FanHouse CraigDavis

As we get ready for Super Bowl XLII, FanHouse is looking back at each team's 2007 first-round pick. Here's a look at the 30th pick in the draft, wide receiver Craig Davis.


Who They Took: Craig Davis, WR, LSU

Who Else They Were Rumored To Consider: Calvin Johnson, WR (no, really), Brandon Meriweather, S

What We Said At The Time: "Are the Chargers high?"

What Davis Did: He finished fifth on the team in receptions, hauling in 20 for 188 (a paltry 9.4 average) and scored one touchdown. I'm guessing the Chargers were hoping for a little more from their first-round pick. While Davis stumbled through his first year, it's not like the other Chargers pass catchers were lighting it up (those not named Gates and Tomlinson, anyway).

Looking Into The Future: With Vincent Jackson showing signs of finally turning the corner and Chris Chambers coming back for his first full season with the team, Davis will likely be the third wideout in '08 (depending on Eric Parker's status). That sounds about right -- no need to rush Davis into the lineup when he can ease into the job behind two veterans.

I've long been of the opinion that tall wide receivers were overrated. Sure, Randy Moss is 6-4 and if you block out the two years he spent in Oakland, he's arguably one of the best wideouts to ever run a route. But that's exactly my point: Moss's jaw-dropping ability skews the perception. For every Moss, there are countless counterexamples.

Take the 2004 draft, for example. Larry Fitgerald and Roy Williams were the first two wide receivers off the board, both are 6-2 or taller, and by any sensible measure, both are really good at their jobs. But four of the next wideouts taken in the first round have been duds, and all are at least 6-2: Reggie Williams, Michael Clayton, Michael Jenkins, and Rashaun Woods.

Like any position, drafting a receiver is a crap shoot. But just because a pass catcher is tall, doesn't automatically give an advantage over his shorter counterpart. There's a little more to being a complete wideout than the perception that some 6-5 guy would make a good red-zone target.

So with that as a backdrop, how has this year's first-round crop of wideouts fared? Surprisingly well, especially for the above-six-feet crowd (Player, height, receptions, yards, average, touchdowns):

Calvin Johnson (6-5, 10, 189, 18.9, 2)
Ted Ginn (5-11, 1, 15, 15.0, 0)
Dwayne Bowe (6-2, 18, 299, 16.6, 3)
Robert Meachem (6-2, 0, 0, 0.0, 0)
Craig Davis (6-1, 7, 54, 7.7, 1)

Not too shabby. Ted Ginn has gotten off to a rocky start (though nowhere near as rocky as Robert Meachem), but that's not all on him. For the other guys, pretty impressive ... historically speaking, anyway.