Utah_Saint

Hopefully we won't ever know but, in my opinion, "Brees throwing to him" or more specifically, being on the Saints team, works against Colston. Drew spreads the ball to more targets than just about anybody else in the NFL. Colston had the second fewest targets out of the top 20 receivers (yardage) last season. Besides his ability to box out defenders and get the ball in traffic, he has a fantastic reception percentage over his career. Last season it was 74.7%. That's outstanding. You won't find many other receivers with a percentage that high.

2011 NFL Player Receiving Stats - National Football League - ESPN

As a frame of reference;

Calvin Johnson's completion percentage was 61.5%
Wes Welker's was 70.9%
Steve Smith's was 61.2%
And Dropsy White's was 55.2% (when will he ever get the respect he deserves?)

That makes Colston one of the most efficient wide receivers in the NFL. Only Jordy Nelson is more efficient.

http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog...iency-and-adp/

The Profootballfocus guys even named a type of slot receiver after him. Tall intermediate/deep threat guys are the "Colstons".

http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog...ping-the-slot/


There's no doubt that Colston benefits from playing with Brees, Brees would make any receiver better, but there is also little doubt that Colston would be a great receiver just about anywhere he played.

I apologize for all the stats, I'm a bit of a stat nerd myself but I tried to use as much data as I could so that I wouldn't just sound like a "wagoners spouting whatever garbage they hear on espn".