2007 Outlook

Crumpler has been the preferred target of Michael Vick for three years now and he comes off his 2007 season with 780 yards and a career-best eight touchdowns. He’s been consistently around 800 yards and six scores since becoming Vick’s main target. Over the last three seasons, he’s been one of the lowest risk tight ends in the league. His 13.9 yards per catch ranked #1 among all tight ends for 2006.

However – there’s a new sheriff in town named Bobby Petrino that casts some risk on Crumpler continuing on being the common outlet for Michael Vick. There’s zero doubt that Crumpler will not continue to figure into the passing equation but the notion that Petrino will be satisfied with his quarterback ignoring his wideouts and playing pitch and catch with Crumpler is hard to believe. Crumpler only had 56 catches last year and actually gained 117 yards and three scores in just one game. Add in that the Falcons have acquired Joe Horn and the chance that Crumpler continues to lead the wide outs is even lower. If Crumpler does end up as the primary receiver yet again, that will not be a sign of success for this offense. Look for a downturn by Crumpler that really happened last year outside of one “stat saving" game.

07-18-20 Update: The worst thing that could happen to Crumpler would be for anything to happen to Michael Vick - and that is happening with the federal indictment. With a different quarterback, chances are high that Crumpler will see a reduced role since the wide receivers will come into more production - at the expense of Crumpler.

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