He is tiny, yet powerful. Sudden, yet subtle. Exciting, yet not really flashy. Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Cole Beasley has progressed each season he’s been in the league, to the point where he’s not only a consistent and vital part of the team’s offense, but one of the top pass catchers in the entire NFL. According to Pro Football Focus, Beasley was the most reliable slot receiver in the league last season.

Best Slot Receivers In Nfl History 2020

The modernization of the passing game and NFL offenses has created a greater need and importance on excellent slot receivers. Wide receivers like Julian Edelman, Jarvis Landry, Randall Cobb, and Larry Fitzgerald immediately come to mind as players who are capable of doing serious damage out of the slot, and Beasley is certainly an ascending member of that group. The 5-foot-8 Texas native quickly turned out to be one of Dak Prescott’s favorite targets last season, and Beasly turned in career highs in targets (98), receptions (75), receiving yards (833), and tied his career high in touchdown receptions (five). As PFF notes, his slot catch rate was the highest among slot receivers in the NFL last season. The 78.9% he posted last season improved on his already impressive career catch-percentage of 72%.

In fact, Beasley stacks up to not just the elite slot receivers, but also the best wideouts in entire league.

By Football Outsiders’ DYAR metric (Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement), which assigns value to a wide receiver’s performance compared to replacement-level production, Beasley was the fifth most valuable receiver last season, ahead of players like Antonio Brown, A.J. Green, and DeSean Jackson. Similarly, he was also the fifth-ranked wideout in DVOA, which grades the receiver on a per-play basis and measures players on how much better they are than the league average at their position.

A few years back, when I asked Doug Baldwin — one of the pre-eminent slot receivers of the last decade — about the importance of the position, he summed it up pretty well. “The slot receiver’s kind of the quarterback of the receivers,” he said in 2015. “More so because the slot receiver has more responsibilities in terms of reading. Slot receivers and tight ends fill two different roles. Slot receivers are usually more diminutive possession guys who specialize in having sure hands, running precise short routes, and having great lateral quickness/elusiveness etc. While TEs are normally big-bodied guys who can double as blockers.

Best Slot Receivers In Nfl History Yahoo

It might seem peculiar a diminutive slot receiver led this Dallas team in receiving yards last season, but make no mistake Cole Beasley figures to be a fixture of the Cowboys’ offense for the near future. With the addition of WR Ryan Switzer, who profiles as an extremely similar receiver to Beasley, Dallas could be armed with a truly lethal set slot players prepared to slice through defenses next season.

He is tiny, yet powerful. Sudden, yet subtle. Exciting, yet not really flashy. Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Cole Beasley has progressed each season he’s been in the league, to the point where he’s not only a consistent and vital part of the team’s offense, but one of the top pass catchers in the entire NFL. According to Pro Football Focus, Beasley was the most reliable slot receiver in the league last season.

The modernization of the passing game and NFL offenses has created a greater need and importance on excellent slot receivers. Wide receivers like Julian Edelman, Jarvis Landry, Randall Cobb, and Larry Fitzgerald immediately come to mind as players who are capable of doing serious damage out of the slot, and Beasley is certainly an ascending member of that group. The 5-foot-8 Texas native quickly turned out to be one of Dak Prescott’s favorite targets last season, and Beasly turned in career highs in targets (98), receptions (75), receiving yards (833), and tied his career high in touchdown receptions (five). As PFF notes, his slot catch rate was the highest among slot receivers in the NFL last season. The 78.9% he posted last season improved on his already impressive career catch-percentage of 72%.

In fact, Beasley stacks up to not just the elite slot receivers, but also the best wideouts in entire league.

Best Slot Receivers In Nfl History Against

By Football Outsiders’ DYAR metric (Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement), which assigns value to a wide receiver’s performance compared to replacement-level production, Beasley was the fifth most valuable receiver last season, ahead of players like Antonio Brown, A.J. Green, and DeSean Jackson. Similarly, he was also the fifth-ranked wideout in DVOA, which grades the receiver on a per-play basis and measures players on how much better they are than the league average at their position.

It might seem peculiar a diminutive slot receiver led this Dallas team in receiving yards last season, but make no mistake Cole Beasley figures to be a fixture of the Cowboys’ offense for the near future. With the addition of WR Ryan Switzer, who profiles as an extremely similar receiver to Beasley, Dallas could be armed with a truly lethal set slot players prepared to slice through defenses next season.