more catches. Price has a right to be miffed about his Pro Bowl snub.

Now, MRMADD said 60% defines an average top-50 receiver. I don't think that's true; I think 60% is the threshhold into elite status. But since MRMADD is the Smartest Man on ExtremeSkins today, I'll let him explain how he's making that claim.

In any event, 63.5% is way better than Moulds's 55.6%, and way better than our receivers hovering around 50%. Now, a few elite receivers (such as Moss) don't have high reception percentages, but they are the exception. Also, YAC is important (which is one reason I like McCants a lot). But if I had to go with one number alone as the most important stat for most receivers, it's reception percentage. And Peerless Price's percentage is very, very high -- much higher than his Pro Bowl companion who had the same QB throwing to him.

I checked another name on the list who's come up in free-agency discussions: Darrell Jackson. His reception percentage is 55.4 (62 of 112). Not bad, but nothing to get excited about.

Moving on to YAC . . . This is an area where I have big concerns about Gardner, who seems to fall down after every catch, and an area where I think McCants shines brightly. The stats show that Gardner was #27 in the NFL for number of catches, but did not rank in the top 50 for total YAC. I don't know how low Gardner is, but you've got to be pretty poor at YAC to go from #27 in receptions to out of the top 50 for total YAC.

YAC is another area where Price shines. He had 456 YAC, compared to 359 for Moulds. That's a 4.9 average for Price, 3.6 average for Moulds. So Price has both a higher reception percentage and higher average YAC than Moulds. From the statistician's view, that makes Price the better receiver. Having not watched the Bills games, I can't comment on other factors/intangibles.

One thing to be wary of is the possibility that Price is just having a career year in the year before free agency. The reception percentages for both Price and Moulds were sharply lower in 2001, without Bledsoe throwing to them. (Both were just under 50%.)

On the other hand, Bledsoe throws some of the harder passes in the NFL, so we know Price can catch hard-thrown passes. That's a big question I have about our current receivers, especially Gardner, with Ramsey throwing to them.

Everything's a gamble, but I'm officially in on the Peerless Price bandwagon. I say sign our core free agents (Daryl Gardener, Powell, Thompson, Tre Johnson), see if we can get a contract extension from Bailey, then gas up the Snyder jet for the official "Peerless Price, Come On Down To The Redskins" billionaire schmoozefest.

And MRMADD, you have now officially made me Peerless Price’s b!tch.

[Art]

Pssst. ASF. Before anyone else notices, you might want to know that Moulds was the receiver who received more attention from defenses. He was where the coverage was rolled to. He was thrown to more, because, he's a No. 1.

And, for the stats you just read, a simple question. Would you rather have Moulds right now or Price straight up? You are probably going to say Price. The Bills are saying Moulds. I believe them. Sorry.

[Zen-like Todd]

I'm just going to say this one time. Stats are nice and all, but don't get hooked on them. They're like heroin.

No matter what stats you find, they won't tell you the whole story. Unless you watch the games, you don't know if Moulds is always drawing the #1 CB, safety help, or what. You don't know what role Price is playing in the offense, what routes he runs most often, how they compare to Moulds' routes, etc. You don't know the quality of the passes, the down and distance, etc. You don't have the weather conditions, the slickness of the ball, injuries to the hands, etc, factored in. I could go on and on.

So just chill, my brotha. I'll take Peerless for a decent price as well, but let's not start trotting out those recept/target stats like they are all powerful.

BTW, we didn't play in a dome this year, if I'm not mistaken. Since you are digging those stats, you may want to check out the Outdoor/Indoor splits, temperature splits, etc, that are available at CNNSI. Fun stuff to play with, I'll admit. Just not enough to make me someone's *****, ya know?