Wide Reciever Breakdown: Brian Quick

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In the 2012 draft, the Rams reached for the huge Brian Quick out of Appalachian State in the second round. At the time, it was hailed as a great pick and that summer, the Rams staff got their annual hype train going and hailed him as the next Terrell Owens. Unfortunately, Quick failed to amass much playing time in his first season and finished the year with only 156 yards on eleven catches and two touchdowns. That’s when the excuses began to fly. “He is from a small school, it’s going to take time for him to get with the system” said analysts everywhere, myself included.

Come the 2013 preseason, I was excited to see what Quick could do in our spread offense. In those preseason game, Quick looked great and it just further built my excitement for how huge of a season that he was looking to have.

Unfortunately, they don’t tell you not to put too much stock in what you see in the preseason for nothing. Brian Quick never lived up to his expectations in 2013, this time only getting 302 yards on 18 catches with two touchdowns. Quick had a very hard time getting open and outsmarting opposing defenses the entire season, even when he did make catches, he never did anything with them after the catch. He also had many terrible drops throughout the season including a few easy ones in the endzone. Below is just one of the many bad drops that have plagued Quick all year.

2013 was supposed to be the breakout season for Quick, but it just seemed that he never developed into his lofty second round status. We are already watching guys drafted after Quick such as Alshon Jeffery break out and establish themselves as borderline elite talents. While his career is by no means over, his time left with the Rams may be running out.

Big and fast receivers such and Sammy Watkins and Mike Evans are all supposedly high upon the Rams draft board. If drafted, they would surely be put into the “big bodied number one receiver” slot, the very one that Quick should be playing good ball at at this point. This suddenly puts Quick on the hotseat in only his third season in the league.

There are still a few valid excuses for Quick’s floundering this year, for instance, the spread offense that Quick was supposed to be featured in collapsed in spectacular fashion early in the year, causing the team to switch to a “run first” offense that switches out a receiver in favor of a blocking tight end. While effective, receivers often find themselves on the low side of the snapcount. Even our featured wideouts like Tavon Austin sometimes find themselves sitting on 50% of the plays.

Another pardon for Quick is that in week seven, the man throwing to him suddenly changed from Sam Bradford to Kellen Clemens. This would logically drop the production of any wideout, I call it the “John Skelton Effect.” Still though, on a team that is looking to completely cap off it’s rebuilding process and start winning, the patience for Quick is running out fast.

Is it fair that somebody from a small school that is still new to the league to have his chance with the Rams cut short? No, not at all, but this league isn’t exactly known to be fair. It’s clear that Quick has the talent and poise to be successful in the league, it just that the Rams might not be able to take that chance. I still believe that Quick will become an excellent NFL player one day, the real question is that if he will do it in St. Louis.