My Chief Concerns: Can Dwayne Bowe Repeat His Great Season?

Kansas City Chiefs’ Dwayne Bowe had his best season ever as an NFL player.  He more than doubled his single season record for TDs in 2010 and broke the infamous 1000 yard receiving barrier for the second time in his young career.  Which made me ponder the following question: what are the odds of Dwayne Bowe repeating his 2010 great statistical season?  If you have followed football over the years, you know that the odds are not necessarily in his favor.   The following is a list of current and past NFL wide receivers’ statistically best years followed by the next year for comparison:

Braylon Edwards:

Year 2007        Receptions 80              Yards 1,289     TDs 16

Year 2008        Receptions 55              Yards 873        TDs 3

Randy Moss:

Year 2007        Receptions 98              Yards 1,493     TDs 23

Year 2008        Receptions 69              Yards 1,008     TDs 11

More after the jump….

Jerry Rice:

Year 1987        Receptions 65              Yards 1,078     TDs 22

Yeas 1988       Receptions 64              Yards 1,092     TDs 9

Larry Fitzgerald:

Year 2009        Receptions 97              Yards 1,092     TDs 13

Year 2010        Receptions 90              Yards 1,137     TDs 6

Cris Carter:

Year 1995        Receptions 122            Yards 1,371     TDs 17

Year 1996        Receptions 96              Yards 1,163     TDs 10

Michael Irvin:

Year 1995        Receptions 111            Yards 1,603     TDs 10

Year 1996        Receptions 64              Yards 962        TDs 2

Anquan Boldin:

Year 2008        Receptions 89              Yards 1038      TDs 11

Year 2009        Receptions 85              Yards 1,024     TDs 4

Dwayne Bowe:

Year 2010        Receptions 72              Yards 1,162     TDs 15

Year 2011        Receptions ?                 Yards ?            TDs ?

You can obviously see sometimes slight and sometimes drastic reductions in production after a star receiver has his statistically best season. There are many factors that go into such, all of which Dwayne Bowe will possibly face in 2011: new offenses, new offensive coordinators, double coverage, injuries, etc.  What is also troubling is Dwayne’s tendency to absolutely disappear in games (1 catch in Game 1, 0 catches in Game 13, 1 catch in Game 14).  I hate to be a downer, but unless the Chiefs get good veteran wide receiver to take off the heat from Dwayne Bowe he will have drastically reduced numbers next year.  Any thoughts?