This entire off-season you’ve had Laquon Treadwell hype shoveled into your lap. Before the NFL Scouting Combine, Treadwell was a virtual consensus No. 1 WR in the 2016 WR draft class. If you frequent PlayerProfiler.com you are well aware that those Alshon Jeffery and Dez Bryant comparisons represent extreme draftnik wishful thinking. The data is in, and it indicates that Treadwell is not the best WR in this draft class, and furthermore, he might not belong in the top-5.
Looking past Laquon Treadwell, draft board riser Josh Doctson looks the part of a No. 1 WR in the NFL with a beautiful combination of size, athleticism, and college production. However, the truth is College Dominator Rating is king. As the esteemed Kevin Cole(@Cole_Kev) says, Collegiate Wide Receiver Production Isn’t Everything, It’s The Only Thing, and there is another top-flight receiver who deserves top-of-the-class consideration: Leonte Carroo.
Leonte Carroo is the uncrowned King of the 2016 WR Class. Carroo is not a Josh Doctson or Corey Coleman sublime athlete, however, he still managed a 4.50 (64th-percentile) 40-Yard Dash, which translates to a 101.5 (72nd-percentile) Height-adjusted Speed Score (HaSS), and he did it on a bum ankle that kept him out of the agility drills. Beyond athleticism, Leonte Carroo is about scoring points. Lots and lots of touchdowns and fantasy points.
Josh Doctson Advanced Metrics Profile
Leonte Carroo played exclusively special teams during his freshman year at Rutgers. Then, during his breakout age (19.6, 73rd-percentile) season, he posted a fantastic 41-percent College Dominator Rating over the 9 games he played. He showed it was no fluke again the following season posting 55-receptions, 1086-yards, and 10-touchdowns over 13 games – AGAIN hitting an elite 41-percent College Dominator Rating. And he wasn’t done yet. Carroo’s senior year is the stuff of legend for production share aficionados.
Leonte Carroo Advanced Metrics Profile
Averaging 101.1-receiving yards per game and 1.3-touchdowns per game, he posted an astounding 63.9-percent College Dominator Rating. According to the PlayerProfiler’s Data Analysis Tool, only six wide receivers have hit over 60-percent, with only two from major programs: Leonte Carroo and Demaryius Thomas. Dez Bryant only played 4 games his final year, but also would have qualified.
While comparing him to two of the best current wide receivers is all well and good, we often do that with rookie wide receivers. How does he do against the others of this class? Can Josh Doctson compete? What about the oft debated Corey Coleman and Sterling Shepard? Maybe The “Consensus” No. 1 Laquon Treadwell?
Top WR Prospects from 2016 via RotoViz.com
Leonte Carroo crushes it here. Corey Coleman and Josh Doctson both stand out in “counting” stats, but Carroo dominates Doctson in production share. Nobody comes even close to accounting for the same level of production that Carroo has.
After being spoiled by the 2014 and 2015 wide receiver classes some say this is a weak class, with no true studs at all. I couldn’t disagree more. We’ve shown that he’s productive, but lets look at how that stacks up against the biggest names of the last two years
Carroo vs Top Prospects from ’14 and ’15 via RotoViz.com
So we have a wide receiver who stands toe-to-toe with the best prospects of the last two years who posted the highest TD per game, highest overall College Dominator Rating, and even posted the highest career market share of receiving yards. Nor is there a single wide receiver in this current class that comes even close to touching him. Everything about Leonte Carroo screams premier dynasty asset, and yet, Carroo currently being selected outside the top-5 in most dynasty league rookie drafts. Go forth, and draft Carroo with confidence, and watch him become the perennial league winner your league mates never saw coming.
