[BSPN] NFL's best and worst offensive arsenals: 32-1 weapons ranking

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24045670/ranking-nfl-best-worst-offensive-arsenals-weapons-2018

If you had to list the reasons why the Eagles went from last place in the NFC East to Super Bowl LII champions in 12 months, weapons wouldn't be far from the top.

General manager Howie Roseman went out last year and transformed what Carson Wentz was working with by adding LeGarrette Blount, Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith in free agency. Corey Clement worked his way into the rotation as a replacement for the injured Darren Sproles. Nelson Agholor took Jordan Matthews' spot and evolved from failed first-round pick into an effective slot receiver. Throw in the Dolphins scapegoating Jay Ajayi for their problems and Philly's trio of effective tight ends, and you have a group of weapons that was able to help propel Wentz to an MVP-caliber campaign and keep Nick Foles afloat in the postseason.

In light of the successes that the Eagles and Rams had in revitalizing their offenses around their 2016 first-round picks last offseason, the league followed. The Bears signed what will seemingly be an entirely new receiving corps for Mitchell Trubisky. The Ravens turned over their wideouts for Joe Flacco and Lamar Jackson. Cleveland brought in plenty of talent for Tyrod Taylor and first overall pick Baker Mayfield. Fifteen of the first 51 picks in this year's NFL draft were skill-position players.

Now that just about every running back, wide receiver and tight end short of Dez Bryant are on a roster, let's take stock of where the league stands after a busy offseason. We're ranking each team's arsenal of running and receiving weapons from 32 to 1. Please keep a few things in mind:

• These rankings are attempting to consider a team's skill-position talent without including the impact of the quarterback, offensive line or scheme. Let me repeat that again. These rankings are attempting to consider a team's skill-position talent without including the impact of the quarterback, offensive line or scheme. It's not possible to totally extricate one from the other, but this will be an educated guess.
  
  
• These rankings don't include contract value. I might mention a contract here or there, but this analysis is strictly about on-field performance.
  
  
• I'm solely considering how these players will perform in 2018. Long-term value beyond this upcoming season doesn't matter. It's impossible to project injuries, so I'm using each player's recent injury history as an estimate of his availability for this year.
  
  
• The arsenals are weighted more toward receivers. All you have to do is take a look at contracts to see how the league values wideouts versus tight ends and running backs. The largest active annual salary on an extension for a running back is LeSean McCoy, at $8 million per year. That's what Trey Burton and Kenny Stills average on the deals they've signed over the past two offseasons.
  
  
• Top-level talent wins out over depth. These rankings are weighted heavily toward each team's top five weapons, given that each squad will line up five skill-position players on most snaps. Organizations with truly remarkable depth at the skill-position spots will get a slight bump, but no team has an Antonio Brown lurking on its bench.
  
  
• Finally, I didn't mention everyone. Every team has a rookie midround pick or a veteran with some history of success lurking as their sixth or seventh option. Most of them will have only a modest impact. Mentioning all of them would turn this into an even longer piece.

All right! The Jets were 32nd last season. Surely, they've invested in their skill-position talent for new quarterback Sam Darnold and won't be last this year, right?


Our ranking:

Spoiler

12. Houston Texans

In the fever dream that was DeShaun Watson's six starts for the Texans in 2017, his weapons unfurled into a terrifying hydra. The Texans ranked third in offensive win probability added per game from weeks 2 to 8 and 30th from then on, which is both a credit to what DeAndre Hopkins & Co. can do with the right quarterback and a reminder of how most of those weapons (Hopkins aside) were anonymous with the wrong passer and a dismal offensive line.

Naturally, any 2018 projection for the Texans' weapons would find them somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Hopkins has a reasonable case -- given his quarterback play -- for being the best wide receiver in the league at the moment. After that, though, the Texans don't have a second star. Will Fuller has been wildly inconsistent, and he won't score seven touchdowns in four games again, as he did last season. Lamar Miller has lacked explosion since joining Houston in free agency and has just three plays of 30 yards or more in two years as a Texans back, down from seven during his final two years in Miami. Backup D'Onta Foreman might have taken over a larger share in 2018, but an Achilles injury might delay his ascent until 2019. And the brain injury-induced retirement of tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz leaves the position bare behind Ryan Griffin, who missed most of the season with a concussion of his own.