Donnie Avery "undersized"

[rammiser]

Check out the write up form ESPN on Avery.

ESPN - NFL - NFLDraftTracker

They say he is undersized which is rediculous. One of the best wr's in the NFL Steve Smith is 5'9 185. Avery is 5'11 192. How is that undersized? Can that really be a knock on a wr? The media's infatuation with BIG wr's is just stupid. How about Dwayne Jarrett. 6'4 219 a whopping 6 catches for 73 yds last year.Sidney Rice 6'4 202 had a total of 31 catches, ok he's a bad example he's a Viking wr. Reggie Williams from Jax is another example of a big wr with little production. Marvin Harrison isnt big, 6'0 185 not big at all. Holt 6'0 190 weighs less than Avery. Bruce 6'0 188 again no t.o. Some of the best wr's in the legue are small guys. I just dont know why being BIG became such an issue. This is a problem in the NFL scouting coffee clutches. The teams seem to think bigger means better when really it isnt true. Think Sam Mills needed to be bigger? He was a linbacker and a good one at that. This is why guys get drafted high and are busts because teams start looking past on the field production and looking at how tall and fast a guy is. That doesnt make them good just makes them tall and fast. I liked the Avery pick and dont look at size as a major factor at all. The guy has blazing speed,good hands,good route runner,can cut on a dime and had the on field production to impress the Rams. I'm not saying he's gonna be as good as any of the greats but I am saying that being 5'11 192 is far from undersized in the NFL. This should never be a negative for a player and for this to be written shows the ignorance of the writer who put it to paper. Hey Espn tell Steve Smith he's undersized while he's rowing the boat in the endzone. The dumbest thing about it is they say Avery is undersized for the wr position???? If you go through every team in the NFL most of the guys are undersized. For that matter if they arent undersized they are under productive with the exception of Moss,Owens,Fitzgerald and Bolden to name a few of the really good big ones. The player bio's are provided by scouts inc but I guess no one at Espn has time to read them. I hope Avery out performs every wr taken this year just to stick it to the people who write this crap.

[evil disco man]

Other "undersized" receivers:

Isaac Bruce 6'0 188
Torry Holt 6'0 190
Az-Zahir Hakim 5'10 190
Henry Ellard 5'11 188
Flipper Anderson 6'0 175
Marvin Harrison 6'0 185
Reggie Wayne 6'0 198
Steve Smith 5'9 185
Wes Welker 5'9 185

Anyone care to go on?

[tomahawk247]

if Avery is undersized, what is DeSean Jackson?

[SCRF]

Originally Posted by rammiser

Check out the write up form ESPN on Avery.

ESPN - NFL - NFLDraftTracker

They say he is undersized which is rediculous. One of the best wr's in the NFL Steve Smith is 5'9 185. Avery is 5'11 192. How is that undersized? Can that really be a knock on a wr? The media's infatuation with BIG wr's is just stupid. How about Dwayne Jarrett. 6'4 219 a whopping 6 catches for 73 yds last year.Sidney Rice 6'4 202 had a total of 31 catches, ok he's a bad example he's a Viking wr. Reggie Williams from Jax is another example of a big wr with little production. Marvin Harrison isnt big, 6'0 185 not big at all. Holt 6'0 190 weighs less than Avery. Bruce 6'0 188 again no t.o. Some of the best wr's in the legue are small guys. I just dont know why being BIG became such an issue. This is a problem in the NFL scouting coffee clutches. The teams seem to think bigger means better when really it isnt true. Think Sam Mills needed to be bigger? He was a linbacker and a good one at that. This is why guys get drafted high and are busts because teams start looking past on the field production and looking at how tall and fast a guy is. That doesnt make them good just makes them tall and fast. I liked the Avery pick and dont look at size as a major factor at all. The guy has blazing speed,good hands,good route runner,can cut on a dime and had the on field production to impress the Rams. I'm not saying he's gonna be as good as any of the greats but I am saying that being 5'11 192 is far from undersized in the NFL. This should never be a negative for a player and for this to be written shows the ignorance of the writer who put it to paper. Hey Espn tell Steve Smith he's undersized while he's rowing the boat in the endzone. The dumbest thing about it is they say Avery is undersized for the wr position???? If you go through every team in the NFL most of the guys are undersized. For that matter if they arent undersized they are under productive with the exception of Moss,Owens,Fitzgerald and Bolden to name a few of the really good big ones. The player bio's are provided by scouts inc but I guess no one at Espn has time to read them. I hope Avery out performs every wr taken this year just to stick it to the people who write this crap.

Thanks for the post, I was feeling the same way. They say he could get pushed around and knocked off routes, but look at the size of the #1 CB pick...Leodis McKelvin, 5' 10" 190lbs.....so what does that say? He caught alot of balls an he can fly, I just hope he proves all the naysayers wrong. First post, SCRF--So. Cal. Rams Fan

[Rambos]

Avery is one inch shorter then Holt, about the same weight. I hope Avery takes all this crap, and shuts these fools up.

It's funny, some teams are known for drafting postions better then other. The Rams are known for always getting good WR, we took the player we thought fits what we need. Why don't these guy respect our boby of work when it comes to WR.

This is a substantial reach in our opinion. There's a lot to like about Avery's speed and he's a big-play threat whether he's catching the ball downfield, running after the catch or in the return game. However, he's an undersized receiver who's going to get pushed around and doesn't appear comfortable going over the middle. Finally, he has a lot of work to do to improve his route running.

Finally, he has a lot of work to do to improve his route running

This is the only thing thats right. Be he can improve on that, he is a rookie. Holt and Ellard will teach him.

Right now we want him to run two routes screens, and deep routes. Holt and Bennett will work the middle.

PRE-DRAFT REPORT:

Hands: Catches the ball effortlessly. Snatches passes outside his frame, and can get low and catch passes near the ground. Shows great concentration to look balls all the way in. Attacks balls, rarely allowing passes to get to his chest. Tracks deep passes well, leaping to catch balls at their highest points. Grade: 8.0

Patterns: Reaches top speed so quickly, defenders often are on their heels the entire game. With great downfield speed, cornerbacks are in bail technique before he gets five steps off the line. Is explosive in and out of breaks. Shows good flexibility in hips and knees to drop weight and separate out of breaks. Grade: 7.5

Run after catch: Has the speed to score on any touch. Is tough to tackle in the open field because of elite quickness, speed, vision and shiftiness. Must improve lower-body strength; gets tripped up by ankle tackles he should break. Nobody catches him from behind. Grade: 6.5

Release: Must strengthen upper body to escape jams of long-armed cornerbacks. Can dodge jams with quickness and explosiveness; has a natural body shake to dance off the line before cornerbacks get their hands on him. Sometimes dances too much. Grade: 7.0

Blocking: Must improve in this area. Lacking blocking skills have more to do with size than desire. Is a scrappy, tough player who works hard. Grade: 5.0

Bottom line: Avery can change a game with just one touch. Once he gets stronger, he no longer will get bounced in traffic and will become an effective blocker. Avery is sure to be a star at pre-draft workouts and could sneak into the bottom half of Round 1.

This is a substantial reach in our opinion.

Could sneak into the bottom half of Round 1

[HUbison]

It's quite possible that in 2 years, our top receivers are Donnie Avery, Keenan Burton, & Derek Stanley. Not exactly the '99 corp, but speed kills, and IF Avery refines his routes, and IF Burton stays healthy, and IF Stanley is coming along as well as reported......that's a promising young, and highly mobile, receiving corp.

[moloch41]

I think it some offenses- like the West Coast, bigger wide recievers work better, but I don't think that's the case with Saunders offense.

[bruce4life]

Originally Posted by tomahawk247

if Avery is undersized, what is DeSean Jackson?

Desean Jackson is a better playe duh! Go look at MR.KIPER'S rankings. If teams do not go by these rankings MR.KIPER WILL BE MAD AND WRITE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ABOUT YOU!!!

[txramsfan]

Avery is an avid fisherman. That boosted his stock with me way up.

I totally have forgotten the four drops I personally watched him do against SMU.

Maybe he was using the wrong color.

[RamOfDenmark]

I agree there's clearly an obsession with measurables - everyone wants that Randy Moss type who's 6'5 with sub-4.4 speed. But you see a LOT of big guys at WR that never amount to anything.

Size can be beneficial, it depends on the type of offense and the type of routes. If we construct routes specifically for Avery to take advantage of his speed and agility he will be very hard to contain. We need to use him in routes where he can go in and out of his cuts at blazing speed, catch it, then turn upfield, it's going to be very hard for any CB to follow him through one or two cuts without giving him a big cushion (look at his three cone drill times). I bet Saunders is excited and already has plays worked out specifically to use his quick moves to get rid of the coverage.

What I question isn't so much his size but just his ability as a receiver, running routes accurately, having that uncanny awareness of exactly where to be, having great hands, great timing etc. We'll see how that works out - we have a great coaching staff when it comes to WR so he may be able to improve more and faster at that than I think. I hope so.

For what it's worth, personally I believe the ideal size for a receiver is 6'0-6'1 and around 190-200 pounds. It seems to be the size of a lot of the top receivers (Marvin Harrison, Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce, Chad Johnson etc.). The problem when you get taller receivers than that is sometimes speed, but even more often it's quickness and agility. A tall guy just has a much higher center of gravity making it much harder for him to make the mind-buggling moves that Steve Smith, Dante Hall etc. can put on a guy. I like a balanced WR somewhere between the huge jump-ball guy and the small nifty speedster.

Players like Moss are physical freaks, if one comes along sure draft him, but he's a generational talent physically - you are not going to see more than a couple of those players every decade (at the most) so you can't demand that every WR you draft is in that mold. If you try to go for that guy every year you are going to end up with a lot of Mike Williams (6'5, 230) type players. Ask the Lions how that worked out.

[Mooselini]

I don't think he's undersized. As mentioned, Steve Smith is actually smaller, but look how much he accomplishes as their #1 receiver. Avery is our #3 receiver, the slot receiver. He is actually rather good size for that position, and his speed is another big factor.

[LeBulger]

I don't think Avery is under-sized at all. He's on the verge of 6 foot, and he had brilliant leaping abilities too. I think he has great size in fact, and the fact that he's so quick is why he has the potential to be a really effective player for us.

As some of you guys have mentioned, Steve Smith has done so much being 2 inches shorter than Donnie, so...

[live4ramin]

I'm really more jazzed about Burton.

[eric2810]

Yeah thats just a bunch of B.S. Mel Kiper probably wrote or McShay, they were interviewed on Draft Day and they both were talking trash about the Rams picking up Avery over any other WR. I for one think Avery is a perfectly sized Slot reciever and with some work he will move up in the depth chart.

[UK Ramfan 83]

Originally Posted by live4ramin

I'm really more jazzed about Burton.

Agreed.... Real workhorse that won't get bullied. And has good YAC.
Quietly confident about this guy...