Pitt Needs to Address WR Depth Soon

The Pitt Panthers have little in the way of wide receiver depth and it's a problem they should address sooner rather than later.

PITTSBURGH -- Jared Wayne is chasing his dreams of playing professional football, Jaden Bradley and Jaylon Barden transfered in the middle of last season, Myles Alston submitted his name into the portal at the end of spring practices and even walk-on reserve Gavin Thomson turned to the transfer portal this spring. As a result, the Pitt Panthers are light on receivers. 

There is plenty of reason to believe that the top line of the Panthers' receiving corps - Konata Mumpfield and Bub Means - are ready to realize their potential this season and become the dangerous 1-2 punch that had been promised when they arrived prior to last season. But rest of the receiving corps represent one giant question mark. 

Let's run down who is currently sitting behind Mumpfield and Means on the depth chart and fighting for that last starting wideout job. 

• Jake McConnachie, a walk-on redshirt junior with five games, zero regular season offensive snaps and zero catches to his name
• Daejon Reynolds, a former four-star recruit who transfered in by way of Florida and has caught 12 passes over his nine-game college career
• Javontae Royal, a former defensive back making the switch to offense this year
• Che Nwbako, a speedy redshirt freshman that did not see the field during his first season of college ball
• Three-star freshman Lamar Seymore
• Three-star freshman Israel Polk

The cupboard isn't completely bare but the Panthers are currently counting on massive steps forward for players without much of a track record. That's not to say none of these players are capable of taking those steps forward, but even last year's receiving corps entered the regular season in a similar situation - with no one outside of Jared Wayne and Mumpfield having played a full season, much less produced, at the FBS level and the results reflected that lack of experience.

Pitt's coaching staff clearly sees this as a problem as well. Since the end of spring practices, the Panthers have reached out to five receivers in the transfer portal - a mix of starters from the Group of 5 and former blue-chip recruits - but have landed none of them so far. 

It's an issue that the Panthers should address now, rather than later. Last year, the passing offense started in a similar place - without much in the way of proven experience lining up to take the first snaps of the season at receiver. 

Means, who didn't transfer to Pitt until the summer, is a good example of why it behooves coaches to get receivers into the system early. Throughout the first half of the season, Narduzzi said Means and other receivers were struggling to keep the playbook straight and remember assignments, a problem that was addressed with time. 

So unless the Panthers have their next starting receiver on the roster, the receiver they add through the portal will have little time to catch up and the effects of throwing a receiver to the fire out of pure necessity could be devastating to a passing offense that's taken big strides forward. 

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