The Missed Opportunity: Michael Thomas

While he is good.  He is not "Moss" good.   TO good. Yes.  Moss. No. 


pfref.com/tiny/3t5oj

I would take Moss first. Over any of them.    It's damn hard to come to 1 TD every 6.3 receptions like Moss did.   Jerry Rice played 19 years, Moss play 5 years less than him. 

Rk	Player	       From	To       G      Rec      Yds    TD      TD/R    Y/R

1	Randy Moss*	1998	2012	218	982	15292	156	6.3     15.6

2	Terrell Owens*	1996	2010	219	1078	15934	153	7.0	14.8

3	Jerry Rice*	1985	2004	303	1549	22895	197	7.8	14.8

4	Art Monk*	1980	1995	224	940	12721	 68	13.8	13.5
 

Randy Moss is the most talented WR ever. Full stop. It still makes me mad that Mike Tice and Red McCombs ran him out of town because they were too dumb to be in the positions they were in.

As far as Michael Thomas is concerned, yes, it was a completely missed opportunity to select MegaQuon over him. Several other teams can say the same thing... Cleveland took Coleman, a huge bust. Houston took Will Fuller, who’s fine when he’s healthy which is like 50% of his career. Washington took Josh Doctson, who I thought was going to be the best WR of the bunch. Injuries took their toll on him. And we all know the bust MegaQuon.

Before the draft, my receiver list was Josh Doctson, Michael Thomas, and Sterling Shepard. I said so then; I say so now.

Josh Doctson was off the board one pick before the Vikings selection. Michael Thomas was the best big receiver, and that is what the Vikings were looking for.

I did not like the Laquon Treadwell pick at all because, in college, he was slow and had questionable hands. In the NFL, he turned out to be slow with questionable hands. I do not know what the Vikings scouts were looking at to draft Treadwell so high.

Doctson's career in the NFL has been hampered by one injury after another. Who knows how well he could have played if circumstances had been different. In this case, he was not available to the Vikings at their pick, so that would have been another bullet dodged in favor of Thomas being selected by the Vikings.

Of course, Thomas without Drew Brees would not have made the same combination in Minnesota, but he still would have been a standout number one receiver. He is just that much better than even the Vikings very good current starters.

I would compare him more to Cris Carter. Moss was just a freak who had amazing speed. How good would he have been without that speed? He didn't strike me as someone who was good at running routes or someone with great hands, he could just out run everyone. Michael Thomas is good because he runs great routes, has good hands, and can out compete DB's for the ball, not necessarily because he can out run everyone.

I doubt it. Thomas can overpower defenders in a way Theilen cannot.