Miami receivers must step up/ PFF analysis of last year and how Hurricanes did in relation to other ACC WRs
When you look at Pro Football Focus’s top 10 highest-graded receivers returning to the ACC in 2023, six different programs have players listed, and three have multiple wideouts featured, but one school you will not see on that list is the Miami Hurricanes.
Well, you might be wondering, with no Hurricanes making the top 10 list, who is the highest-graded returner for Miami?
That would be junior Xavier Restrepo, who, in limited action, graded out with 74.7, which would have put him just outside of the top ten of the highest-graded returning wideouts in the ACC.
The other seven Miami players that saw action last year have grades that are slightly lower than Restrepo’s, with Brashard Smith the second highest graded wideout with a 68.4, followed by Jacolby George (64.2), Colbie Young (63), Tyler Harrell (60.3), Michael Redding (59.5), Frank Ladson (58.5), and Isaiah Horton (49.5).
It was well documented that the Hurricanes struggled to find consistent production from the receivers last season, with Miami’s leading receiver being tight end Will Mallory, who led the team with 47 receptions and 538 yards.
But last season under former Miami offensive coordinator Josh Gattis wasn’t the only time the Hurricanes’ position group struggled. In the previous five seasons, Miami had just one 1,000-yard receiver, Charleston Rambo, who had 1,172 yards in 2021.
If you look across the nation, since 2018, there has been an average of 32.2 receivers per year with over 1,000 yards and 5.4 wideouts per year in the ACC surpassing that mark as well.
With a lack of production not only in the receiving room last year but over the last few years, how do you fix that problem?
The answer is new Hurricanes offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson.
Dawson has had at least one receiver with over 1,000 receiving yards in all but one of his last five seasons as an offensive coordinator at Southern Miss and Houston, which was in 2018, when his leading receiver at Southern Miss, Quez Watkins, who was drafted in the 2020 NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, hauled in 72 receptions for 889 yards and nine touchdowns.
Last season, Dawson’s offense produced the nation’s most productive wideout in Nathaniel Dell, who led the country with 1,398 receiving yards and was second in catches with 109. Dell finished 13th in the nation with 1,329 yards the prior year.
We’re not saying the Hurricanes will have 1,000-yard receivers this year because of Dawson, but based on his track record, you can anticipate and hope that the sort of output he’s gotten from his receivers in years past may translate to this year’s Miami squad. That will be a crucial aspect to turn around the Miami offense’s success in 2023.
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