Cleveland Browns Midseason Review: Wide Receiver

With the exception of adding wide receiver Greg Little in the second round of the draft, the front office decided not to upgrade the receiver position this year. The switch to the West Coast Offense was supposed to fit our receivers, particularly Brian Robiskie, better than the previous system.

Mid-way through the season, our leading receiver is Joshua Cribbs with 298 yards receiving and 3 touchdowns. Those low figures should tell you right away that the wide receiver position has not really improved this year. The thing to consider when looking at this position though is how high our expectations were heading into the season. Sure, there was optimism that Robiskie would do better in this system or that a guy like Jordan Norwood would emerge as a slot machine this year, but I'd say the expectations were very low to begin with. In that case, I would say the wide receiver unit has lived up to expectations.

Little has been regarded as the receiver with the most potential on the roster. I was not high on him during training camp because of the number of dropped passes he had. We knew he was a bit of a risk after having a year off from football, but he looked really good during the preseason games. He has made some nice grabs during the regular season, but has still had difficulty adjusting to deep passes and averages under 10 yards per reception.

Massaquoi has seen most of his action late in games and has shown the type of consistency to be a decent depth player in the future. His concussion issues have hindered him though. Cribbs remains my favorite receiver, and with a legitimate number one receiver on the field, I think he could be an acceptable second- or third- receiver.

Given your expectations heading into the season, has the wide receiver unit met, fallen short of, or exceeded your expectations.