by Ryan Bush
The uneducated perception holds that a receiver who doesn’t catch a prescribed amount of passes is underachieving, or simply isn’t very good. The common concurrence being that those who do are totally worthwhile.
Which is completely ludicrous.
Consider: Roy
Williams had 25+ catch seasons in each of his last two years with the
Cowboys. It didn’t mean he was a good
player. Tony Romo didn’t trust him. Never did.
Romo couldn’t even get on the same page with Williams.
The knock on Kevin Ogletree has always been about his lack
of productivity. After catching only 14
passes last season, his third in the league, his spot on the team entering
training camp was tenuous at best.
Which might be slightly unfair when taking all things into
consideration.
Let’s remember the teams that Ogletree has been a part of
and the talent surrounding him. Dez
Bryant. Jason Witten. Laurent Robinson. Miles Austin.
Even Felix Jones. Ogletree didn’t catch many passes because there weren’t that
many for him to catch. Bottom-line.
Without dismissing the potential for vast improvement, last
season wasn’t any indication of a lack of talent on Ogletree’s part, or the
final straw for head coach Jason Garrett.
In fact, the reality of the situation was that the Cowboys were waiting
on him to fill the void left when Laurent Robinson signed with Jacksonville this past
off-season. So Ogletree hit the weights to improve his upper-body
strength and trained harder to improve his physical conditioning.
A few months later, on the first Wednesday night game in the
NFL’s modern era, Ogletree and the Dallas Cowboys reaped the benefits of it, as
Ogletree tallied 114 yards receiving and two touchdowns on eight receptions –
more than half of the previous year’s total – in an upset win at the New York
Giants.
Some players are overrated, while others are overhyped. And some, like Ogletree, simply need a chance
to stick their foot in the door.
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