My answer is probably going to surprise you because the player I expect to have a breakout year was drafted a couple years ago as a once in a lifetime, can't miss wideout. When the Detroit Lions snagged Calvin Johnson he was considered the best player in the draft regardless of position. He was big, fast and gained yards after the catch in chunks. His career so far has been very good, but peppered with injuries and without a big arm quarterback. This year he will have strong-armed Mathew Stafford, no longer a rookie tossing to him. The Detroit Lions have also added some impressive offense weapons to their team which will, at the least, reduce the double and triple teams he has been seeing. He has never been to the pro-bowl, but 2010 will be the year he leads the NFL in every receiver category available and becomes All Pro. The only thing that will stop this, will be an injury.

I think the wide receiver who might be due for a real breakout season is a guy that will almost be like a rookie to some fans. Michael Crabtree sat out the first five games of last season, yet when he was inserted into the lineup almost the minute that he joined the team he didn’t realize disappoint. Certainly 48 catches in 11 games isn’t eye popping but it isn’t too shabby. That number is certainly in competition with quite a few starting wide receivers that played all 16 games and would be considered better than Crabtree at this point in their careers.

Alex Smith also only played in 11 games, but in those 11 games his statistics were good enough to think that if he can continue to improve and play 16 games that Crabtree will have a pretty good quarterback throwing to him. If there’s one factor that could keep Crabtree from really breaking out this season it would be that he doesn’t really have a great complement on the other side of the field. Josh Morgan is currently slated as the #2 receiver and he’s good but not great. Still I think Crabtree is going to impress quite a bit this season.