Short Slot Receivers
This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Sept. 19 NFL Preview II Issue. Subscribe today!
- “The slot receiver’s kind of the quarterback of the receivers,” he said in 2015. “More so because the slot receiver has more responsibilities in terms of reading coverages and different adjustments based on what coverages you’re seeing. It’s a lot more complicated. You have to know a lot more.
- Slot receivers and advanced passing concepts also came into the NFL via the 'Run 'n Shoot.' Kiffin covered the short and intermediate routes with five shallow zones across the middle of the.
- The New England Patriots spent more than decade developing shifty, smart and crafty slot receivers such as Wes Welker and Julian Edelman, weapons who routinely ran option routes and provided check.
- Not just a slot receiver. It's easy to picture the smallest receiver on a football field lining up in the slot, running short patterns with precise footwork to get open in the flat or over the.
Fast, quick and electric after the catch, a new brand of wide receiver is striking fear into the NFL. With smaller frames and the change-of-direction ability to win in the open field, these cats mesh perfectly in today's offenses. They have the formation flexibility and versatility at the position to win on all three levels of the route tree. They are wild-cards in the offensive game plan and pro defenses are struggling to match up.
In Episode 2, a pair of notable slot receivers - Julian Edelman and Jarvis Landry - were revealed at Nos. 90 and 84, respectively. With that in mind, Cynthia Frelund unveils her top projected.
In 2011, just nine receivers less than 6-foot tall were in the top 50 in receiving yards. However, in 2015, 16 players made the cut. With NFL defenses trending toward longer, taller cornerbacks to counter the Calvin Johnson-type wide receivers, these shorter wideouts are exposing coverages in wide-open offenses.
We've already examined how to build a perfect monsterback, the new hybrid defenders. Here's how to dream up a nightmare wide receiver:
Randall Cobb
5-10, 192 pounds Green Bay Packers
INSTINCTS: Cobb can run inside routes from the slot, bump outside and even align at running back, so the Packers can take advantage of his evasive instincts. Last season he averaged 5.5 yards after the catch, and he has rushed for more than 300 in his career, at 7.6 yards per attempt.
Odell Beckham Jr.
5-11, 198 pounds New York Giants
BALL SKILLS: Beckham ranked third in the NFL last season with 96.7 YPG receiving and had 13 TDs. But it's his ball skills that stand out. This guy can -- and does -- catch anything. He's an electric talent with the ability to change games.
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Julian Edelman
5-10, 200 pounds New England Patriots
TOUGHNESS: Edelman owns the underneath passing tree, using option routes, inside breaking cuts and quick outs to move the sticks. A smooth route runner with toughness in traffic, Edelman caught 61 passes last season in just nine games, with 37 receptions going for first downs.
Brandin Cooks
5-10, 189 pounds New Orleans Saints
SPEED: Cooks is lightning in a bottle. He has top-end speed to test any secondary and an incredible burst once he catches the ball. With 13.5 yards per reception in 2015, he is a vertical threat for the Saints and causes matchup problems all over the field.
Doug Baldwin
5-10, 192 pounds Seattle Seahawks
HEART: Baldwin is a physical, ultracompetitive player with the route-running skills to create space. The former undrafted free agent tore up the league during the second half of the 2015 season, finishing with an NFL-best 14 TDs along with 1,069 yards receiving.
Golden Tate
5-10, 198 pounds Detroit Lions
CHANGE OF DIRECTION: Tate turns into a running back after the catch with his smooth cutbacks, dekes and double dekes; it's fun to watch defenders miss. But Tate is physical on contact, too. In 2015, he averaged 5.8 yards after the catch. You don't want to see this guy in the open field. He's flat-out nasty.
Antonio Brown
5-10, 181 pounds Pittsburgh Steelers
ROUTE-RUNNING: The top route runner in the NFL, Brown puts on a clinic at the break point. It's all there: footwork, acceleration out of cuts and consistent separation back to the football. Over the past two seasons, he has produced 265 receptions -- the most in a two-year span.
ROOKIE SPEEDSTERS: THE REINFORCEMENTS
Sterling Shepard
5-10, 194 pounds New York Giants
Scouts love Shepard's polished routes at Oklahoma. Last season he averaged 99.1 YPG and had 11 TDs. He has the speed (4.48 seconds in the 40) and footwork to produce immediately working opposite Beckham.
Braxton Miller
6-1, 204 pounds Houston Texans
With one year of WR experience, Miller is still raw but stands out with his athleticism, lateral speed and versatility to align at multiple positions. The former Ohio State QB averaged 6.6 yards after the catch last season.
Short Slot Receivers Players
Corey Coleman
5-11, 185 pounds Cleveland Browns
At Baylor in '15, Coleman led the nation with 20 TDs and averaged 18.4 yards per catch. He'll have to develop his route-running, but he has deep speed and the acceleration to run through a secondary after the catch.
Will Fuller
6-1, 172 pounds Houston Texans
With 4.32 speed and slick route-running, Fuller can straight fly. Last year at Notre Dame, he produced 20.3 yards per catch with 14 TDs. Fuller and DeAndre Hopkins make for a nice combo on the outside for the Texans.
In the 2019 regular and postseason, per Pro Football Focus data, slot receivers regardless of position (receivers, running backs, and tight ends) accounted for 32% of all targets, 31.6% of all receptions, 32.3% of all receiving yardage, and 34.3% of all receiving touchdowns. In a league where the three-receiver set is by far the default formation (it happened on 69% of all snaps last season, per Sports Info Solutions), having a versatile and productive slot receiver is an absolute necessity in the modern passing game.
Moreover, there is no one kind of slot receiver in the modern NFL. It used to be that you wanted the shorter, smaller guy inside, and your bigger, more physical receivers on the outside. Then, offensive coaches started to realize that by putting bigger receivers and tight ends in the slot, you could create mismatches with slower linebackers and smaller slot cornerbacks. Teams countered this by acquiring linebackers built like safeties, eager to do more than just chase after run fits, and also by moving their best cornerbacks into the slot in certain situations.
Now that offensive and defensive coaches have worked hard to create as many schematic and personnel ties in the slot as possible, the best slot receivers are the ones who consistently show the ideal characteristics for the position. These receivers know how to exploit defenders who don’t have a boundary to help them — they’ll create inside and outside position to move the defender where they want him to go. They understand the value and precision of the option route, and how you can hang a defender out to dry with a simple “if this/then that” equation based on coverage rules. They know how to work in concert with their outside receivers to create route combinations which create impossible math problems for defenses. And they know how to get open in quick spaces.
Top Nfl Slot Receivers
But don’t automatically assume that slot receivers are just taking the dink-and-dunk routes — they’re actually tasked to catch everything from quick slants to vertical stuff down the seam and up the numbers. Last season, per PFF data, the NFL average for yards per completion for outside receivers was 11.28. For slot receivers, it was 11.63. So, over time and based on the play design and the makeup of the receivers, teams could find just that many more yards by throwing to their slot targets.
The best slot receivers in the game bring unique and highly valuable traits to the game, and here are the best among them.
More Top 11 lists: Slot defenders Outside cornerbacks Safeties Linebackers Edge defenders Interior defensive linemen Offensive tackles Offensive guards Centers Outside Receivers
Honorable Mentions
Had we dropped the qualifying floor to under 50% slot snaps, two guys would have easily made it — Tampa Bay’s Mike Evans, and Baltimore’s Marquise Goodwin. Evans led all slot receivers with at least 25 targets with a passer rating when targeted of 151.3, and Brown was an absolute force against defenses in the slot — especially when he was using his speed in empty formations.
San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel, who was probably the MVP of the first half of Super Bowl LIV before things started to go backward for his team, would have received a mention as well — Samuel had just 33 targets, but caught 28 of them and helped his quarterback to a 135.3 rating when he was targeted in the slot. Kansas City speed receiver Mecole Hardman had just 23 a lot targets, but he was also highly efficient with them, helping his quarterbacks to a 133.9 rating. Though Danny Amendola was the only Lions receiver to make the 50% threshold, both Marvin Jones and Kenny Golladay were highly efficient when tasked to move inside. Other former slot stars like Tyreek Hill of the Chiefs and Minnesota’s Adam Thielen saw their roles change more to the outside in 2019 from previous seasons.
Of the receivers who actually qualified, Nelson Agholor of the Eagles was quietly efficient and had just two drops in the slot last season — which would go against several memes on the subject. Buffalo’s Cole Beasley just missed the cut, through he was one of several receivers on the Bills’ roster who didn’t always get the accuracy and efficiency they deserved from quarterback Josh Allen. And though Randall Cobb was productive for the Cowboys last season and should be so for the Texans in 2020, his nine drops as a slot man… well, we can only have one guy with nine slot drops on this list. More on that in a minute.
Nfl Defense Vs Slot Receiver
Now, on to the top 11.
Best Slot Receivers
Willie Snead IV Julian Edelman Tyler Boyd Jared Cook Golden Tate Keenan Allen Larry Fitzgerald Allen Robinson Cooper Kupp Chris Godwin Tyler Lockett