Tyler Lockett's YAC "issues" are a non-issue. He gets open, gets the first down by being smart about how to run his route, he catches everything thrown to him, and he gets down rather than take a big hit that might easily land him on the injured list. So Tyler winds up with 93 yards and 5 first down catches for the game instead of 102 yards and 5 first downs? Big deal! IMO Tyler's situation could not be more different than Shaun's situation (after broken foot and getting paid). Tyler is still producing at an NFL elite level, and has been good for 16 games started and 1000 yards every season since 2019, and an average of 50+ first downs during that stretch, including last year. I'll take a consistently AVAILABLE and EXCELLENT Tyler over an INJURED Tyler who toughs out an extra 10 yards a game and gets injured and lost for the season in week 10.
It was difficult to find any in-depth videos discussing Shaun's steep fall from statistical dominance to declining also-ran. From what I saw, the foot injury wiped out Shaun's elite cut-and-go ability and elite speed and explosiveness out of the cut. Maybe someone has a link to a good written or video breakdown that discusses this? Also, a lot of people thought Shaun made too many "business decisions" after his foot injury and other injuries starting in 2006.
Tyler has been the same excellent Tyler for the last 5 years or more, with stellar production each of those years, despite any "business decisions". Once Shaun started making business decisions, in 2006 after his injury, and/or lost his explosiveness, his production went to $chitt and stayed there.
The bit about Percy Harvin being polarizing... that definitely deserves more discussion than it's gotten so far in this thread. Yeah, his kick return TD in SB48 when the game was mostly decided put multiple final nails in the Bronco's coffin, but aside from that, he contributed next to nothing and was a locker room cancer and injury-malingerer IMO. Maybe everyone has forgotten how much draft capital and super-yacht million$ we gave up for Harvin only to get nearly nothing in return and trade him for peanuts?