2003: (Receiving) 60 Recs, 869 Yds, 14.3 Avg, 47 Lg, 4 TDs
Going into the final year of his contract with the Steelers, Plaxico Burress’ play will be closely watched by many over the 2004 season. Burress failed to follow up on his back-to-back 1000-yard seasons the previous two years (869 yards in 2003) but nonetheless had some huge games during the 2003 season.
2002: (Receiving) 78 RECs for 1325 YDs, 7 TDs - 17.0 AVG. 2 FUMs.
Plaxico enjoyed his second consecutive 1000-yard season. His 1325 total yards was his career-highest and his 17-yard average was the team's highest. Plaxico also continued to play the role of run-blocker when called on to do that. His best game of the season was at Cincinnati in October, where he had 8 receptions for 149 yards. Only some dropped passes marred a fine season.
The Steelers picked Plaxico as the eighth overall pick of the 2000 draft. "Plax" became the starting split end coming out of summer camp and started the season strongly with 22 passes for 273 yards (12.4 yard average), before being placed on injured reserve due to a wrist injury. If there were any doubts that Burress could not be the big "go-to" guy that the Steelers had hoped he would be, he silenced them his 2001 season with 1,008 yards receiving on 66 receptions. The Steelers hope to continue taking advantage of Burress' size and speed in the 2002 season. At Michigan State, Burress established himself as a receiving threat early-on with a Big Ten Conference single-season record of 65 passes his first year there. In two seasons there, he ranked second in career touchdown catches (20), third in receptions (131), and fourth in receiving yards (2,155). Plax was an All-American second-team selection by SportsPage.com and an All-Big Ten Conference first-team pick in 1999.
|
