Washington Football Team: Who’s WFT’s secret weapon at WR?

After two years of having no receiver other than Terry McLaurin have over 500 yards receiving, the Washington Football Team completed a much-need revamp of its WR room this offseason.

Can you guess who the last receiver besides McLaurin to have over 500 yards receiving in a season was? No other than perennial underachiever, Josh Doctson. Sad but true.

With the new pieces that Washington added, WR2 through WR4 could theoretically all be held by players that were not on the roster last year. Many fans were excited about the addition of Curtis Samuel, but there is an underrated secret weapon most analysts have overlooked.

Which WR is being overlooked by the Washington Football Team?

Let’s start with a quick comparison by looking at the receiving stats of two players in their age 23 season.

• Player 1: 54 receptions, 627 receiving yards, 6 receiving touchdowns, 51.4% catch percentage
• Player 2: 55 receptions, 622 receiving yards, 2 receiving touchdowns, 66.3% catch percentage

Fairly similar numbers, but let’s take it a step further and look at each player’s best overall season thus far in their career.

• Player 1: 77 receptions, 851 receiving yards, 3 receiving touchdowns, 79.4% catch percentage, 109.2 passer rating when targeted
• Player 2: 76 receptions, 816 receiving yards, 5 receiving touchdowns, 72.4% catch percentage, 106.7 passer rating when targeted

Looking at the numbers, you would think a team would be pretty lucky to have both of these players on their roster, and in Washington’s case, I guess they are.

Player 1 is none other than Curtis Samuel, who signed a three-year, $34.5 million with the Football Team this offseason.

Who is Player 2, you ask? Well, that is Washington’s underrated secret weapon, Adam Humphries, who inked a one-year, $1.19 million deal with the team this offseason.

Yes, I understand Samuel is a Swiss-Army knife who can also contribute out of the backfield, but when comparing pure receiving numbers, the two players actually have a lot in common.

Most people forget that Humphries is only 28 years old, but on top of that, he has benefitted from low usage throughout his career, never appearing in over 70% of a team’s offensive snaps in a season.

For comparison’s sake, Humphries has 3,147 career offensive snaps, compared to 4,739 for Stefon Diggs and 4,009 for Jamison Crowder, who both entered the league the same year. Ideally, this should signal that Humphries has minimal wear and tear on his slight frame.

Taking it a step further, Humphries’ best year occurred with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the same season that none other than Washington’s projected starting quarterback for 2021, Ryan Fitzpatrick, was also on the roster.

Thus far in training camp, it has been clear that the pair has been able to build upon their familiarity, with Humphries catching five passes in one session. Fitzpatrick and Humphries also stayed late after some practices to get in additional work.

Humphries, who was an undrafted free agent entering the league, also epitomizes the type of player that head coach Ron Rivera likes having on the roster. He had to work his way onto the roster as a rookie and had to earn his stripes and showed he belonged as compared to those who were drafted early.

In 2018, his best statistical year, Humphries had the same passer rating when targeted as Keenan Allen, while besting his teammate, Chris Godwin, in the category as well.  That same year, he also had a lower drop percentage than his other teammate, Mike Evans.

He finished with the 10th most YAC among WRs and had the 8th best catch percentage among receivers with 70+ targets, besting Keenan Allen and DeAndre Hopkins.

Still not convinced? He also broke the 13th most tackles in 2018, tied with Alvin Kamara, Travis Kelce, Christian McCaffrey, and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Mind you, he is only 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds. If that doesn’t show the heart and physicality of a player, I don’t know what does.

Yes, Humphries’ numbers did drop drastically with the Titans over the last two seasons. Some of that was due to an ankle injury and concussion that caused him to miss time, as well as switching to a run-heavy offense with Derrick Henry as the focal point.

The Bucs had the top-ranked passing offense in 2018, compared to the Titans who had a bottom- tier passing offense in 2019 and 2020, attempting the third-fewest and second-fewest pass attempts in those two seasons, respectively.

Despite a dip in his stats with the Titans, advanced analytics show that Humphries maintained a high level of play on the field, while making the most of his opportunities.

In 2019, the only wide receiver with a higher catch percentage than Humphries in the league was Michael Thomas. If that wasn’t impressive enough, he only had one drop that entire season.

Since 2016, according to Pro Football Network’s Offensive Share Metric, which is “determined using only the factors under an individual’s control” and “give[s] a true indication of how a player maximizes his opportunities,” Humphries has been a top 10 receiver in the NFL.

Now, am I expecting Humphries to have a 1,000-yard season? Of course not, but given Curtis Samuel’s injury status, it sure will help to have a slot WR that can make plays like this:

Last season it was Logan Thomas, let’s see if Washington can strike gold with Humphries. With the season kicking off in less than a month, we won’t have to wait long for the answer.