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Lately, there has been a lot of talk surrounding the Colts wide receivers. Conor Orr called them one of the most underrated in the league, a ton of attention is being put on Chester Rogers and Phillip Dorsett for completely different reasons. Colts former great Reggie Wayne even plodded through his top five receiver duos in the league and failed to mention T.Y. Hilton and Donte Moncrief.
I don’t think that’s outlandish if we’re being realistic, however, it makes some fans that are less open-minded feel uncomfortable. The latest national personality to drop his rank on the league’s wide receivers was former Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings receiver Nate Burleson.
Burleson is a member of the NFL Network morning football show, Good Morning Football and recently went through his top 20 duos heading into the 2017 season. While sitting at 16 seems as though they’re a bit underappreciated, those who were ranked behind the Colts tandem were certainly no scrubs.
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Burleson listed Allen Robinson and Marqise Lee at the No. 20 spot. I find this interesting that he didn’t use Allen Hurns in that combination, but that’s none of my business. At No. 19 Burleson considered Michael Thomas and Willie Snead to be a “special combination” as the team’s top two targets.
The No. 18 crew was the Philadelphia Eagles’ Alshon Jeffery and Jordan Matthews, and coming in at No. 17 was Vikings’ combo Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. As I stated above, no scrubs.
Burleson was clearly loving what Hilton brings to the table for Andrew Luck and the Colts, but said that he feels Hilton may need to get more involved inside the red zone in order to get his touchdown numbers up. Moncrief on the other hand, is the red zone target of the combination.
Burleson rightly fawns over Moncrief’s willingness to go up and get the ball in the red zone which makes this combination perfectly diverse in their skill sets — my words, not his. It’s clear that the receiver position is drawing a lot of interest, both locally and nationally, and rightly so.
This season is critical for so many players in this receiving group that the interest will likely maintain throughout the season and well into next off-season. Let’s hope they over achieve in 2017 and give these national media personalities a reason to have them higher in their rankings next season.