A Look At The Baltimore Raven’s WR2 Options

In the offseason, Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens brain trust flipped Anquan Boldin to the 49er’s for a a 5th round pick and then proceeded to not address the hole at WR2 in the draft. It was reported yesterday that Jacoby Jones reported to camp out of shape and was failed his conditioning test, adding a further layer on intrigue to who will fill the position.

Torrey Smith is going to be asked to do more than ever and Dennis Pitta will likely end up being second on the team in targets, but if the right player wins the training camp battle, there is some fantasy value to have. What follows a table comparing Tandon Doss, Aaron Mellette, Tommy Streeter, Deonte Thompson and David Reed.

Player	MsoY	MsoTD	Dominator Rating	RZ TD %	40	Height	Weight	Vert	Bench	Broad
Aaron Mellete	0.43	0.66	0.54	N/a	4.54	6’3	217	33.5	9	123
Tommy Streeter	0.29	0.38	0.335	50.00%	4.37	6’4	219	33	17	125
Tandon Doss	0.22	0.3	0.26	41.00%	4.56	6’2	201	33.5	14	116
David Reed	0.39	0.26	0.325	0	4.56	6’0	191	37	15	114
Deonte Thompson	0.11	0.08	0.095	14.00%	4.31	6’0	201	36.5	20	125

Looking at the table, it appears that the Ravens really only have two options. Reed is basically a non-prospect, Thompson a pure burner and Tandon Doss is the stuff that guys who are in the league for 8 years and 6 teams are made of.

Streeter, on the other hand, is a physical specimen. I wrote about him on Rotoviz about 3 months ago and all of the things I said there still hold true. Shawn Siegele invented the Height-Adjusted Speed Score and Streeter posted a score of 123, which is basically about as elite as it gets. He’s big, tall, and fast and is basically the perfect compliment to Torrey Smith. He sat out his entire rookie season for the Ravens, but opportunity is knocking. Unlike Aaron Mellette, however, Streeter has never been able to translate his transcendent physicality into jaw-dropping on the field production.

The real gem here is Aaron Mellete, a 6’3 touchdown scoring beast. He doesn’t have the same speed as Streeter, but his HaSS of 106 is acceptable. He posted the best Dominator Rating of the 2013 wide receiver class and even though he played at Elon (a school so small that I had to go the official university website to find official football statistics), a 66% market share of touchdowns is no joke. If the Ravens ultimately decide that Streeter’s athletic talents aren’t ever going to translate, then Mellete is not a bad option at all. I would give the inside edge in redraft to Streeter, as he already has a year in the NFL to understand how things work and familiarize himself with the roster, but he if falters early and Mellette sees start snaps, he is an instant waiver wire add.