Week ending 10/22/16 - Top 20 Return on Investment Wide Receivers

What is Wide Receiver Return on Investment? 

In short, ROI represents the amount of yards a receiver generates in excess of his distribution quota.   This allows us to see which receivers make the most of their opportunities.

For a more detailed description, follow this link to Return on Investment

Week 8 Update

It's hard to believe we are nearing the end of October and the season is  heading into its final calendar month.  This space will begin to have some in-depth player reports to give more background into the athletes behind the numbers. Until then, let's start with a recap of the Players to Watch.

Players to Watch - Week 7 Review

TAMU's Josh Reynolds @ Alabama  2/27/1  The Bama defense was just too strong for the offense that finished with 164 passing yards on the day. 

TCU's Taj Williams @ West Virginia  2/35/0  Anemic line, but still the best on the Horned Frogs that day. 

Ark's Jared Cornelius @ Auburn 2/17/0 His stat line was so bad, he dropped out of the qualifying list for Return on Investment.  

Utah's Tim Patrick @ UCLA  Tim blanked! Two targets, each negated by penalties. Utah ran the ball 49 times and got the big win so it can't all be about throwing the ball around the yard.

FBS players to watch

Thursday 

Ohio's Sabastian Smith vs Cody Thompson of hosting Toledo - The MAC always had top flight players who may not get the coverage of Big 5 conference players but Smith and Thompson are likely to put on a show.  

Saturday

TCU's Taj Williams vs. TTU - If ever there was an opportunity to pad stats, this would be the time.  I don't know what sort of impact this game will have on his ROI percentage, but we know there will be many opportunities to watch Williams in the passing game. 

WVU's Shelton Gibson vs. James Washington @ OKST - The remote stops here.  Should be a lot of action and a lot of receptions from these two players, both of whom may declare for the draft at the end of the season. 

Fresno State's Aaron Peck vs. AFA - Top 20 ROI WR Marcus Kemp of Hawaii had a huge game against Air Force last week, perhaps Peck will find similar luck. 

 FBS

DNQ indicates player did not have the minimum number of receptions or yards for the season to qualify for inclusion. 

This Week	Last Week	Player	College	Year	ROI	X Above Avg
1	DNQ	Jimmy Williams	East Carolina	Sr.	89.5%	4.95
2	1	Josh Reynolds	Texas A&M	Sr.	58.6%	3.24
3	2	Taj Williams	TCU	Jr.	58.3%	3.22
4	11	Deangelo Yancey	Purdue	Sr.	52.3%	2.89
5	6	Allenzae Staggers	Southern Miss.	Jr.	49.3%	2.72
6	5	Cody Thompson	Toledo	Jr.	46.8%	2.58
7	3	Shelton Gibson	West Virginia	Jr.	45.0%	2.49
8	10	Sabastian Smith	Ohio	Sr.	43.2%	2.38
9	9	James Washington	Oklahoma St.	Jr.	42.4%	2.34
10	7	Carlos Henderson	Louisiana Tech	Jr.	40.9%	2.26
11	20	Marcus Kemp	Hawaii	Sr.	39.7%	2.19
12	26	Aaron Peck	Fresno St.	Sr.	36.3%	2.01
13	33	Malik Turner	Illinois	Jr.	35.2%	1.94
14	14	Shay Fields	Colorado	Jr.	34.9%	1.93
15	18	Amara Darboh	Michigan	Sr.	33.6%	1.86
16	22	Kalib Woods	Fla. Atlantic	Jr.	33.2%	1.84
17	53	Ardarius Stewart	Alabama	Jr.	32.5%	1.79
18	17	Ricky Jones	Indiana	Sr.	32.3%	1.79
19	21	Kenny Golladay	Northern Ill.	Sr.	31.4%	1.74
20	15	Thomas Owens	FIU	Jr.	31.0%	1.71

After a bye week off, ECU's Jimmy Williams picks up where he left off reclaiming the number one spot.  He represents 12.2% of the Pirates receptions, but 23.5% of their receiving yards. He went 7/129/2 vs. Cincinnati last week.  The rest of the team went 28/154/0.  He has so consistently outperformed his teammates in terms of reception yard efficiency, only the most stubborn analyst would not give him a look to see what is going on here. Look for him to keep the pedal to the floor vs. UConn. 

 FCS

This Week	Last Week	Player	College	Year	ROI	X Above Avg
1	5	Christian Summers	Towson	Sr.	49.1%	2.45
2	24	Jesse Blackburn	Murray St.	Sr.	47.8%	2.39
3	DNQ	Gatlin Casey	Lehigh	Jr.	47.2%	2.36
4	2	Anthony Warrum	Illinois St.	Sr.	46.0%	2.30
5	8	Spearman Robinson	Western Caro.	Sr.	45.8%	2.29
6	7	Wayne Capers	Duquesne	Sr.	45.7%	2.28
7	DNQ	Darious Crawley	McNeese	Jr.	44.8%	2.24
8	3	Brandon Acker	Southeastern La.	Sr.	42.5%	2.13
9	1	Dante Shells	Liberty	Sr.	41.6%	2.08
10	21	Miles Thompson	Indiana St.	Jr.	40.8%	2.04
11	4	Brian Riley	San Diego	Sr.	38.0%	1.90
12	10	Taylor Barthelette	Bryant	Sr.	37.4%	1.87
13	DNQ	Devonte Dedmon	William & Mary	Jr.	36.7%	1.83
14	9	Elijah Marks	Northern Ariz.	Jr.	36.4%	1.82
15	6	Kegan Moore	Stetson	Sr.	33.6%	1.68
16	DNQ	Ryan Markush	Eastern Ky.	Jr.	32.8%	1.64
17	13	Stephen Miller	Northern Colo.	Sr.	32.1%	1.60
18	DNQ	Ray Bolden	Stony Brook	Jr.	31.3%	1.56
19	22	Jake Wieczorek	Holy Cross	Sr.	31.1%	1.56
20	16	Will Carter	Bucknell	Sr.	30.2%	1.51

Of all the divisions, FCS has consistently been the closest race in terms of ROI range with the difference between WR1 and WR20 being < 19 percentage points!  The competitiveness of the division has lead to showcasing of several different WR1s so to have a player return to the #1 spot in FCS is notable.  

FCS #1 ROI Wide Receiver is none other than Towson's Christian Summers who takes the helm for the second straight time.  So far this year, Christian has hauled in 29.8% of the teams' receptions and generated 42.7% of the teams total reception yards.  A transfer from Valley Forge Military Academy, Christian has all the tools so now we will see if scouts take notice. 

DIVISION II

	Last Week	Player	College	Year	ROI	X Above Avg
1	2	Keelan Cole	Ky. Wesleyan	Sr.	75.0%	3.33
2	3	Tyrone Carter	Chowan	Sr.	60.5%	2.68
3	6	Dan Monteroso	West Liberty	Sr.	47.7%	2.11
4	13	Brody Oliver	Colorado Mines	Jr.	44.7%	1.98
5	10	Josh Crockett	Central Okla.	Jr.	42.7%	1.90
6	11	Eric Poindexter	Quincy	Sr.	42.3%	1.88
7	5	Charles Holland	Tiffin	Jr.	39.0%	1.73
8	12	Connor Pulley	Central Okla.	Sr.	37.7%	1.67
9	15	David Moore	East Central	Sr.	36.5%	1.62
10	7	Nate Ricci	Minn. Duluth	Jr.	35.5%	1.58

Keelan Cole is a bad man.  Last week, we dared print he slipped out of the WR1 spot in D2 and he responds by recapturing the top spot he has held for all but one week so far this season.  King Cole dropped a stat line of 3/112/1 last week on Ashland to retake the lead but with three games left in the season, can he build on his 40/949/9  stat totals for 2016 to draw the attention of NFL scouts and earn a combine invitation?

Do yourself a favor, and click through some of the links.   I like to take a moment to learn about some of the background of the players just to gain insight on what the stat sheets don't show.  

Shameless Self-Promotion! 

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See you next week!