Where He Wins
Who knew that a guy who ran a 4.43 40-yard dash would win with speed? Crazy, I know!
In all seriousness, Wilson does a good job of utilizing his speed when running intermediate to deep routes. Specifically, he does a good job of creating separation when running deep outs and digs. The reason? His speed gets the defenders momentum moving fully backwards, leaving them susceptible to a change of direction.
On intermediate/deep digs and outs, Wilson does a good job of quickly getting building up speed, forcing the defender to keep up, and then making his cut without slowing down or tipping his hand. The downside is these routes take a little bit of time to develop. As I alluded to earlier, time isn’t something Alex Smith is afforded a lot of in this offense, thus diminishing the effectiveness of Wilson.
A second area where I like what I saw was when Wilson had the ball in his hands. The guy has a good amount of strength to compliment his speed and doesn’t go down easily, opening up the potential for decent YAC on every reception.
We’ve seen over the past three seasons that Dorsey and Reid want to surround Alex Smith with weapons that are capable of turning short catches into medium gains, and intermediate catches into big gains. Wilson definitely fits that mold.
Not Bad, But Needs Consistency
Something that became quite infuriating when watching Wilson was how inconsistent he was coming out of breaks on comebacks. It’s logical to think that a guy who possesses great speed would thrive when running a comeback route, but his break varies from defender-shaking to lethargic.
This is what I’d expect to see more often times than not. Wilson’s speed really sells the defender on the possibility of a deep route, and he does a good job of coming out of his break with some urgency. That’s Stephen Gilmore, a very good corner, who Wilson shakes on this play. So he shows he’s capable of doing it, but I saw way too much of this:
It’s called a comeback, not a slow down and turnaround. There’s no suddenness at the top of the route as he rounded off his break way too much. He also failed to make his way back towards the quarterback here, which made this catch needlessly difficult.
The first GIF in this section shows he is indeed capable of running these routes with some suddenness, but not bringing it every single play puts a dent in his case for being the Chiefs WR2.
Next: Bad Albert