I mean I fall victim myself every year, I get enamored with certain guys and I will occasionally ignore a big bodied wr with these shortcomings if they are fundamentally strong with their release and leverage throughout their routes, but yeah this is undoubtedly the most useful skill for a receiver to have besides being able to just catch the ball
for years everyone was looking for that outside big body threat because that's what you looked for - and what analytics has done (and just common sense with the way the rules are now) is change the way teams throw the ball - outside passes to big guys on comebacks and fades and back-shoulders etc. are low percentage throws and not what your offence should be built around... and it's also harder to scout/develop that kind of trait - some guys just have that and some don't
but what translates is what guys do to create space/separation and what they do in space - that sort of stuff is much more repeatable and projectable
we're almost seeing now the reverse of what we were seeing 10-15 years ago in terms of skill position construction...
smaller guys on the outside who threaten vertically and horizontally and who stretch the field (partly they can do this because teams press a lot less because teams play a lot less man coverage) - but on the other side of that we're starting to see the rise (or re-rise) of power slot type guys who might be TEs but more likely in addition to TEs - guys who can box out and make plays in the crowded/contested middle of the field but who also have the ability to crack or down block on the edge in the running game or who can motion into blocks (like willie snead) - they dont need to be big but they need to be able to live in contact zones - and it's why you dont see hollywood play a lot in the slot for us unless we're in super-obvious passing situations and it's a general trend around the league
obviously not hard and fast fact and WRs nowadays are more multiple than they've ever been but just some growing trends that ive noticed
and that's not to say you cant get enamoured with a big guy who's somewhat limited in those areas - because some guys just naturally find ways to separate... look at someone like allen lazard with rodgers - he wins with size and hands and trust and reliability like a throwback kind of WR or even a jauan jennings who's again athletically limited but in college just found a way to get himself open as a big body in the slot and then make it work somehow after the catch without plus athleticism and it's taken a year or 2 but that's also now translating with the 49ers too - but it also should be said that those guys are more of the unicorn types when 6 or 7 years ago they were still the kinds of guys teams were seeking out - and the kinds of guys that ravens fans (not here) seem to fall in love with all the time... for ages it's been a common refrain on social media that im sure you've seen it too that ravens fans (and even some beat guys) constantly obsess over the idea of finding a big body on the outside and that's just not how football really works right now anymore
