The next piece in our best/worst drafting series involves the wide receiver position.  We have previously looked at the teams who have mastered the art of selecting receivers and now we’re going to look at the teams who have often missed the mark.

New England Patriots

Trying to say the Patriots do anything bad with the amount of success they have achieved since Bill Belichick has arrived seems a bit ludicrous. There is a system in place in New England where Belichick and his staff maximize the potential of the players who appear to have the least potential prior to arriving at Gillette Stadium.

Even before Bill Belichick took over in 2000 after the departure of Pete Carroll, the Patriots have never found that elite receiver prospect in the NFL Draft.

One of the team’s all-time greats, Stanley Morgan, was drafted with the 25th overall pick in the 1977 NFL Draft. He spent his career in New England on mediocre teams that could barely reach .500 during his tenure (1977-89).

New England’s other first-round pick who played nearly a decade later is about as good as it gets for the Patriots.

They took Irving Fryar with the No. 1 overall selection in 1984, but remember the NFL Draft was being raided at the time by the USFL. Fryar was about as good as it got with the players that were available. Solid, not spectacular would be the best way to describe Fryar, who played 17-years in the NFL (1984-92 in New England) and made one Pro Bowl with the Patriots.

There is reason to consider the Patriots one of the worst teams “Drafting” receivers since Belichick began his legendary career.

New England has taken 12 receivers under the command of Belichick and none have ever turned out to be anything more than an above average at best and that is being generous in the evaluation.

Taking it a step further, if you subtract their 2002 draft when they selected Deion Branch (second-round) and David Givens (seventh-round), the team has failed miserably at identifying talent regarding the receiver position. The others included in the category are Bethel Johnson (2003), P.K. Sam (2004), Chad Jackson (2006), Matt Slater (2008), Brandon Tate (2009), Taylor Price (2010), Jeremy Ebert (2012), Aaron Dobson (2013), Josh Boyce (2013) and Jeremy Gallon (2014).

From 2006-12, the Patriots had a non-drafted Patriot receiver lead the team in receiving yards.

Cleveland Browns

Quickly name the top three receivers in the history of the Cleveland Browns franchise.

The gimme pick is easily Paul Warfield, who played eight-years in Cleveland and finishing his last five years in the league with the Miami Dolphins. Warfield ended up enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame due to his big play ability, averaging 20.1 yards per catch over his 13-year NFL career.

Warfield is now off the board – Who is next?

Remember Ozzie Newsome is the team’s all-time leader in every receiving category, but he was the team’s starting tight end and not a receiver. Ray Renfro is deserving of the accolades after his long career in Cleveland from 1952-63, but is not on the level of the greats of the game. He slides into the second place behind Warfield leaving us one player to consider top three all-time.

Who is the third best ever in Cleveland?

Would you say Webster Slaughter? Does Michael Jackson get the nod?

Breaking down the history of this historic and proud franchise, the blemish on their draft evaluations certainly revolves around their destitute results surrounding the position of receiver.

The category of receptions and receiving yards all-time for Cleveland had three players who did not play receiver.

Newsome is No. 1 overall, followed by two running backs, Greg Pruitt and Earnest Byner. The team’s all-time leading receiver in receptions is Brian Brennan who played from 1984-91 in Cleveland and finished his career with 315 catches.  Jerry Rice, the NFL’s all-time leading receiver finished his career with 1,549 receptions, a pretty substantial difference.

It is possible to say Cleveland is triumphant at being the worst in the NFL.

New York Jets

Don Maynard arguably could be the New York Jets greatest receiver ever.

However he was not drafted by the Jets.

He was drafted by the other team in New York, the Giants in 1958. Maynard leaves the void of receivers left that were drafted by the Jets a little deflated on talent.

Keyshawn Johnson was last receiver to be selected with the No. 1 pick overall in the NFL Draft (1996). Johnson played under scrutiny from his book titled ‘Just Give Me the Damn Ball’ that covered his rookie season experiences. Friction between Johnson and the Jets eventually led to him be traded from New York.

Johnson played in New York from 1996-99 and was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Not exactly the lineage a team wants when they select a prospect with the top overall pick in the NFL Draft. Johnson and former Jets running back Richie Anderson are equal in all-time receptions (305) again validating the disappointment with the selection.

Wayne Chrebet is the modern day favorite of Jets receivers. He is second all-time in receptions (580) and fifth overall in Jets history in receiving yards (7,365). He personified the personality of the team with his blue-collar mentality and was the opposite of Johnson with his non-flashy style. Unfortunately, Chrebet was not drafted by the New York Jets. Leaving college out of Hofstra in 1995 he went undrafted.

Wesley Walker and Al Toon are the two guys on the drafted list of New York Jets that grade out near the top in the history of the franchise. They combined to total five Pro Bowl selections.

The Jets have not totally whiffed on drafting receiver prospects, but none of the players drafted ever turned into elite prospects that change the game. Walker was good and Toon as well. A player like Laveranues Coles was solid, but not held in the same breath as players like Randy Moss or Jerry Rice.

The clincher for placing them on the list was one round after drafting Johnson with the No. 1 overall pick, the Jets used the first pick in the second-round on wideout Alex Van Dyke. He played three years in New York and caught 26 passes for 219 yards and three touchdowns in his brief and unsuccessful career in New York.