Hakeem Nicks, a 2009 1st round pick, looked like one of the best young receivers in the NFL from 2009-2011. He ranked 8th in yards per route run in both 2009 and 2010, doing so on just 344 routes run as a rookie and then developing into a starter with 453 routes run in 2010. In 2011, he “only” ranked 22nd in yards per route run, doing so 572 routes run, thanks to the development of Victor Cruz opposite him, but he was still a big part of the Giants’ Super Bowl team.
However, since that 2011 season in which he caught 76 passes for 1192 yards and 7 touchdowns, he hasn’t gone over 1000 yards. His development seems to have stagnated over the past 2 seasons thanks to a variety of lower body injuries and he’s never played all 16 games in a season, missing 10 games over the past 5 seasons and being limited in many others. He’s ranked 41st and 33rd in yards per route run over the past 2 seasons respectively, combining for just 109 catches for 1588 yards and 3 touchdowns over that time period. Last year was especially bad as he didn’t score all season and struggled with his chemistry with Eli Manning. 7 passes thrown to him were picked off and Manning’s quarterback rating when throwing to him was 57.0, 7th worst among eligible wide receivers.
All that being said, he still has plenty of talent, which still flashes, and even his down years weren’t awful. He’s only going into his age 26 season, so he was well deserving of this one year prove it deal worth 3.6 million dollars (with another 400K available through per game incentives). This is a much better value than the 5.5 million the Eagles gave to Jeremy Maclin, who is coming off of a completely lost season with a torn ACL and who has never had a 1000 yard season in his career. Nicks will slot in as the 3rd receiver in Indianapolis behind TY Hilton and Reggie Wayne and provide valuable insurance for Wayne, a 36-year-old coming off of a torn ACL. He’ll be an obvious upgrade over Darrius Heyward-Bey, who got a similar deal last off-season (1-year, 2.5 million). This is a much better value than that.
Grade: A
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