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Comparing the Broncos wide receivers position group

The Denver Broncos currently have 11 wide receivers on the roster, which makes the competition in this group fierce.

NFL: Denver Broncos-OTA Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

I’m going to do one of these for every position group, although I will be lumping the whole offensive line into one since no one cares about offensive lineman. :-( This is a direct response to a request from MHR members who wanted to see this data. Some of the data is from pro-days, since many of these guys didn’t get combine invites.

This is going to focus on wide receivers - the most populous position group on the 90-man roster. We currently have 11 on the roster. With Mike McCoy as the offensive coordinator, we will most likely keep 6. That means 5 of these guys will be either on the practice squad or out of a job in the near future.

The data for the wide receivers - and remember that the combine is years in the past for some of these guys - but this should give you an idea about the compare size, speed and quickness of this position group.

NAME HT. WT. Arm Hand 40 Bench Vert Broad 3-cone 20-yd ss
Brown, Marlon 6/5 214 32.8 8.4 inj inj inj inj inj inj
Fowler III, Bennie 6/1 212 32.0 9.5 4.52 18 36.0 126 7.06 4.18
Henderson, Carlos 5/11 199 31.4 9.1 4.46 13 36.0 131 7.18 4.35
Latimer, Cody 6/2 215 32.7 9.7 4.44 23 39.0 choice choice choice
McKenzie, Isaiah 5/7 173 28.9 8.9 4.42 11 36.0 123 6.64 4.15
Nash, Anthony 6/5 200 ? ? 4.38 13 37.5 124 7.23 4.28
Raymond, Kalif 5/9 160 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Sanders, Emmanuel 5/11 180 32.0 9.3 4.41 choice 39.5 126 6.60 4.10
Sharp, Hunter 5/11 198 31.7 9.4 4.58 12 32.5 116 7.12 4.19
Taylor, Jordan 6/5 210 ? ? 4.52 9 36.5 122 6.69 4.46
Thomas, Demaryius 6/3 229 33.0 10.5 inj inj inj inj inj inj

What does this data tell us - if anything?

Marlon Brown has tiny hands for a man who stands 6’5” tall. Isaiah McKenzie is eight inches shorter and has bigger hands. Demaryius Thomas has some big hands and some long arms. That might explain why he can make those one-handed catches. Marlon Brown has long arms with tiny little hands at the end. Emmanuel Sanders, Jordan Taylor and McKenzie were amazingly quick in the 3-cone drill. Taylor did not run the 20-yd shuttle anywhere near as well as the other two WR’s. Bennie Fowler III ran poorly at the combine, but he had a much better 40 time at his pro-day - running a 4.35 and 4.43. You generally have to take pro-day numbers with a grain of salt though. Sanders has some serious hops to along with his speed and quickness. He out-jumped Cody Latimer. Latimer is the strongest WR on the roster and he did as many reps on the bench at 225 lbs as Matt Paradis, Corey Nelson, Adam Gotsis, Ty Sambrailo and Virgil Green. He did more reps than Tyrique Jarrett, Donald Stephenson and Demarcus Walker - among others. Cody Latimer would make a great wide receiver if he could learn to run routes.

What if any of this data surprised you? Let me know in the comments.