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The article discusses the Shiny Hood Ornament Theory (now Law) postulated by Cold Hard Football Facts. And Like most people when I first heard it, I kinda of blustered at it. It doesn't sound like it makes a lot of sense. But the reality of the situation is that teams spend an awful lot of resources on elite receivers, but these players rarely have as much impact as people think they do.
Calvin Johnson had a huge impact on the production of the Lions offense. But the reality is that the Lions made the playoffs because Matt Stafford starting for 16 games and they finally got stability at the QB position.
And did Johnson impact Stafford's production? Certainly. I've argued this before, that his numbers look so good mainly because of the "Megatron factor." But what people often don't realize is that WR production in particular is a lot of smoke and mirrors. And position-wide, the elite production doesn't correlate strongly with wins.
It's not to say you don't need good receivers. Of course, you need good receivers. You need guys that can consistently get open. But the value of the so-called elite receiver over the good receiver isn't as big as people make it versus being elite over good at pretty much every other position.
And year after year, you're going to see teams like Atlanta (Julio Jones), Seattle (Sidney Rice), Baltimore (Anquan Boldin), Cincinnati (AJ Green), Houston (Andre Johnson), Miami (Brandon Marshall), Dallas (Dez Bryant), etc. invest in these so-called elite receivers, and it rarely if ever has a significant positive effect on the number of wins and losses with their respective teams.
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"Vincere scis, Hannibal, victoria uti nescis" -- Maharbal, 216 B.C.E.
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