Kevin Sheehan opens by reading these comments from a listener named Brad: "My two cents on your nagging of Terry McLaurin... [his] numbers aren't the whole story, Kevin. He's not a major focus of the offensive coordinator. He's played with bad quarterbacks until this year and you don't give him nearly enough credit for being a good blocker."
Sheehan concedes that McLaurin is a good blocker and deserves credit for that. That he has had to deal with sub-par play from the quarterback position for his entire career in Washington and a "revolving door" of quarterbacks – eight in the past three seasons – who can't exactly pass muster.And that Brad is also right that Eric Bieniemy has not made it a priority to feed the ball to McLaurin.
McLaurin, who turned 28 earlier this year, has 694 yards on 60 receptions (97 targets) through 12 games in his fifth season. McLaurin also only has two touchdowns and 11.6 yards per catch, both would be career lows.
But, while Sheehan believes McLaurin is a really good receiver, he's not an elite one: "He's not a strap the team to his back, take over the game wide receiver."
"He's a No. 1 receiver in this league because you gotta have 32 No. 1s, but really I think we all have a sense of what a true No. 1 receiver is in this league is and some of the 32 teams don't have one," Sheehan continued. "I just don't see Terry in the same way that some of you do. I think there's a major drop-off between the truly elite receivers in this game and Terry McLaurin."
For Sheehan, there is a top tier of Tyreek Hill, Devante Adams, Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, AJ Brown and maybe Stefon Diggs. "That is the list of elite and then there is a drop to the next tier and I'm not even sure if Terry is in that tier," he said.
Sheehan then rattles off six to seven other receivers who belong in the second tier before he gets to McLaurin, who is good but not great. Listen to the full segment for the full conversation on the audio player above.