Greg Little, Maybe The NFL's Worst Receiver, Claimed By The Raiders

Greg Little, cut by the Browns last week, has been claimed by the Raiders. This move has been met with a collective groan, because Greg Little is widely acknowledged to be a terrible wide receiver. But just how bad is he?

Last season, we used Football Outsider's excellent defense-adjusted yards-above-replacement (DYAR) stat to compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of NFL offenses. The Browns end-of-the-season chart is above. As you can see, Josh Gordon had an exceptional year; his +389 DYAR, accumulated in just 14 games, was third-highest in the NFL for WRs. His performance was largely canceled out by the double-threat awfulness of Davone Bess (-132) and Greg Little (-171). Those two marks were easily the worst in the league.*

The Raiders 2013 chart is below. Rod Streater's breakout season anchored a solid receiving corp, but the Raiders glaring weakness—almost identical to the Browns—was their ugly quarterback play. The Browns drew a shit hand with the Josh Gordon suspension, but having Earl Bennett and Miles Austin around should help their rookie QB. Adding Greg Little will do nothing for Oakland's offense, whether it's led by Derek Carr or Matt Schaub.

*There can be a lot of noise in year-to-year NFL stats, so it's worth mentioning that Little was merely mediocre in 2012 (+36 DYAR), and also terrible in 2011 (-92; sixth-worst in the NFL).