People forget that Bess is only just now entering his 3rd year as a pro.
Here are some reality checks.
1. At this point in his career Wes Welker had 29 catches for 431 yards and 0 TDs to his name. Davone Bess has 130 catches for 1312 yards and 3 TDs. And don't give me any sob stories about Welker's humble beginnings, because let's face it Bess' beginnings were just as humble. They both were UDFAs after being really productive college players.
2. They have basically the same athleticism, except Davone's is probably a little bit better. Go check their Combine/Pro Day numbers if you like. Welker ran a 4.65 at his Pro Day, had a 30" vertical, 9'5" broad jump, 4.01 shuttle and 7.09 cone. Davone Bess ran a 4.64/2.61/1.53 at the Combine, and a 4.60/2.66/1.59 at his Pro Day. He jumped 31.5" and 32.5". He jumps 9'7" and 9'10". His shuttles were 4.27 and 4.28. His cones were 6.97 and 7.15. Bess was 5'10" and 194 lbs. Welker was 5'9" and 195 lbs.
You have to think back, it's easy to compare Welker NOW with what he's accomplished, to Bess now when he's only a 2nd year player. But to be fair you have to think back to what Welker had shown us after his 2nd year in the pros. I think that if you knew nothing about Wes Welker's future and you were to rip him out of the past and put him next to Davone Bess right now, everyone here would hands down rate Bess the better football player.
The one difference I've seen between the two so far is that in his 2nd year Welker didn't have a period where he kept dropping the ball and/or fumbling it. I wasn't sure if that was something in Bess that indicates he'll keep dropping passes, or if it was just some kind of weird sophomore thing that happens to even the best. But Welker didn't really have the opportunity to have that kind of phase because he only caught 29 passes his 2nd year.
I could see a similar thing happening in 2010 with the Dolphins as happened in 2007 with the Patriots. Not necessarily the record-breaking passing offense but in terms of Bess being a go-to player for catches, Marshall being a go-to player for catches, but also Hartline being a guy that like Donte Stallworth, plays an important and productive role.
I just thought this was a really interesting revelation. Marshall had talked about Bess a lot, how much he was impressed with him. He's talked unbidden about how when he got here he told Bess that he really appreciated his game because he likes how he's able to catch that short ball, make a guy miss and gain 10 yards or so, he's real physical after the catch and Brandon likes that. Some time later he talked about how hard Bess works and how hard he studies and how nobody outworks him. I initially mistook this as praise he was heaping on Bess because of the potential awkwardness of the number situation, and I thought the only reason he was even talking about Davone was because he keeps fielding questions about him due to the number thing. But now, you don't tell someone that you think they're going to the Pro Bowl this year just to be polite. He talked in this interview with Evan Cohen about his experience with Eddie Royal and how close they were and how it was their goal to get each of them 100 catches, that whenever he was on the sidelines he kept lobbying for them to throw the ball at Eddie so they could accomplish that goal. Eddie ended up with 91 catches so they didn't quite make it, but it was a revealing story in connection with his admission that he told Davone that he expects him in the Pro Bowl...because people tend to see the present through the lens of the past and to me it means he's already framing his relationship with Davone Bess like he thought of his relationship with Eddie Royal, and probably Mike Sims-Walker.
