Future of Rutgers Football 2023: Wide receivers
It is officially springtime, and spring training for the Rutgers football team started this week. In the second edition of Future of Rutgers Football, The Daily Targum previews the 2023 wide receiver room.
The Rutgers football team will seek improvement from its wide receiver room as spring practice rolls along ahead of the 2023 season. The Scarlet Knights (4-8, 1-8,) who struggled to gain receiving yards last season, will need multiple wide receivers to step up to boost the overall offense.
The departures of wide receivers Aron Cruickshank and Sean Ryan loom large. Ryan’s NFL-caliber size, as well as Cruickshank’s elite route-running and speed, helped them lead Rutgers in receiving yards. During the 2022 season, Ryan gained 440 yards, and Cruickshank gained 385 yards through the air.
The question for this upcoming season is who will fill the gaps in the wideout position’s depth chart.
Junior wide receiver Chris Long and senior wide receiver Isaiah Washington will be players to watch with potentially expanded roles.
This past season, Long saw some of the most action of the team's wide receivers, catching 15 passes throughout 12 games and racking up 200 receiving yards with a single touchdown. His only score came in the home opener win over Wagner, in which Long made a spectacular one-handed grab for a 41-yard touchdown.
Standing at an even 6-foot tall, Long can easily climb the ladder to grab any pass thrown to him. This attribute has been prevalent in his play thus far and will be a defining factor in how he will make the biggest impact come fall.
Washington has had highs and lows throughout his four-year Rutgers career so far. In 2021, he was able to haul in 19 catches totaling 179 yards of offense. This past season, though, he was less productive on the field. Washington played in all 12 games last season but made just three receptions.
With a revamped offense under newly hired offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca, Washington will hope for a renewed chance to show off his abilities on the football field.
Starting this spring, a new face will be in charge of the receiver room. In January, the Knights hired Dave Brock as the new wide receivers coach. Brock was a former wide receiver coach for the Atlanta Falcons for five seasons and worked with the likes of Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and Rutgers alum Mohamed Sanu.
Brock should expect some new talent from the recruiting class this year, which includes two highly anticipated three-star recruits: Jesse Ofurie and Dylan Braithwaite.
Ofurie put up substantial high school numbers in his junior year, catching 44 passes for 830 yards as well as reaching the end zone 14 times. This explosive playmaker, in addition to playing football, ran track for Saint John’s Prep in Salem, Massachusetts. Ofurie's defining attribute is his speed, as he ran an outstanding 55 meters in 6.61 seconds.
Braithwaite also had a successful high school career. In his last two years of high school, he combined for 938 yards in the air, catching the rock 39 times and scoring 13 total touchdowns. He averaged 72.2 yards per game throughout 13 games. The receiver from Valley Stream, New York, is rated as the No. 2 recruit in the 2023 ESPN Top New York Recruits list.
Rutgers was also able to make a splash in the transfer portal with the recruitment of graduate student wide receiver Naseim Brantley. Brantley is described as a 6’4 red zone threat, much like Ryan was when he played on the Banks. He racked up 909 yards on 53 receptions along with nine touchdowns in his senior year at Western Illinois.
The x-factor for the wide receiver room is sophomore wide receiver Rashad Rochelle. Rochelle served both as a running back and wide receiver last year and is a dynamic player in the open field. Though it is unclear what position Rochelle will play this year, he is sure to make an impact in whatever position he plays.
"We have a very green receiver room. Not a lot of cumulative stats in that room, so we’re working hard. We have some different combinations we’re going to look at," head coach Greg Schiano said about his wideouts. "We have good talented young players. We just have to develop them."
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