Undrafted wide receiver Blair White, a walk-on in college, caught two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter of Sunday's tense Indianapolis Colts at New England Patriots game, both times beating high-drafted safety Pat Chung. Also on Sunday, wide receiver Stevie Johnson, a seventh-round pick, caught three touchdown passes in the Buffalo Bills at Cincinnati Bengals game, twice beating corner Leon Hall, a former first-rounder. Earlier in the season, Pierre Garcon of the Colts, a sixth-round choice from Division III Mount Union, sprinted through the Washington Redskins secondary for a 57-yard touchdown reception, past defensive backs DeAngelo Hall and LaRon Landry, both high first-round choices from football-factory colleges.
These plays, in a nutshell, summarize a core fact of NFL life: Receivers who were unknowns early in their NFL careers often outperform megabucks glory-boy high-drafted types.
Among NFL receivers having fine seasons are Danny Amendola, Anthony Armstrong, Miles Austin, Davone Bess, Malcom Floyd, Antonio Gates, Lance Moore and Wes Welker, all undrafted. Other top receivers include Marques Colston, Donald Driver, Garcon, Johnny Knox and Kevin Walter, all late-round draft choices from below-the-radar colleges. And the league's No. 1 receiver is Brandon Lloyd, who has been waived twice in the NFL and barely played in 2008 and 2009.
Some kind of fluke of the moment? Three of the NFL's top eight all-time receivers -- Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens and Andre Reed -- were small-college players.
By contrast, you'd quickly run out of fingers counting recent first-round football-factory receivers who either were busts or failed to live up to their billing. Charles Rogers, Troy Williamson, Matt Jones, David Terrell, Ted Ginn Jr., Michael Clayton, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Ashley Lelie, Reggie Williams, Koren Robinson -- not even TMQ has room for a full accounting.
Why do small-school and low-drafted NFL receivers excel where glory boys falter? In most cases, the answer is ego and work ethic.
College "passing trees" tend to be fairly basic: Often big-deal college receivers aren't asked to do much more than outrun defenders. Many acquire the belief that they cannot be stopped, that all they need to do is show up and blow past people. Add this to the ego temptation awaiting all receivers -- fans and announcers notice you only when you're open, allowing you to maintain a fantasy that you're always open. The result is that big-deal, high-drafted receivers may arrive in the NFL thinking merely stepping onto the field will make them stars. That's how it was in college!
The NFL reality is very different. NFL passing trees are complex; receivers must know them cold, plus know every sight adjustment, plus spend hours weekly with film. NFL defenders are fast. The slowest defensive back an NFL receiver will face is faster than 95 percent of the defensive backs in college. In college, top receivers often have a big lead on defenders. In the NFL, the objective is a one-stride lead.
And in the NFL, if a receiver doesn't block, he doesn't play. In college, glory-boy receivers often take running downs off. In the NFL, only Randy Moss gets away with this. And Moss, a high-drafted megabucks type, hasn't exactly had a positive effect at New England, Minnesota or Tennessee this season.
Undrafted or small-school receivers know their sole chance is to work, work, work. At Washington, Anthony Armstrong beat out high-drafted wide receiver Devin Thomas and Malcolm Kelly, both from football-factory colleges: Thomas was waived and Kelly has played little. At Buffalo, Johnson beat out high-drafted football-factory wide receiver James Hardy, who was waived. Thomas, Kelly and Hardy all strutted around practice complaining that they weren't being showcased: Armstrong and Johnson worked, worked, worked. Last season, while high-drafted, glam-boy wide receiver Roy Williams of Dallas was struggling, Miles Austin worked, worked, worked. Welker works, works, works and then works some more.
If you were an NFL coach and saw two receivers on your sideline -- one a high-drafted complainer who expects a limo waiting for him, the other an undrafted guy who works, works, works -- who would you send in?
Note I haven't mentioned Mike Williams, the 10th selection of the 2005 draft, from football factory USC, widely viewed as a mega-bust after being let go by the Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans. Williams arrived in the NFL thinking all he had to do was step on the field. He was in poor shape, didn't know the offense on three straight teams and whined nonstop. In 2008 and 2009, he was OOF -- out of football.
If you are yet to see the Seattle Seahawks play this season, and few east of the Rocky Mountains have, Williams is having a solid season. He's already snagged more receptions in 2010 than in his entire previous NFL career, and is blocking well. Williams is in shape, working hard and saying "Yes sir, no sir" to coaches. He's becoming the player he might always have been -- if he'd attended Mount Union and been drafted late. Williams provides further evidence that how hard a player works -- not how much hype he receives -- is the secret to success as an NFL receiver.
