Yes, those 15 TDs last season by Brown was more of what I expect from the supposedly best WR in football. But for a supposed HOF WR like Brown to barely average 8 TDs a season over 9 years?? That sucks, especially when you are targeted and featured so much. Again where are the touchdowns??
Funny, how he was never able to produce that lofty total until he had another WR like JuJu to take some of the pressure off of him.
I am sorry, but everyone goes on and on about Brown and replacing those 15 TDs but it won't be hard at all. Ben does not care about your pedigree, of if you are a high drat pick or a lowly free agent, or whatever. He is going to throw TDs and continue to be a top QB regardless, he will make players rise up and become stars.
Ward had 11 TDs in a season with Ben, Mike Wallace had 10 TDs with Ben throwing to him, Cotchery had 10 TDs with Ben.
Ben has had 3 other WRs go over 1250+ yards receiving in a season, Holmes, Wallace and JuJu. If they had signed Burress instead of letting him leave for the Giants Ben would have done great things with him too.
Ben and the offense we have is made for WRs to do well and be productive, that is just fact. It was a perfect storm of events that led to Brown being the beneficiary of an offense that gave him so many targets and opportunities. It simply wasn't that he was this generational talent, he had talent and work ethic but he really did strike the lottery, he had everything any WR could ever want. Larry Fitzgerald understands this, he even commented as much this offseason.
The Raiders are going to find out just how much of a difference Ben was to AB. Those were some tight windows throwing to Brown, AB did not get that open, there were a lot of ballsy throws that Ben had to make, there were a lot of busted, scramble drills that Ben pulled off and gave AB time to uncover. I don't think you can just assume that Carr can do the same, or that another team, another offense can just replicate that. Carr was sacked, what was it, 51 times last season?? I see Brown causing Carr to throw way more INTs this season. Signing Laundry Jones seems to me to be confirmation that Gruden is hedging his bets, trying to figure out how to get the most of Brown, the transition, by having a QB who knew the Steeler offense and how to get Brown his touches.
The catch percentage that Brown had last year was 61.9%, the year before it was 62%, 5 years ago it was at 70%. It has been on a downward trend for 5 years, getting worse and worse. The Steelers needed to throw to Brown more and more because he was actually catching less and less of those targets. I think Brown will struggle with the Raiders. I don't think Carr has the arm talent of Ben, I don't think he has the improvisational skills of Ben.