Posted by radan in 
Battle of two of the top rookie receivers…
It’s tough to predict how well a rookie will play moving forward, but knowing which one of these two will have the better season next year and beyond is even more difficult.
Outside of Percy Harvin being the better return man, which really doesn’t matter in this case, he and Jeremy Maclin are having nearly identical seasons. Their similarities actually go beyond their numbers.
Both were drafted in the first round in the ‘09 draft. Maclin was picked 19th by the Eagles and Harvin went 22nd to the Vikings.
Both have young, solid receivers above them on their teams’ depth charts (Sidney Rice in Minnesota and DeSean Jackson in Philly).
Both have come in and given their quarterbacks a much needed speed target to throw to.
Both have played as a slot receiver and as a #2 wideout this season.
Now take a look at their stats (through 10 games):
Harvin
| TARGETS | REC | YDS | YPR | TD |
| 55 | 36 | 501 | 13.9 | 4 |
Maclin
| TARGETS | REC | YDS | YPR | TD |
| 60 | 37 | 477 | 12.9 | 4 |
It’s pretty crazy how similar those numbers are. If not for Harvin’s returning abilities, it would make no sense to say that one is doing better than the other this season.
It is worth noting that over their last three games, Maclin was targeted a total of 26 times, while Harvin was only targeted 16. However, Harvin caught two touchdowns and Maclin only caught one over that span. See, they always balance each other out.
Remaining Schedules
Harvin – CHI, @ARI, CIN, @CAR, @CHI, NYG
Maclin – WAS, @ATL, @NYG, SF, DEN, @DAL
With those schedules, I’m going to predict that their numbers continue to stay pretty even through the end of the season. They both have to face pretty tough pass defenses.
Maclin should have a good game against the 49ers and Harvin should put up some good numbers against the Cards.
Now, moving forward into 2010, if I had the option of either picking Harvin or Maclin in my draft, I’d probably go with Maclin. It’s not that I think he’s the better overall player. I’m just assuming that Brett Favre finally retires and the Vikings will have to use a guy like Tarvaris Jackson or a free agent like Jason Campbell to run their offense. That means they’ll probably go back to running the ball a lot more like they did in ‘08.
You could argue that Harvin will have the better season because whoever his quarterback will be will look to throw the slant routes a lot and that Harvin would be the guy running those routes.
Maclin will still have Donovan McNabb throwing to him next season, so you’d have to think that he’ll target Maclin even more. My guess is that he’ll have more yards and touchdowns than Harvin.
Both of these guys are obviously Offensive Rookie of the Year candidates. You probably will have a solid #2 WR option next year if you take either one of them.
