The 2020 wide receiver draft class is going to go down as a special one. While there is plenty of top-end talent to get excited over, Darnell Mooney has to be recognized as the sleeper of the draft class right now. Can you believe that Mooney was the 22nd wide receiver drafted in his own class?
If many teams had a do-over, they surely would re-evaluate. So, knowing what we know now, where would Darnell Mooney rank amongst these wide receivers.
Below you can see the list of wide receivers selected in order, so we can see who exactly went over Darnell Mooney.
| Game | Game | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | Rece | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Age | Draft ▲ | AV | G | GS | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Y/G | Ctch% | Y/Tgt |
| 1 | Henry Ruggs III | 21 | 1-12 | 4 | 13 | 12 | 43 | 26 | 452 | 17.38 | 2 | 34.8 | 60.5% | 10.51 |
| 2 | Jerry Jeudy | 21 | 1-15 | 5 | 16 | 14 | 113 | 52 | 856 | 16.46 | 3 | 53.5 | 46.0% | 7.58 |
| 3 | CeeDee Lamb | 21 | 1-17 | 8 | 16 | 14 | 111 | 74 | 935 | 12.64 | 5 | 58.4 | 66.7% | 8.42 |
| 4 | Jalen Reagor | 21 | 1-21 | 4 | 11 | 11 | 54 | 31 | 396 | 12.77 | 1 | 36.0 | 57.4% | 7.33 |
| 5 | Justin Jefferson | 21 | 1-22 | 12 | 16 | 14 | 125 | 88 | 1400 | 15.91 | 7 | 87.5 | 70.4% | 11.20 |
| 6 | Brandon Aiyuk | 22 | 1-25 | 6 | 12 | 11 | 96 | 60 | 748 | 12.47 | 5 | 62.3 | 62.5% | 7.79 |
| 7 | Tee Higgins | 21 | 2-33 | 6 | 16 | 14 | 108 | 67 | 908 | 13.55 | 6 | 56.8 | 62.0% | 8.41 |
| 8 | Michael Pittman Jr. | 23 | 2-34 | 4 | 13 | 8 | 61 | 40 | 503 | 12.58 | 1 | 38.7 | 65.6% | 8.25 |
| 9 | Laviska Shenault Jr. | 22 | 2-42 | 5 | 14 | 12 | 79 | 58 | 600 | 10.34 | 5 | 42.9 | 73.4% | 7.59 |
| 10 | KJ Hamler | 21 | 2-46 | 3 | 13 | 4 | 56 | 30 | 381 | 12.70 | 3 | 29.3 | 53.6% | 6.80 |
| 11 | Chase Claypool | 22 | 2-49 | 7 | 16 | 6 | 109 | 62 | 873 | 14.08 | 9 | 54.6 | 56.9% | 8.01 |
| 12 | Van Jefferson | 24 | 2-57 | 1 | 16 | 0 | 31 | 19 | 220 | 11.58 | 1 | 13.8 | 61.3% | 7.10 |
| 13 | Denzel Mims | 23 | 2-59 | 2 | 9 | 8 | 44 | 23 | 357 | 15.52 | 0 | 39.7 | 52.3% | 8.11 |
| 14 | Lynn Bowden Jr. | 23 | 3-80 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 37 | 28 | 211 | 7.54 | 0 | 21.1 | 75.7% | 5.70 |
| 15 | Bryan Edwards | 22 | 3-81 | 2 | 12 | 3 | 15 | 11 | 193 | 17.55 | 1 | 16.1 | 73.3% | 12.87 |
| 16 | Devin Duvernay | 23 | 3-92 | 4 | 16 | 3 | 26 | 20 | 201 | 10.05 | 0 | 12.6 | 76.9% | 7.73 |
| 17 | Gabriel Davis | 21 | 4-128 | 6 | 16 | 11 | 62 | 35 | 599 | 17.11 | 7 | 37.4 | 56.5% | 9.66 |
| 18 | Tyler Johnson | 22 | 5-161 | 2 | 14 | 3 | 17 | 12 | 169 | 14.08 | 2 | 12.1 | 70.6% | 9.94 |
| 19 | Collin Johnson | 23 | 5-165 | 2 | 14 | 0 | 31 | 18 | 272 | 15.11 | 2 | 19.4 | 58.1% | 8.77 |
| 20 | Quintez Cephus | 22 | 5-166 | 3 | 13 | 2 | 35 | 20 | 349 | 17.45 | 2 | 26.8 | 57.1% | 9.97 |
| 21 | John Hightower | 24 | 5-168 | 1 | 13 | 4 | 29 | 10 | 167 | 16.70 | 0 | 12.8 | 34.5% | 5.76 |
| 22 | Darnell Mooney | 23 | 5-173 | 6 | 16 | 9 | 98 | 61 | 631 | 10.34 | 4 | 39.4 | 62.2% | 6.44 |
| 23 | Donovan Peoples-Jones | 21 | 6-187 | 2 | 12 | 2 | 20 | 14 | 304 | 21.71 | 2 | 25.3 | 70.0% | 15.20 |
| 24 | Quez Watkins | 22 | 6-200 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 13 | 7 | 106 | 15.14 | 1 | 17.7 | 53.8% | 8.15 |
| 25 | Freddie Swain | 22 | 6-214 | 2 | 16 | 1 | 21 | 13 | 159 | 12.23 | 2 | 9.9 | 61.9% | 7.57 |
Raw Stats
Of the 25 receivers who had more than 10 targets, Mooney ranks fifth In the draft class in targets. He was behind Justin Jefferson, CeeDee Lamb, Tee Higgins, and Chase Claypool. The same group is ahead of him in receptions, but Mooney did fall to 7th in yards. Those four, plus Brandon Aiyuk and Jerry Jeudy rank ahead of Mooney in yards as a rookie.
Add in Laviska Shenault, and Mooney ranks 8th in touchdowns amongst this group.
Efficiency
Some of the issues come with his efficiency. You can see that three players had more TDs and yards despite fewer catches and targets. Mooney actually ranked 24th in yards per reception and yards per target of this group.
Some of that comes down to quarterback play, but Mooney needs to take more advantage of his catches.
Advanced Stats
Using PFF, we looked at some advanced stats including his yards per route run. Again, he ran a lot of routes, but others were more efficient per route. He ranked 20th with 1.2 yards per route run. That is behind names such as Gabriel Davis, Jalen Reagor, and Henry Ruggs.
Some of this is quarterback missing him, but he also ranks 18th in yards after the catch per receptions. We noticed this with his lack of special teams usage that he is much more linear and straight line and is not much of a lateral mover who can break ankles with quick cuts.
For what it is worth, he did rank 4th in drop rate and of all seven had the highest drop rate. Names higher than him include Bryan Edwards, Jalen Reagor, and Freddie Swain.
Lastly, he was 4-14 on contested catches, which was sixth-best. In this area, he was behind Shenault, Higgins, Jefferson, Jeudy, Claypool, and Lamb. AKA, the usual suspects.
Overall Ranking
When you consider where they were drafted, you will take Mooney over Henry Ruggs every time. Overall, Ruggs did have better efficiency, his issue was just far less volume than Mooney. Still, Mooney deserves credit for that volume.
Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, Brandon Aiyuk, Tee Higgins, and Chase Claypool all had better rookie seasons and it is hard to deny that.
Laviska Shenault can argue his splash plays were bigger impacts as well, and it is not like he had a great QB.
We can say that seven receivers were deservedly drafted higher.
On the flip side, Bryan Edwards, John Hightower, Quintez Cephus, Collin Johnson, Tyler Johnson, Devin Duvernay, Lynn Bowden, KJ Hamler, and Van Jefferson did not have seasons that can have them comparing with Mooney quite yet. Those are eight he outperformed without a doubt.
Michael Pittman, Henry Ruggs, Jalen Reagor, Denzel Mims, and Gabriel Davis are players where it can go either way. Check out their comparisons below.
"View post on imgur.com"
Mooney had more volume but was less efficient than all of them. In fact, Mims had more yards per game, he just played fewer games. Davis had more touchdowns and yards per catch on two fewer yards per game. Pittman had just 0.7 fewer catches and 0.7 fewer yards per game.
It is also interesting to see how many of them had rushing attempts as rookies, including Mooney. It is clear this is the correct tier for him to be in, however you place him.
So, when we combine our pre-draft notions, their rookie season volume, and their efficiency, we see the rookies shake out something like this
Tier 1
1. Justin Jefferson
2. CeeDee Lamb
3. Tee Higgins
4. Chase Claypool
5. Jerry Jeudy
6. Brandon Aiyuk
7. Laviska Shenault
Tier 2
8. Denzel Mims
9. Michael Pittman
10. Gabriel Davis
11. Darnell Mooney
12. Henry Ruggs
13. Jalen Reagor
Tier 3
14. KJ Hamler
15. Bryan Edwards
16. Donovan Peoples-Jones
17. Quintez Cephus
18. Van Jefferson
19. Colin Johnson
20. Devin Duvernay
At the lowest of lows, you would have to take him as the 13th or 14th wide receiver which is pretty good considering he was drafted as the 22nd overall wide receiver. Still, realistically he is right near the top 10 in this class. Now, that is a great pick as the 22nd overall WR.
It will be interesting to see if any of the other receivers taken behind him can find their feet in year two. Beyond that, with an improvement in quarterback play, we could be seeing a much better Mooney and one who shoots into that top seven that does look to be special.