The Perfect Britt?

The Super Bowl has yet to be played, but beside the Cardinals and Steelers the rest of the NFL is already looking toward next year. With the college football season ending and underclassman having declared for the draft, wannabe GMs have begun to rant about the prospects they want for their franchise. Those silly mock drafts that every sports outlet loves to release are all ready available to rile fans with a false sense of excitement.

One of the most intriguing positions entering this year's draft is wide receiver. Texas Tech man beast Michael Crabtree has garnered most of the attention and with good reason. Crabtree has been a force on the college level and will almost certainly be a top 10 pick. The reality is that most teams drafting in the first round won't have a shot at Mr. Crabtree and after him is a deep pool of talented players. Some of the names that have been thrown out there as potential first round picks are Jeremy Macklin, Percy Harvin, Hakeem Nicks, and Darrius Heyward-Bey. Each of them are nice players, but there seems to one standout wide receiver being left out of the mix despite being arguably more physically gifted than anyone of others mentioned including Crabtree.

The most intriguing prospect at the wide receiver position in 2009 is Rutger's Kenny Britt. At 6 foot 4 and 220 pounds Britt possess excellent size and physicality at the position to go along with game breaking speed. He average nearly 20 yards a catch during his breakout sophomore season in 2007. Britt also comes from a pro-style, run oriented offense at Rutgers and was still able to put up fantastic numbers.

While Crabtree is a dominant player, he lacks top end speed while Macklin and Harvin possess great speed, but lack the size of a top flight NFL receiver. These players also benefited from playing in spread offenses in college and history shows that putting up big numbers in the spread does not translate to success at the next level. As for Nicks and Heyward-Bey both have had much less success at the college level, are smaller, and are not vertical threats like Kenny Britt. Britt has number one receiver written all over him while the same can't be said for any of the other prospects mentioned other than Crabtree. If your team is able to grab Britt at the end of the first round or early in the second, jump for joy because you will have a draft steal.

Come to think of it, there is an NFL franchise who plays in New Jersey and needs to replace their big, fast, physical number one receiver. Britt is also from New Jersey and stayed home to play his college ball. Wonder how he looks in Blue?