With the graduation of Kenny McKinley and Jared Cook's choice to forego his senior season and enter the NFL draft, this was something of an area of need for us. We do have a number of talented young receivers on our roster (many of them from our 2006-07 recruiting class that will be juniors this coming year), and Weslye Saunders will capably fill Cook's shoes as a receiving threat at TE. However, while Dion LeCorn, Moe Brown, and Jason Barnes have shown potential at times, none of the young receivers have proven that they can capably fill the roles played by McKinley and Sidney Rice before him. We also need depth behind Saunders, as he is now our only TE with gametime experience.
Luckily, we landed quite a haul at these two positions. We signed five WRs: DeMario Bennett (two stars), Charles Holmes (two), Alshon Jeffery (four), Lamar Scruggs (four), and DeAngelo Smith (three). We signed one TE, Justice Cunningham (two). Jeffery and Scruggs were major pickups. Both are big, fast receivers with soft hands, and both will be in the mix for earning playing time come spring practice. While the other receivers were not highly recruited, they will be given the opportunity to prove themselves and, at the worst, will give us depth if the injury bug hits us. Cunningham was not a big name either, but he was recruited by NC State and Michigan State and looks to have potential. Moreover, at this point we mainly need him for depth in case Saunders gets injured.
I'm going to give this portion of our class an A-. I would have liked to see us go after a more highly touted TE, but Cunningham looks to be a decent project and the rest of the haul is spectacular. Getting both Jeffery and Scruggs was a major coup and will give us elite depth at WR for years to come.