Santana Moss Having A Huge Year - ESPN.com

[124]

Forget about those overused references to how many 300-pound players there are in the NFL now compared with the dearth of wide-bodies a couple decades ago. If you want proof positive that the NFL largely has become a big man's game, look at the size increases at the skill positions over the last 15-20 years, particularly at wide receiver.

The average starting wide receiver in the league now is 6 foot 2 and 204.8 pounds, nearly an inch taller and a dozen pounds heavier than their counterparts during the 1985 season. Among the 64 starters, there are now more wide receivers who are at least 6-3 (18) than there are wideouts who are under 6 feet tall (15). Nine starting wide receivers in the league, believed to be the most in the modern era, are 6-4 or taller.

Which is why it is somewhat remarkable that the wide receiver who is arguably the most talked-about NFL player at his position to this juncture of the '05 season is Santana Moss of the Washington Redskins, a virtual mighty mite among the mastodons. Moss isn't big -- at 5-10 and 185 pounds, he is among the league's smallest wide receivers -- but he is making plenty of big plays and gaining in stature as a game breaker.

And in a Washington offense that was too stodgy and predictable in 2004, and struggled to make vertical passing plays, Moss has demonstrated through five games that size really doesn't matter as much as some general managers, personnel directors and coaches insist that it does. All things being equal, of course, bigger is always going to be better in the eyes of those who evaluate talent. Things haven't exactly been equitable, though, when Moss has been matched up one-on-one with defenders.

In fact, the results have been downright lopsided, as Moss has frolicked through secondaries and left cornerbacks and safeties reaching at nothing more than vapor trails.

Moss, acquired in the controversial March 10 trade in which the Redskins sent fellow wide receiver Laveranues Coles back to the New York Jets, has 33 catches for 631 yards and four touchdowns. Want some perspective on that? It's more receptions and as many touchdown catches as Moss, who battled knee and hamstring injuries early in his career, totaled in his first two years in the league.

His eight receptions of 30 yards or more are only two shy of the Redskins' total from last season. With three plays of 50-plus yards, Moss has made two more than Washington had in 2004. In Joe Gibbs' first year back from his hiatus, the vertically challenged club had one touchdown pass of more than 15 yards. Moss already has scored on plays of 39, 70 and 78 yards. And scored in all manners: making the classic, over-the-shoulder grab (twice in the final five minutes of the memorable Monday night victory at Dallas), and taking a short screen pass last week and weaving his way through helpless Kansas City defenders on his way to the end zone. His average touchdown catch is for 47.8 yards. Moss' gaudy average of 19.1 yards per reception is the best -- by four yards -- among players with at least 30 catches.

At his current pace, which admittedly will be difficult to maintain, Moss would finish with 105 receptions, 2,019 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has never registered more than 74 catches in a season; only once went for 1,000 yards in his four seasons in New York; and averaged only 4.8 touchdown catches there. Oh, yeah, the NFL record for single-season receiving yards is 1,848 yards, by the incomparable Jerry Rice in 1995.

No one is ready to start mentioning Moss in the same breath as Rice, obviously. He still has to prove he can get through a season in one piece, something he has accomplished just once in his career, and skeptics around the NFL contend he will erode as the year wears on. But for now, at least, the 2001 first-round draft choice is the most explosive wide receiver in the league with the Moss surname.

"The biggest difference," Moss said, "is that I'm getting opportunities. You can't make a play if they don't throw you the ball. The ball is coming my way now, and so things are going my way now. You get into a zone where you see little things, openings and stuff, and you feel there's a play out there waiting for you. That's where I'm at now, and size has nothing to do with that, really."

From a financial standpoint, the Coles-for-Moss trade was a catastrophe for the Redskins. In parting with Coles, whom Dan Snyder had lured from New York in 2003 with a huge restricted free agent offer sheet, the Redskins had to accept a $9 million hit on their 2005 salary cap. Then, to secure Moss for beyond this season -- since he was entering the final year of his original rookie contract -- Washington had to sign the former University of Miami star to a pricey extension worth $31 million and including an $11 million signing bonus.

But as disastrous as the trade was on the salary cap, it has been delightful on the field.

In fact, with contrarian Snyder leading the way, the Redskins essentially have gone against the trend at wide receiver. At a time when everyone else is getting bigger, the Redskins ridded themselves of two physical wideouts, Coles and Rod Gardner, in the offseason. In their stead was a pair of munchkins: Moss and David Patten (5-10, 190). The two represent one of the smallest starting duets in the league. The Carolina Panthers, with Steve Smith and Keary Colbert, are the only other franchise currently starting a wideout tandem with both players under 6-0.

No one should expect Moss' success to be the catalyst for sudden devolution at the position. Most teams still prefer the new prototype, a wideout at least 6 feet tall and in the 200-pound range, a guy who can fight through jams and get clean releases and who can ride cornerbacks off the ball when necessary. The preponderance of West Coast-style offenses, which mandate bigger and more receivers, launched a trend that isn't about to subside, even with traditionally smaller and quicker players making a splash.

[124]

Santana is 110% correct. He never did get enough chances and enough balls thrown his way in New York. It's a shame. I was a big Moss guy and a big Coles guy and I liked the trade but now, wow, we should've kept Moss, I can at least admit that I was wrong and know that the trade we thought would work mircacles for us turned out to bite us in the ass.

I'll be at the Redskins @ Giants game on the 30th cheering Moss and my man Portis on.

[Barton]

Santana is 110% correct. He never did get enough chances and enough balls thrown his way in New York. It's a shame. I was a big Moss guy and a big Coles guy and I liked the trade but now, wow, we should've kept Moss, I can at least admit that I was wrong and know that the trade we thought would work mircacles for us turned out to bite us in the a$$.

I'll be at the Redskins @ Giants game on the 30th cheering Moss and my man Portis on.

Retard, Moss has played in 5 frickin games.

You guys are unbelievable. You really think Moss would do the same right now if he was on the Jets.

Just wait till he tweaks his hamstring again, I'll dig up this thread and throw it back in your face.

Coles is 5x the WR that Santana is. You guys are unbelievable. WOW, 5 games and now Sideline Santana is the greatest. He's a pussy.

[124]

Retard, Moss has played in 5 frickin games.

You guys are unbelievable. You really think Moss would do the same right now if he was on the Jets.

Just wait till he tweaks his hamstring again, I'll dig up this thread and throw it back in your face.

Coles is 5x the WR that Santana is. You guys are unbelievable. WOW, 5 games and now Sideline Santana is the greatest. He's a pu$$y.

Whatever man. You are the one who will be eating crow.

[Jetsfan80]

Whatever man. You are the one who will be eating crow.

No receiver can be consistently effective when playing with Chad Pennington at the NFL level. I believe trading Moss for Coles was the right move. Signing Chad Pennington to a $64 million deal was not (and I said this at the time of the signing, too, so don't question me, assholes).