Can LA Rams rookie WR/TE Jacob Harris aspire to be Megatron 2.0?

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck has been the litmus test for categorizing an unknown by defining the new by the old and familiar. But someone’s hackles will be raised by comparing LA Rams rookie TE/WR Jacob Harris with now-retired NFL HOFer wide receiver Calvin Johnson.

Johnson was and is a legendary NFL receiver, a player whose size and speed have been unmatched in the history of the NFL. He played for nine NFL seasons and decided to walk away from the game that he loves in the midst of his prime. In his nine years of playing football, he was voted to the Pro Bowl six times and was All-Pro three times. In 2012, he accounted for 1,964 receiving yards a single-season record that exists to this day.

Johnson burst onto the NFL because 6-foot-5 receivers simply did not run sub-4.4-second 40-yard dashes.  Megatron did it in 4.35-seconds.  His wingspan was a phenomenal 6-foot-10 inches. Take note of all these measurements, we’ll need them in the next slide, lol.

Engineered to catch the football

It was as though he was engineered to be an NFL receiver, at a time when the passing game was not quite as easy to rely upon due to the brutal hits suffered by quarterbacks and receivers.

In the third season of wide receiver Calvin Johnson’s NFL career, he became the favored target of rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford. The pair would go on to combine for over 9000 yards and 53 touchdowns over the course of the next seven seasons. Twice over that timespan, Calvin Johnson would average over 17 yards per reception.

The duo became so recognized as teammates that many expected quarterback Matthew Stafford to struggle after Johnson retired. In some discussions, Johnson’s early retirement was unexpected and left Stafford without a true go-to receiver. Would Stafford regress? Well, that never really happened. Stafford didn’t tumble like a house of cards. In fact, Stafford’s accuracy improved, and his interception rate shrank.