Kevin Johnson by Cathy Fazio
The road from the Cleveland Browns organization to the Baltimore Ravens organization went through Jacksonville for Kevin Johnson. And all in less than a year. Since 2001 when he went over 1,000 receiving yards, Kevin Johnson has seen his production decrease.

But will a change of home put him back where he was a couple of years ago? And the bigger question at large here, will he out-produce Travis Taylor a veteran of the Baltimore Ravens offense this upcoming season?

Even with a change of team in the middle of the year Kevin Johnson still caught 58 receptions for 634 yards and 3 touchdowns. This was playing in 15 games and starting in 9. Compare that to Travis Taylor who made 39 receptions for 632 yards and 3 touchdowns without a team change and starting in all 16 games.

Another interesting stat in comparing the two is the fact that Travis Taylor had 9 receptions over 20 yards and 6 over 40 yards. Kevin Johnson had 10 catches over 20 yards and only 1 over 40 yards in 2003. What that may mean for this upcoming season in Baltimore is that Kevin Johnson will become the short yardage possession receiver while Taylor maintains his role as the deep threat. With a young and unproven Kyle Boller at the helm, this bodes better for Johnson than Taylor.

While neither Travis Taylor nor Kevin Johnson should be taken as anything more than a WR3, Johnson looks to be the receiver with the best chance of producing the best numbers. This is especially true for fantasy owners who are in leagues that give 1 pt. per reception.

Travis Taylor by Mark Wimer
All of the Ravens' wide receivers face the fact that this team is all about: 1A). Running the football and 1B). Playing tough defense. The passing game is a distant third. Fellow Footballguy Ron White pointed out in the 5/22/04 e-mail update: "The Ravens are a power running team, and they like to use 2 TE sets, which allows only 2 other players on the field. Those two are often a FB and a WR, or two WRs When they went 3 wide last year, TE Todd Heap was the #3 receiver. The fact that the Ravens only activated 4 receivers in 5 of their games last season, and 3 in all the rest..." For a significant portion of snaps in 2004, there will be only 1 WR (often Travis Taylor) playing. The best receiving total that a #2 WR has posted in Baltimore since 1999 is 42/560/3 (Travis Taylor, 2001).

Follow up the above analysis with coach Billick's comments regarding the passing game's prospects in 2004 (reported by Footballguy Bob Harris on 7/22/04 in his Fantasy Notebook) "Will we lead the league in passing? Probably not. We are going to run the ball 500-plus times because it would be foolish not to. So it is not a matter of pulling back the running game to get more passing. So the productivity of the passing game needs to feed of itself in order to increase and become a better passing attack."

The big question for people considering the Baltimore WRs clearly becomes: who will be in the #1 WR role this season - Travis Taylor or Kevin Johnson? (The #2 Baltimore WR likely won't produce enough FP to be worthy of a draft pick.)

Travis Taylor has to be the favorite to stay #1 - he's the guy who knows the system inside and out; he's the guy familiar with Boller (at least, he got to play with him during training camp and the early part of last season). Meanwhile, Kevin Johnson has to learn the system and is starting from scratch as far as rapport with Boller is concerned. As 61/869/6 (Taylor, 2002) is the high-water mark for a Baltimore #1 WR over the last 2 years, don't expect an elite level fantasy performance from Taylor - but he would be a strong #4 or #5 WR on most fantasy squads (and should be available for the drafting in that slot, to boot).