Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans, Odell Beckham Jr., Kelvin Benjamin make 2014 rookie WR class special

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Buffalo Bills wide receivers coach Rob Moore heard the tapping, then stopped in mid-stride, curious as to what was happening inside the team's training facility at 6 a.m. on the first day of minicamp. He walked back toward a collection of meeting rooms and found a light streaming out of one of them. By the time Moore discovered rookie wide receiver Sammy Watkins -- with headphones strapped to his ears and an iPad nestled between his fingers -- the coach couldn't help but grin. The first-round pick was scrolling through plays, formations and any other relevant information that would give him an advantage once practice started later that day.

Moore already knew Watkins was an electric talent, a receiver blessed with size, speed and dynamic playmaking ability. But what made him think Watkins had a chance to perform amazing feats as a rookie was the work ethic on display that May morning. "Nobody had to tell Sammy to do that before camp started," Moore said. "He just knew it was important to take it upon himself to do those things."

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Going the extra mile has indeed paid off for Watkins, as he's been the best offensive player for a Bills team that remains in playoff contention heading into the final three weeks of the season. It's also made him a big part of what has become the best rookie receiving class the NFL has ever seen. As good as Watkins has been -- he has 58 receptions, 822 yards and five touchdowns -- he hasn't even been the most productive rising star in this year's rookie class. Every week, there seems to be a receiver who creates a highlight that drops jaws and leaves observers wondering how great the entire class could become.

This story focuses on the four healthy, first-round picks in that group: Watkins, Tampa Bay's Mike Evans, Carolina's Kelvin Benjamin and the New York Giants' Odell Beckham Jr. But there are other rookie receivers -- including New Orleans' Brandin Cooks, Miami's Jarvis Landry and Philadelphia's Jordan Matthews -- who have impressed as well. "It normally takes receivers a few years to get comfortable in the league," Panthers wide receivers coach Ricky Proehl said. "But a lot of these guys have made an immediate impact. And I'm not talking about a small impact. I'm talking about a big one."

Said Watkins: "I'm proud of myself and what all the other [rookie] receivers are doing this year. We all got to know each other before the draft, and we're all motivated by each other. We know we have a chance to be the best rookie class in a long time. I don't follow what everybody is doing, but you have to step up your game when you look at how other guys are playing."

It's widely agreed that there have been two special rookie classes, when it comes to wide receivers entering the league, since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The first came in 1988 with a collection that included two Hall of Famers (Michael Irvin and Cris Carter), another player currently up for election (Tim Brown) and one who could've gone to Canton if his career hadn't been cut short by injuries (Sterling Sharpe). The second great class came in 1996. That bunch included four receivers who caught at least 800 passes in their careers (Marvin Harrison, Terrell Owens, Muhsin Muhammad and Keyshawn Johnson) and four others who surpassed the 600-catch mark (Eric Moulds, Amani Toomer, Bobby Engram and Joe Horn).

Brett Carlsen/Getty ImagesSammy Watkins is one of four rookies on pace for more than 1,000 receiving yards.

Even with all those big names, none of those first-year classes did what this group is doing. The 2014 rookie receivers already have combined to catch more touchdown passes than any first-year class has totaled. They're on pace to have at least four players surpass the 1,000-yard mark. Of all the great receivers who came out of the 1988 and 1996 classes, only one gained more than 1,000 yards as a rookie (Terry Glenn with 1,132 for New England in 1996).

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Just look at the individual accomplishments of this year's biggest names. Watkins was a huge draft-day gamble -- the Bills traded a first-round pick in the 2015 draft to move up and select him fourth overall -- but he's been so dangerous Denver Broncos safety Rahim Moore said, "If you miss him on press coverage or he gets behind you, it's going to be touchdown." Evans (57 receptions, 935 yards and 10 touchdowns), Benjamin (59 receptions, 848 yards and nine touchdowns) and Beckham (59 receptions, 829 yards and six touchdowns) have become the best receivers on their teams. Cooks, a first-rounder like the four mentioned above, had 53 catches through 10 games before a wrist injury landed him on injured reserve in November.

Those statistics only tell half the story for some of these players. When Buffalo needed a last-second touchdown to beat Minnesota on Oct. 19, quarterback Kyle Orton looked to Watkins, who snared a 2-yard pass for the 17-16 win. Evans recently broke a Buccaneers record for receiving yards in a three-game stretch; he amassed 458 during a period that culminated with a seven-catch, 209-yard, two-touchdown effort in a 27-7 victory over Washington. And Beckham has the highlight of the year. When he contorted his body to the point that his back was nearly parallel to the ground and used three fingers to catch a touchdown pass soaring behind his head in a loss to Dallas, he created the kind of social media whirlwind that led to LeBron James asking to meet him for dinner.

[+] Enlarge Mitchell Layton/Getty ImagesMike Evans leads all rookie receivers in TD catches and receiving yards.

The overall play of these young receivers has been so astonishing it's left many people to wonder what has changed. For years, the common belief about NFL receivers was you couldn't really count on most of them until at least two or three years into their careers. It used to be that if you could find two players capable of having an impact in one draft class -- like Cincinnati's A.J. Green and Atlanta's Julio Jones in 2011 -- you considered that a great year. The more spread offenses proliferated throughout college football, the harder it became for young receivers to make the jump to the NFL.

"When you look at rookie receivers today, you're seeing a lot of players who spent most of their careers looking to the sidelines to see what play is being called off a board," Proehl said. "They're not accustomed to making sight adjustments or even going in motion because they stay in one spot. Plus, it's more complex to understand what a defense is doing to you at this level and how to adjust your route on the fly. That's why it shows that this year's rookies aren't just physically talented -- they're smart."

"The mindset is way different now," Moore added. "When I played [from 1990-99], people didn't trust rookie receivers. The attitude was that you didn't want to put too much on them. The mentality has always been that this is a win-now league, but it used be driven by having veterans. Now it's driven by the draft."

Both Moore and Proehl -- who played 17 seasons in the NFL -- have been around long enough to know young receivers don't prosper solely because they are freakish athletes. They do it because they put in the necessary work. What this recent crop of first-rounders has proven is they had their minds ready to handle the challenges that come with playing at the highest level of football. So far, the toughest task in evaluating their talents is deciding which one is the best at this stage.

2014 STATS

Rec58Yds822TD5Avg14.2Long84YAC251

Watkins had the fastest start to the season, with three 100-yard performances in his first eight games. At 6-foot-1 and 211 pounds, he has the requisite size to be physical with defensive backs and the speed to run by them. He also knew the urgency that came with being a player for whom the Bills gave up so much in the draft. "I had to come in here and get on the same page with the quarterback as soon as I could," Watkins said. "I had to do the extra work because it gave me the confidence going into camp that I could do the job. Once you get the mindset that you can beat the best, you can go out there and do what you have to do."

Watkins has been so good so early that he's already seen the downside of that success: more attention from defenses. He produced only 105 receiving yards and no touchdowns in the four games before he amassed 127 yards on seven receptions in Sunday's loss to Denver.

Said Bills head coach Doug Marrone: "It's a combination of what some people are doing. It's a combination of what we've got to do to get him open. It's a combination of we've got to be able to protect when he is open, so we can get him the ball. We've got to get him the ball when he's the first read and he's open. There are many things that are going into [a play], but we've got to do better."

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2014 STATS

Rec57Yds935TD10Avg16.4Long56YAC155

When Buccaneers receivers coach Andrew Hayes-Stoker first watched Evans work out at Texas A&M, he had only one major question about the 6-foot-5, 231-pound star: How would he handle press coverage at the next level? It was a legitimate issue because Evans could physically manhandle smaller cornerbacks in college while also playing in a spread offense that made it easier for him to find openings to catch the football.

What Hayes-Stoker eventually learned: "Mike is the kind of guy who can get things done when you tell him to do something. He doesn't need multiple reps to learn. He has the ability to soak up information."

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Evans needed about two regular-season games before he became comfortable in Tampa Bay's offense. By weeks three and four, he was using many of the tips offered by veteran receivers Vincent Jackson and Louis Murphy. By the second half of the season, Evans was abusing defenses on a weekly basis. He's also has shown a willingness to block, as he literally flipped Bengals cornerback Terence Newman upside down on a run play in Tampa's loss to Cincinnati in Week 13.

As Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said of Evans, "He does some things that you don't coach."

"My physicality has been my biggest strength," said Evans, who was the seventh pick in the draft. "I can be physical with any cornerback in the league, and I came in with the mindset that I wanted to be one of the most physical receivers in the game."

Al Bello/Getty ImagesOdell Beckham Jr. made what some have called the greatest catch in NFL history. 2014 STATS

Rec59Yds829TD6Avg14.1Long59YAC254

Unlike the two players drafted ahead of him, Beckham had to wait much longer to prove why he was worthy of the 12th overall pick. A lingering hamstring injury sidelined him during training camp and for the Giants' first four games. But instead of sulking about his inability to contribute to a team that has won just four games all season, Beckham studied his playbook intensely.

"My whole thing was that I wanted to know what each person was doing on the field," he said. "That's what I felt I should be doing. It was frustrating because I couldn't exert any energy while I was doing that, but my coaches always talked about learning as many positions as possible. I felt like the more I could do, the better off I would be."

That forethought has turned Beckham into one of the hottest receivers of the second half. He's surpassed the 100-yard mark in four of his past six games and has become lethal to the extent that Giants quarterback Eli Manning said, "You want to find ways to get him into space and get the ball into his hands because at any point he can break a big one."

Beckham, who ranks seventh in the NFL in receiving yards per game, also believes his experience at LSU -- where his offensive coordinator was longtime NFL assistant Cam Cameron -- has paid huge dividends. Cameron placed such emphasis on study habits, precise route-running and understanding of coverages that Beckham turned into a stronger student of the game.

2014 STATS

Rec59Yds848TD9Avg14.4Long51YAC145

Benjamin, the fifth and final receiver selected in the first round, at No. 28 overall (Cooks was the fourth, at No. 20), had a similar experience with Florida State co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach Lawrence Dawsey. At 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, Benjamin is the biggest of all the receivers selected in the first round, but he learned how to perfect his body control and his change of direction at FSU. As Benjamin said, "They told me in college that I may be big, but I can't forget how to play small. I can always use my size, but I always have to play fast."

Proehl also believes Benjamin, like Beckham, benefited from playing in an offense built more around pro-style concepts. As much as it helped Benjamin to come into the NFL with a dangerous mix of size, speed and attitude, it also meant plenty that he understands the pro game.

"As a receivers coach, you can talk to some rookies and immediately see their knowledge of the game," Proehl said. "I could see that Kelvin understood coverages, how to run routes, how to make adjustments. All these guys have tremendous ability, but they also realize that it's harder at this level. If you don't understand what your offense is trying to do and what the defense is trying to do to you, then you won't get open."

[+] Enlarge Don Juan Moore/Getty ImagesKelvin Benjamin is on pace to become the Panthers' first 1,000-yard receiver not named Steve Smith since Muhsin Muhammad in 2004.

As impressive as these players have been in learning the game quickly, the next step in their development process involves adjusting to new challenges. They're all learning how to succeed when defensive coordinators are devising game plans to stop them, while both Watkins and Evans have dealt with quarterback changes during the season. They've all stressed the importance of improving route-running and reading coverages as they go deeper into their careers. They also understand the importance of taking care of their bodies, especially given that first-year players often struggle with the grind of a 16-game season.

The exciting part for these players -- and their respective teams -- is they look forward to tackling those challenges. When they all had a chance to meet one another during the pre-draft process, they could sense something special in their class. Whether they were chatting at the combine, the draft or the rookie symposium, they could see how competitive each one was and how badly they wanted to make an impact.

"We could see the swagger in each of us even back then," Benjamin said. "We all wanted to do great things this year."

Consider that mission accomplished. It remains to be seen if this rookie class can match the others in terms of long-term productivity and Hall of Fame credentials, but for now, it's pretty special in its own right.

"The great thing is that we haven't shown anything yet," Watkins said. "We've just been learning and doing what we're told. Wait until we've had a whole offseason to break down our games and work on our flaws. That's when you'll see us really start to dominate."

NFL

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