Our Wide Receivers.

[Ghost of Quacksaw]

Actually inaccurate. He has 124 receptions and only 34 rushes in college. Senior season, 77 catches, 8 rushes .
He was more a WR, sometime RB.
Most rushes he had in a season was 21 as a Soph. Single digits every other year.

Doesn't mean he can't play RB, he has some elusiveness

Whoa, I *did* have that backwards! Thanks for the correction!

[chargeroo]

I'm thinking he has a better chance than Hill to make it but we'll see.
Can't judge by rookie seasons if they didn't do much. Both were lower round picks.

I'm thinking he has a better chance than Hill to make it but we'll see.
Can't judge by rookie seasons if they didn't do much. Both were lower round picks.

I think Hill is one of those sneaky receivers that just keeps getting open. In that way, he's similar to KA.
My guess is he makes the 55.

[Steve]

Reed played in the slot in college, in an offense that had a lot of Slot-T elements.

The old slot T developed with the slot WR as being a RB. A lot of college teams use the slot player as more of a hybrid RB, than a WR like the NFL does.

Antonio Gibson, the day 2 pick for Washington last year was a similar sort of player of player and he made the transition pretty well for them, and is now their starting RB.

As far as who impressed who in practice, you're guessing. We don't know who did what in practice, since they were closed last year.

We know that Guyton and Johnson impressed, but that doesn't mean that Reed didn't. There is no way of knowing. But it also doesn't really matter. Old coaches are gone, new ones are making the decisions.

It may have been the Chargers didn't want too many different inexperienced players around Herbert. He had his moments where he looked a little lost, and that would have been made much worse with inexperienced players on the field around him. Add in the fact that they didn't get many reps with him in the last offseason, it is not a recipe for success.

Multi-position guys like Reed often struggle when teams try them at too many different spots. While NFL football is not brain surgery, it is a big step up from college and forcing a young player to learn multiple positions doesn't make it easier. Some offenses are more complicated than others. Typically, more sophisticated offenses are much harder for younger players to learn, and in the NFL, they get less reps than in college so they need to develop new ways of learning. Plus, some coaches are better at teaching.

In short, it will be interesting to see how things go with Reed and all the younger Chargers players.

[dmac_bolt]

I don’t know if Reed impressed coaches in closed practice, but he didn’t impress me in any games. Neither did Hill. Rookies - they get another shot this year’s camp but they won’t get a third. they weren’t a Top 3 rd pick, they are considered cuttable.

Ironic that in the “year of the WR” - we draft two but wait until late and possibly got none in the draft. I havent seen any analysis to confirm if it really looks like it was “Year of the WR”. that’ll take another couple years and by then we will all be on to 3 or 4 more recent “year of” obsessions and forget about it.

[Bolt Dude]

Seems like if Reed could assert himself as a kick AND punt returner, he’d be a shoe in for the 53.

[Formula 21]

I think Hill is one of those sneaky receivers that just keeps getting open. In that way, he's similar to KA.
My guess is he makes the 55.

I’m a Hill fan, but we’ll see. He needs to be better this year.

[Formula 21]

Nice legs, and I’m a leg man. Another wr to watch in TC.


Chargers 90-in-90: WR John Hurst


From DII to the NFL, can Hurst carve out a role for himself on special teams?

By Michael Peterson@ZoneTracks Jul 8, 2021, 9:57am PDT
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Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
John Hurst was born and raised in Milton Georgia where he attended nearby Cambridge High School. He earned All-North Fulton honors as a senior after hauling in 63 passes for 834 yards and six touchdowns.

Deciding to stay close to his family, Hurst committed to play at Division II West Georgia where he sat out his first year with a redshirt. Over the next four seasons, he caught just 77 passes for 1,242 yards and 12 touchdowns through 35 career games. He earned All-Gulf South Conference honors after recording 40 catches for 654 yards and seven scores as a senior. Following his time with the Wolves, hurst was named to the university’s All-Decade Team of the 2010’s.

John Hurst (WR) | UWG Pro Day

Height: 6’1
Weight: 195
40 Yard: 4.45
Vertical: 38
Broad: 10’1
Bench: 15
Shuttle: 4.17#NFL #NFLCombine #NFLDraft #NFLDraft2020 #ProDaypic.twitter.com/jsdy9ohprv

— John Hurst (@johnmhurst) March 12, 2020

Hurst would go onto sign with the Buccaneers after failing to be selected in the 2020 draft. After impressing the coaching staff in camp, he was selected among the team’s final 53-man roster.

On September 7, an unfortunate injury landed Hurst on IR just before the regular season kicked off. He was eventually activated on October 19 but was waived soon after. Following a stint on the practice squad, he was later released on November 5.

On November 16, just 11 days later, Hurst was signed to the Chargers’ practice squad. Following the 2020 season, he was signed to a reserve/future contract.
Basic Info


Height: 6’2
Weight: 190
College: West Georgia
Experience: 1
Years with team: 1
Contract Status


“John Hurst signed a 2 year, $1,485,000 contract with the Los Angeles Chargers, including an average annual salary of $742,500. In 2021, Hurst will earn a base salary of $660,000, while carrying a cap hit of $660,000.” - Spotrac.com
The Good


Despite being an undrafted player out of a DII school, Hurst made the initial roster of the Bucs at the start of 2020. An injury is the only thing that kept him from potentially being a special teams contributor for the eventual Super Bowl champs.

If the coaching staff over there liked him, and this new coaching staff sees the same thing in Hurst that they did, maybe the Bolts have found a trustworthy contributor in the third phase of the game.
The Bad


Early injuries to begin his career in the NFL is never a good thing. Right now, that’s likely the only reason he’s not still with the Bucs. This team is all too familiar with injuries and investing in another player with the potential to miss time will certainly scare fans and coaches, alike.
Odds of making the roster/What to expect in 2021?


With a packed wide reciever room, there’s no shot Hurst makes the final 53-man roster unless he becomes a All-Pro special teams player by the end of training camp. Anthony Lynn and Co. signed him last year to be a contributor in that phase but it remains to be seen if he’s held in that same regard by the new coaching staff. Right now, I believe his ceiling is the practice squad and nothing more.

[Formula 21]

One of the things I like to do in the off season is read the human interest stories on the players. Here's one on John Hurst from the Athletic. It's pretty amazing to me that the Athletic would do a story on an UDFA from a Div II school, but he must have made an impression somewhere.

Anyway the F21 notes say he works hard, practices fast, is an experienced gunner, caught a head coach's eye and is an injury risk.

I think Hurst has a chance to make this team as the 6th WR as a gunner. STs have been made a priority this year. And that puts him in competition with KJ Hill/Reed for that last WR spot.



Call him Crazy Legs: Long shot John Hurst beats odds again, makes Bucs’ roster




By Greg Auman Sep 6, 2020 9
John “Crazy Legs” Hurst was 5-7 and 135 pounds as a sophomore at Cambridge High in Milton, Ga. He’s now 6-2, weighs 190 pounds and is a lot faster. (Courtesy of Cambridge coach Craig Bennett)



Hurst played well as a senior, but barely registered on the radar of college recruiters, talking to Div. III schools and getting a single scholarship offer from Div. II Tusculum in Tennessee. He took a tour at West Georgia, about 45 minutes west of Atlanta in Carrollton, Ga., and was offered a spot as a preferred walk-on, meaning he had a spot on the team but wasn’t on scholarship.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of options,” said Hurst, who chose West Georgia, and even at a small school, didn’t have immediate success.
He redshirted his first season, working on the scout team, and the next year, he had a single catch, getting a 43-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter of a 44-0 win against Shorter University, which had an 0-9 record.
“It took a couple of years for us to even say ‘Hey, man, this kid has a real shot,'” Bennett said.
As much success as Hurst has found in his first months in the NFL, it almost didn’t happen. In the spring of 2019, Hurst had totaled five touchdowns in three seasons of college football, had earned his bachelor’s degree in education, and seriously thought about skipping his senior year, not for the NFL, but to start life as a teacher.
He finished his required student teaching and got his certification to teach physical education and health. He told Bennett he was considering taking a one-year mission to China, to be a teacher there, and his old coach told him to stay with football, that in the worst scenario, he’d love to have him back at Cambridge, working as a teacher and coaching receivers at his old school.
“I thought about it for a while,” said Hurst, who sat down with West Georgia coaches and was convinced to come back for another year, leading the Wolves with seven touchdowns in his final season.

Hurst’s speed got him in the door with the NFL, as he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds at his pro day, held in March just days before the NFL took all scouts and coaches off the road. But Hurst remembered that J.R. Dorman, West Georgia’s special teams coach, always preached the importance of special teams, that if you were a marginal player in the NFL, being good on special teams was a potential ticket to a roster spot. “Special teams is your way in,” he would say, and Hurst heard the same thing in training camp with the Bucs from special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong.
Being a walk-on gave Hurst an appreciation he doesn’t think he’d have if he had started his college career on scholarship, and the underdog perspective helped him as he entered the NFL under similar circumstances as an undrafted free agent.
“There’s so many similarities, going through that process,” he said. “Being a walk-on helped me tremendously going through this process. Looking back on it now, you want to be a scholarship guy, you want to go to a big school, but I learned from it and it’s benefiting me today. I’m thankful for it.”

Hall of Famer Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch of the Rams runs upfield during a 1950 game played at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles. (Vic Stein / Getty Images)



David Dean, West Georgia’s head coach, took over in 2017 and saw Hurst develop from barely playing to being a team captain and an all-conference selection, a progression he now uses as a model for young players.
“He had a great work ethic, and you knew if he ever had an opportunity to get to that level, he was going to impress people with the way that he worked,” Dean said. “He understands the game of football, has a lot of football savvy, and being a smart football player helped him a good bit early on until he really began to develop as a really good wide receiver. He always had the speed, but when he put it all together, he took it to a different level.”
The Bucs have a history of undrafted players becoming contributors. Before Cambridge, Hurst spent his freshman year at Milton High, which had running back Peyton Barber, who played at Auburn and made the Bucs’ as an undrafted rookie in 2016, leading the team in rushing twice. Even at the NFL’s league minimum salary for a rookie, Hurst will earn about $36,000 a week, close to the annual salary for a first-year school teacher. Stick around for the full season and he’ll earn $610,000.
Cambridge High hasn’t had a player make the NFL yet, and while it will be weeks before Hurst has a chance to actually play in a game, what he’s done to get this far is used as an inspiration for today’s 135-pound kids to dream as big as they want.
“To have a kid make it like this is super-special,” Bennett said. “We talk about it all the time with our kids still in high school about not worrying about where you go, you’re going to develop and mature, and if you keep working hard, good things will happen. What a story.”


Nice video

https://twitter.com/i/status/1238234675207966720

[sonorajim]

Thanks for the Hurst background 21. Now I'm a fan. Like many others, I like the underdog story.