The 2019 LSU Tigers get a lot of accolades as one of the best sources of NFL receiver talent. With Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson come out of that squad, it's easy to see why. But the year before, another SEC team has a strong claim to one of the better wide receiving corps in recent college football memory: The unsung 2018 Ole Miss Rebels.
Why they're under acknowledged is easy to see. Matt Luke's squad went 5-7 on the year and just 1-7 in the SEC. It wasn't a good team. In fact, it wasn't even an average one. So what were A.J. Brown, D.K. Metcalf, and Elijah Moore doing lurking on that roster? And what ever happened to quarterback Jordan Ta'amu?
Brown, Metcalf, and Moore are all NFL starter-caliber receivers, which is more than a lot of players can claim. Brown and Metcalf are already among the upper echelon of those receivers, whereas Moore is still breaking through it's what been a relatively underwhelming second season with the Jets.
So, how are these three second round picks faring and how did they get passed over? The answer is an underwhelming quarterback in an underwhelming offense on an underperforming team. Here's a look at the 2018 Ole Miss Rebels, and what these three looked like on the same team.
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A.J. Brown with 2018 Ole Miss
Brown was the No. 1 receiver at 2018 Ole Miss, a star receiver in his own right. He was a senior and coming off a 1,000-yard season the year before, in which Ole Miss had gone 6-6 under Luke.
Brown caught 18 passes for 1,320 yards and six touchdowns in his final season with the Rebels, but his draft projection was ever-shifting. He surpassed athletic expectations at the NFL Combine, but still ended up going in the second round, 51st overall to the Titans.
Brown always seemed to have a step on whoever was covering him in 2018 and Ta'amu, for all of his other flaws, had a knack for finding him downfield.
Brown, of course, ended up being arguably the best receiver of the 2019 wide receiver class, and he's living up to that on his new team the Eagles this year after being traded.
D.K. Metcalf with 2018 Ole Miss
D.K. Metcalf was a beneficiary of Brown's dominance, as he was frequently in mismatch situations. Metcalf had 26 catches for 569 yards and an impressive five touchdowns for Ole Miss as part of the Rebels' dominant triumvirate of receivers.
Metcalf, however, had his season shortened after just seven games with a neck injury that made him harder to evaluate.
He went viral ahead of the draft for his ridiculous physique, as NFL fans became better acquainted with the 2019 draft class. However, he was ultimately drafted in the second round by the Seahawks at 64th overall, the ninth receiver picked.
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Elijah Moore with 2018 Ole Miss
Moore was a newcomer on the scene in 2018, but he made his mark quickly, even with Ole Miss' loaded receiving group.
Moore hauled in 36 catches for 398 yards and was a breakout star when Metcalf suffered a cervical fracture. Two weeks after that injury, Moore caught 11 passes for 129 yards against a kindred spirit of his, Deebo Samuel.
The game was a track meet by any metric, with Ole Miss ultimately losing 48-44. But it was a burst onto the scene for Moore, who had been quiet to that point in the year.
The next season, Moore became a controversy firebrand when he did the infamous "peeing dog" celebration in the Egg Bowl against Mississippi State that led to a missed Ole Miss extra point. He was later drafted by the Jets at No. 34 overall.
BONUS: Dawson Knox with 2018 Ole Miss
It wasn't just wide receivers impressing with the 2018 Rebels.
Dawson Knox, who is enjoying an impressive year with the Bills and has touchdowns in back-to-back weeks, was a senior for the Rebels in 2018.
Knox's numbers weren't eye-popping, he was drafted in the third round (96th overall) by the Bills in 2019.
He finished with 15 catches for 284 yards, but ultimately there wasn't room in the Ole Miss passing game for him to get many targets.
What happened to Jordan Ta'amu?
Ta'amu was signed by the Houston Texans as an undrafted free agent in 2019, but he was released almost immediately after.
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From there, Ta'amu has been working in other leagues. He played for the St. Louis Battlehawks in the XFL revival and played well enough to get a practice squad nod from the Chiefs. After being released he joined the Lions practice squad and, after second stints with both the Chiefs and Lions, he signed with the Washington Football Team practice squad.
After being let go from the WFT, Ta'amu was with the Panthers practice squad briefly before being drafted second overall with the USFL Tampa Bay Bandits. He led the USFL in both yards and touchdowns with Tampa Bay with 2,015 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Freshman Matt Corral was Ta'amu's backup on the 2018 Rebels. Corral was drafted toward the end of the third round by the Panthers after suffering a leg injury in the Sugar Bowl.
Who is DaMarkus Lodge?
Elijah Moore wasn't supposed to be a Big 3 member of the Ole Miss receiving corps in 2018. Returnee DaMarkus Lodge, rather, was expected to be a serious playmaker.
Lodge lived up to that hype in 2018, coming second on the team with 65 catches for 877 yards and four touchdowns.
Lodge didn't impress at the Combine and went to the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent. He was later released and signed by the Bengals, but never settled in on an NFL roster.
What happened to the 2018 Rebels?
A team with all of this talent seems destined to succeed in college, but the 2018 Ole Miss Rebels never achieved many highs.
A big part of that was Matt Luke, who went 15-21 at Ole Miss. The Rebels were ninth in the country in yards per game in 2018, so offense wasn't the primary problem. The problem was the yards were empty calories.
Ole Miss was just 30th in the country in points per game, and they were 10th-worst in the country in yards allowed and 17th-worst in points. That isn't going to amount a successful season.
Luke was fired after the 2019 season and joined Georgia before stepping down. Ole Miss then brought in Lane Kiffin, who is in his third season with the Rebels and is 23-9 since becoming head coach.
