Oakland Raiders: A Measure of Team Strength for Context of Great Wide Receivers

Most people believe that the wide receivers are the guys who get the points in many of the NFL games. Here is a chart of data of several outstanding Oakland Raiders who were wide receivers.

One comparison uses only the first three years that each player was cited as the outstanding wide receiver. Other observations are made.

506	strongest team		Branch	6
418	strongest team		Biletnikoff	3
362	strongest team		Wells	3
137			Brown	10
124	median		Powell	5
113			Christensen	3
37			Rice	2
-25			Fernandez	3
-268			Miller	3
-279	least strong		Curry	2

One observation is that Cliff Branch, Fred Biletnikoff and Warren Wells were outstanding and if we use point difference as a measure of team strength, they were on stronger teams than some of the other wide receivers.

Here is another table:

Brown	Wells	Branch	Powell	Biletnikoff		418	Biletnikoff		3 of 3
72	7	60	4	117		362	Wells		3 of 3
180	135	58	27	66		313	Brown		3 of 10
61	220	28	59	235		146	Branch		3 of 6
313	362	146	90	418		90	Powell		3 of 5
						First three years

Another observation is that Biletnikoff and Wells rank above Brown, Branch and Powell when we consider the context of team strength. The comparison is also narrowed to the first three years that they are cited as outstanding wide receivers.

This discussion is descriptive. One thing that is learned is that outstanding wide receivers in the context of a strong team as measured by point difference helps to further distinguish the wide receivers.

What do you think?