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Making the Leap No. 4 Bills WR Sammy Watkins
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* crew will document the players we believe will be . This could be a player emerging from no-name status to a quality starter. Or it could mean an excellent player jumping to superstar status.*The list continues with No. 4 Why Watkins is on the listWatkins was billed as the best receiver in the 2014 and set a rookie record with four 100-yard games, yet his first season in Buffalo was still tinged with disappointment.Between a litany of injuries, the draft Andre Ethier Jersey 's No. 4 overall pick showed the ability to get open with ease on shorter and intermediate routes. Veteran cornerbacks were forced to respect his deep speed on potential shot plays downfield. At peak form, he can blow past corners in and out of breaks and create separation early in his routes.In just his second pro game, Watkins torched the ' secondary for 117 yards and a touchdown on eight receptions. The box score would have generated a monstrous line of 10 catches, 182 yards and three scores if not for a canny strip in the end zone and an errant Manuel pa s.That isn't to single out Manuel. Watkins spent a generous portion of the season hopele sly lunging, leaping, diving and reversing course for 's scattershot pa ses. In addition to the mi sed opportunities for big plays and touchdowns, those catch-point adjustments cost Watkins a slew of yards after catch.The rookie even drew high praise from Bill Belichick for his "" balancing act in Week 5, turning an off-target pa s into a game-winning field Chris Taylor Jersey goal opportunity versus the .When Orton and Manuel did manage to put the ball on his hands, Watkins was . The former Clemson star showed dynamic acceleration and lower-body explosion to shed tackles and run away from defenders in the open field. With a running back's build, Watkins excels at the end-arounds, bubble screens, swing pa ses, slants, cro sers and go routes typical of a "Z" receiver.After a midseason slump due to a variety of reasons including Justin Turner Jersey the inability to consistently beat No. 1 cornerbacks and double teams, Watkins started making impre sive contested catches in December. The show he put on versus the in the second half of the Week 14 matchup proved that Watkins has all of the tools to emerge as a in 2015.ObstaclesNew coach Rex Ryan recently hyped Watkins as a " that comes down the road." For all of that obvious promise, there are several hurdles in Watkins' path to superstardom.If he's going to graduate to a bonafide No. 1, go-to threat, he must expand his route tree and show more consistent hands to raise a catch percentage (52.0) that ranked with the league's least productive receivers.Even if we give Watkins a pa s for short-arming a few pa ses while playing through a painful early-season rib injury, a midseason groin pull and a late-season tear in his hip labrum, he didn't sport the type of catch radius that , and used to bail out their quarterbacks on poor throws. played that role at Clemson, precluding Watkins from running Maury Wills Jersey the sideline and pylon routes that he still needs to master if he's truly going to become "Fitzgerald-like" in the NFL.Beyond those factors, there are two beyond Watkins' control.The ' quarterback play was that Ryan was compelled to remove his first-team defense. There's no reason to believe Watkins will be corralling accurate to ses in his second season.Armed with the understanding that his defense is a tremendous advantage and his quarterbacks are an equally tremendous disadvantage, Ryan plans to run a . That will put an artificial cap on Watkins' targets as he competes with , and in a loaded wide receiver corps.2015 Russell Martin Jersey expectationsIf not for the injuries and from Buffalo's quarterbacks, Watkins would have blown past 1,000 yards as a rookie.A healthy Watkins can be expected to topple that mark in 2015.On a run-oriented team with designs on playoff contention, the key will be accomplishing that feat without disappearing for weeks at a time -- as he did last season with nine games of 35 yards or fewer.The question isn't whether Watkins will produce. It's whether he will emerge as one of the best at his position, ultimately proving worthy of the exorbitant price the paid to trade up for him.The latest Podcast as well as the Mettenberger and Watt feud.
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