I do not put him in the Megatron class. To me he is in a class ALL BY HIMSELF.
I believe Watkins ceiling is in the next class of elite wr's, he's not in that class all by himself but it sure don't take long to call roll.
You continue to "say" the right things about him but then just as quicklyyou say there is 5+ wr's MORE ready than he is, which is hogwash, lunacy really.
I said there are 5 WRs. I'll name them for you.
1. Jared Abbrederis WR Wisconsin - NFL caliber route runner(not just NFL caliber...OUTSTANDING), reliable hands, former QB(cerebral), 4.44-4.50 40 at the combine...3 year starter...NFL ready player with a limited ceiling
2. Brandin Cooks WR Oregon State - Undersized but freakish athlete with great YAC skills and deceptively strong...runs good routes and is explosive in and out of his breaks...size limits his overall ceiling
3. Robert Herron WR Wyoming - Developed route runner, solid hands, very good athlete and good runner after the catch...size limits overall ceiling and will likely end up in the slot in the NFL
4. Odell Beckham Jr. WR LSU - Played for Cam Cameron in college(former NFL HC and OC) in a pro style offense that asked him to run NFL routes and a NFL route tree, top tier athlete, strong hands, and talented runner...only 5'11" but my #3 WR in this draft...needs to improve on the lapses in concentration leading to drops
5. Jordan Matthews WR Vanderbilt - Effortless mover, did the dirty work for Vanderbilt, good YAC threat, breakaway speed, 6'3" 215, smart player known for being a film junkie and an incredibly hard worker...solid route runner...needs to improve his concentration to cut down on drops and needs to be more physical when the ball is in the air...my #4 WR in this draft
And there you have it. Those are the 5.
You don't put him in the Megatron class? He's all by himself?
That, alone, says it all.
I have a stance, it's clear.
You?
Waffle.
Don't talk out both sides of your mouth.
I'll explain this to you as bluntly as possible. You take any prospect out there and I'll have negative and positive things to say about them. That's not called talking out of both sides of your mouth. That's called evaluating a prospect. No such thing as the perfect player. Every player has flaws and every player can improve on things.
If you think that there's nothing negative to be said about Watkins then you frankly are doing a terrible job of evaluating him and need to remove emotion from the equation.
I haven't waffled on a single thing. I haven't talked out of both sides of my mouth. I've made criticisms and I've stood behind them. I've complimented parts of his game and I've stood behind them.
Here is where the rubber meets the road, in YOUR opinion, what is Watkins ceiling?
As I've said all along, I think he's a combination of Torrey Smith and Pierre Garcon. He has Smith's ability to get vertical with Garcon's ability to create after catch. Has a similar build to both.
What does that make him? A very good #1 WR...would slot in somewhere between #5 and #10 in the NFL.
Now, this is what I see as a realistic ceiling. Obviously, no one expected Jerry Rice to be Jerry Rice. But those guys are the closest comparisons I see for him.
And I'm not saying he'll be that from Day 1. He'll developed into that. His rookie year, he'll likely be utilized more as a vertical threat as he adjusts to the NFL game.
And just so I have more perspective of how you rate wr's, where would you rate Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, and T Holt among TODAY'S wr's?
Prime Rice is the GOAT. He's #1. Prime Moss would be 2nd only behind Rice. Prime Holt would slot in behind Prime Rice, Prime Moss, and Calvin Johnson if we were talking today's game.
His much talked about way of extending his arms to make catches in traffic so as to keep the defender from getting their hand on the ball first is very rare.
No. That's not rare. First of all, if you're not leaping for the ball, you shouldn't be extending away from your frame while in heavy traffic. WRs are taught to body the ball in traffic to keep the CB from being able to "tomahawk chop" their arms or the ball in order to knock it lose. You're taught to catch it with your hands close to your frame and immediately pull it into your frame to protect the football. Here you have Michael Irvin explaining how you "body the ball" in traffic:
Second of all, snatching the ball away from your frame when not in heavy traffic is not very rare. It's not rare at all. It's how you're taught to do it as a WR. If you don't do that, I pretty much remove you from my board(see Marqise Lee). Players that don't do it are called "body-catchers". They trap the ball using their hands/arms and their body. When I see that, it leads me to believe the guy doesn't have natural hands which is something you really can't teach.
So while I agree with you that Watkins doing that is important. It's far from rare. There are a large number of WRs in college football and in this draft class that do the same thing. Watkins's has natural hands and reliable hands. I like that. But he doesn't have an elite pair of hands. They're very good. Nothing wrong with that.
You may not respect my evaluation on Watkins but the WR position is the position I know the most about when it comes to football. It's why it's the position that I evaluate most effectively. I do my homework on these players and I make sure that I know what I'm talking about.