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WR Santonio Holmes (Super Bowl XLIII MVP)

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Scout's Inc. ranks the 64 best wide receivers in the NFL.

ESPN - Bounce-back season puts Moss on top - NFL

19. Santonio Holmes

Pittsburgh Steelers
Holmes is a talented, young receiver who continues to improve in offensive coordinator Bruce Arians' system. He is loaded with big-play ability (league-best 18.1 yards per catch last season) and could turn into a legitimate No. 1 wide receiver. Holmes' numbers have gone up in each of his two seasons in the league -- he had 49 catches for 824 yards in his rookie year and 52 catches for 942 yards last season despite missing three games with an injury.
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What Santonio Holmes really wants
By Kevin Gorman
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, June 12, 2008

When the topic is returning punts, Santonio Holmes begins with an emphatic clarification.
"That's something I want to do," Holmes said. "It's not that I wouldn't mind still doing it. It's something that I want to do."

After averaging 10.2 yards on 26 returns as a rookie - including a 65-yard touchdown against Carolina - Holmes didn't set up deep for any punts last season. That's something the Steelers receiver wants to change this fall.

"The more involved I can get in the offense and touching the ball early in the game - whether it's fair-catching or getting the ball 6, 7 yards on a punt return - the better I think I'll play throughout the whole game," Holmes said Wednesday, after the next-to-last of the Steelers' offseason workouts at their South Side training complex.

"Any guy that you can consider a playmaker wants to touch the ball eight to 10 times a game. If I can get four catches and four or five punt returns - whether or not I fair catch it - I just feel the more involved I am that people are depending on me more."

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has resisted the temptation to use Holmes on punt returns, wanting him to first develop as a receiver. Tomlin left yesterday's session early to attend the funeral service for Dwight White and wasn't available for interviews, but Holmes understands the rationale.

"That's the coaches' mindset," Holmes said. "They want me to be the best wide receiver to help this team and not risk going out there and getting injured. If that's the way they feel, I've got to go with it and be more of a football player and just play football."
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Holmes really wants to return - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
 
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Complaint, uh, noted

Third-year wide receiver Santonio Holmes said Wednesday that he felt the Steelers had too many offseason practices. Tomlin made it clear yesterday that Holmes' opinion won't be taken into account when Tomlin is planning the schedule in future offseasons.

"I like Santonio," Tomlin said. "Santonio's a good player. He's a good guy. He's learning how to be a professional. We'll continue to work with him."

Many happy returns?

Holmes has made it clear he would like return punts this season -- he played exclusively at wide receiver last year - and Tomlin said the Steelers will "take a peek" at the dynamic playmaker there.

"We'll see if he can handle it," Tomlin said of Holmes, who returned punts in 2006.

Other candidates to return punts, Tomlin said, are Mewelde Moore, Willie Reid and Jeremy Bloom. In the mix for kickoffs are Moore, Reid, Bloom and rookie first-round pick Rashard Mendenhall.
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Tomlin to tone down camp - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
 
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Breakout players 11-20: Ten more about to step way up

The term "breakout player" can mean a couple of different things in the NFL. It can mean a surprise player, somebody like Green Bay Packers running back Ryan Grant last season, or it can mean a player who goes from good to even better.
Each season we see plenty of both, guys who come from nowhere to be major contributors and players who find their way into their first Pro Bowl after a couple of years of growth.

18. Santonio Holmes, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers: He had 52 catches last season, his second with the team, but watch out in 2008. This could be his Pro Bowl year. It's certainly going to be the season he takes over as the No. 1 guy for Hines Ward.

Entire article: Breakout players 11-20: Ten more about to step way up - NFL - CBSSports.com Live Scores, Standings and Stats
 
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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Santonio Holmes averaged more yards per catch last season than Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, Reggie Wayne, Torry Holt and Chad Johnson. He led the Steelers in receiving yards, yards per catch and touchdowns and recorded the team's only three 100-yard receiving games.

Holmes did a lot of good things in his second NFL season, but apparently not enough to suit him.

Attending the Tom Shaw Performance Enhancement boot camp at Disney's Wide World of Sports, Holmes said he has never trained harder for a season. Holmes attempted to set the record straight regarding his comments last month about skipping some voluntary workouts.

cont.
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Holmes defends work ethic - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
 
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Santonio poised for breakout year
By MARK KABOLY, Daily News Sports Editor
07/29/2008

Generally speaking, it isn't until the third year that an NFL wide receiver has that breakout season.

But it's also the year that wide receivers have that breakdown year.

Santonio Holmes figures he had enough setbacks as a rookie and enough breakdowns in his second year with the Steelers that the only thing left is a breakout.

"I am expecting a lot of big things out of myself," Holmes said.

And that's coming from a guy who led the NFL in yards per catch (18.1) in 2007, when he hauled in 52 passes for 945 yards and eight touchdowns in just 13 games.

Expectations are higher for Holmes, 24, because he finally heads into training camp without an uphill battle facing him.

As a rookie Holmes missed the summer offseason programs because his school, Ohio State, utilizes a trimester system and he never caught up.

Last year he started the season on the physically unable to perform list after undergoing an undisclosed offseason surgery. A nagging hamstring injury kept him out of a Week 5 game against Seattle, and a twisted ankle forced him to miss Week 12 and 13 games against Miami and Cincinnati. Now Holmes hopes the injury bug is behind him.

"The biggest thing is staying healthy," he said. "I want to play all 16 games this year. I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to for myself and the team last year by not playing all 16 games. That has been my focal point throughout the entire offseason."

Holmes took part in Tom Shaw's rigorous offseason training program in the stifling heat of central Florida in hopes of avoiding injuries and becoming one of the receivers who breakout in their third season, rather than breakdown.
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The Daily News - Santonio poised for breakout year
 
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