Slot Receivers

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In our continuing breakdown of various aspects of wide receiver play, next up is a look at slot receivers.
 
We’re talking yardage, touchdowns, receptions and … well, let’s just say there’s so much information on slot receivers that the thought of getting it all down scared me a little bit. Coming at it from a number of angles, this 2010 slot receiver data paints a picture of who is getting slot opportunities and who is doing the most with them.
 
So without further ado, let’s get into it.
 

 
 
(Note: Only players who lined up in the slot at least 100 times qualified for this study and any other qualifying marks are noted per table.)
 
 

Time Spent in the Slot

The best place to start is with who lined up in the slot most often. It may surprise a few to see Jason Avant ahead of guys like Wes Welker (who finishes ninth) and Danny Amendola (fifth), but the Eagle was No. 1 in 2010. It’s a pretty self explanatory list so I’ll let the table of the top fifteen do the work for me. As always, if you have a question regarding where your favorite player fits in to any of this, feel free to contact me.
 

Wide Receivers, Slot Snaps, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	Slot Snaps
1	Jason Avant	PHI	622
2	Hines Ward	PIT	606
3t	Jordan Shipley	CIN	566
3t	Anquan Boldin	BLT	566
5	Danny Amendola	SL	561
6	Donald Driver	GB	520
7	Eddie Royal	DEN	495
8	Marques Colston	NO	484
9	Wes Welker	NE	472
10	Jerricho Cotchery	NYJ	455
11	Nate Burleson	DET	449
12	Miles Austin	DAL	439
13	Mike Thomas	JAX	430
14	Blair White	IND	429
15	Earl Bennett	CHI	411

 

Taking the snap numbers a step further, let’s see who spent of their time in the slot. Moving up to the No. 1 spot is David Nelson of the Bills, who spent 94.35% of his total snaps in the slot. No real surprise for those who watched the Bills with Nelson working predominantly in three and four receiver sets where he caught 58.06% of his balls over the middle and short of ten yards.
 

Wide Receivers, Percentage of Snaps in Slot, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	% of Snaps
1	David Nelson	BUF	94.35%
2	Jordan Shipley	CIN	93.25%
3	Brandon Stokley	SEA	89.54%
4	Austin Collie	IND	84.25%
5	Danny Amendola	SL	84.23%
6	Eddie Royal	DEN	81.01%
7	Roscoe Parrish	BUF	78.59%
8	Blair White	IND	78.28%
9	Chansi Stuckey	CLV	77.47%
10	Jason Avant	PHI	77.08%
11	Early Doucet	ARZ	73.31%
12	David Anderson	HST	73.11%
13	Max Komar	ARZ	72.22%
14	Sammie Stroughter	TB	72.00%
15	Earl Bennett	CHI	71.73%

 

Yardage

Establishing which players spend most of their time in the slot brought with it the names of a lot of guys you’d expect; the smaller, shiftier types. So the first relative shock of our findings is that Marques Colston generated more yardage from the slot than any other player in the league. What’s notable about Colston here is that he’s the only guy listed above 6’ 1” to make the Top 15 in slot yardage.
 

Wide Receivers, Slot Yards, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	Slot Yards
1	Marques Colston	NO	696
2	Danny Amendola	SL	662
3	Wes Welker	NE	585
4	Jordan Shipley	CIN	576
5	Jason Avant	PHI	569
6	Anquan Boldin	BLT	561
7	Donald Driver	GB	542
8	Austin Collie	IND	509
9	Eddie Royal	DEN	504
10	Mike Thomas	JAX	498
11	Santana Moss	WAS	486
12	Earl Bennett	CHI	460
13	Percy Harvin	MIN	452
14	Hines Ward	PIT	448
15	Nate Burleson	DET	447

 

Receptions

What makes Colston’s yardage total all the more remarkable is that he had 27 fewer receptions from the slot than the No. 2 yardage man, Danny Amendola. By quite some distance, Amendola caught more balls than any other while lined-up out-flanked by another receiver. It goes some way to showing you how much of a safety valve he was for rookie quarterback Sam Bradford, and how wise teams that are looking to play rookie quarterbacks may be to offer a similar option who thrives on the underneath routes.
 

Wide Receivers, Slot Receptions, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	Slot Rec
1	Danny Amendola	SL	80
2	Wes Welker	NE	64
3	Marques Colston	NO	53
4	Austin Collie	IND	50
5	Jason Avant	PHI	49
6	Jordan Shipley	CIN	48
7t	Eddie Royal	DEN	47
7t	Percy Harvin	MIN	47
9	Donald Driver	GB	44
10	Santana Moss	WAS	43
11	Anquan Boldin	BLT	39
12	Nate Burleson	DET	38
13t	Mike Thomas	JAX	36
13t	Brandon Stokley	SEA	36
15t	Earl Bennett	CHI	34
15t	Blair White	IND	34
15t	Chansi Stuckey	CLV	34

 

Targets

While the top reception guys, Amendola, Welker, and Colston also rise to the top of the following slot targets list, be sure to note Eddie Royal’s appearance in the Top 5. A big reason why Amendola finished with more slot receptions is because he was quite obviously targeted a great deal more than everyone else, but there are players like Royal that got the looks without converting them nearly as often.
 

Wide Receivers, Slot Targets, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	Slot Targets
1	Danny Amendola	SL	107
2	Wes Welker	NE	86
3	Eddie Royal	DEN	82
4	Marques Colston	NO	78
5t	Donald Driver	GB	71
5t	Jordan Shipley	CIN	71
7	Jason Avant	PHI	69
8t	Percy Harvin	MIN	65
8t	Anquan Boldin	BLT	65
10	Santana Moss	WAS	62
11	Austin Collie	IND	61
12	Nate Burleson	DET	59
13t	Earl Bennett	CHI	54
13t	Hines Ward	PIT	54
15	Mike Thomas	JAX	53

 

Catch %

The next logical step here is to get a glance at who was, in fact, converting most of their chances into receptions. Looking at those with at least 50 slot targets, we see Royal slip out of the Top 15 and Donald Driver nearly do the same while Austin Collie shoots up to Amedola-Welker-land.
 

Wide Receivers, Slot Catch Percentage, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	Slot Targets	Slot Rec	Slot Catch%
1	Austin Collie	IND	61	50	81.97%
2	Danny Amendola	SL	107	80	74.77%
3	Wes Welker	NE	86	64	74.42%
4	Percy Harvin	MIN	65	47	72.31%
5	Jason Avant	PHI	69	49	71.01%
6	Brandon Stokley	SEA	51	36	70.59%
7	Santana Moss	WAS	62	43	69.35%
8	Chansi Stuckey	CLV	50	34	68.00%
9	Marques Colston	NO	78	53	67.95%
10	Mike Thomas	JAX	53	36	67.92%
11	Jordan Shipley	CIN	71	48	67.61%
12	Blair White	IND	51	34	66.67%
13	Nate Burleson	DET	59	38	64.41%
14	Earl Bennett	CHI	54	34	62.96%
15	Donald Driver	GB	71	44	61.97%

 

Depth of Target

What’s a bit more interesting is a look at how far down the field these targets were coming. There were 20 receivers who were targeted at least 50 times while playing in the slot, and here’s the average distance of the ball thrown at them. What you get to see is how different teams use their players differently in the slot. Teams like St Louis and New England ask their slot men to attack with underneath routes, while teams like New Orleans and Pittsburgh tend to push seams and get their slot options moving upfield.
 

Wide Receivers, Slot Target Depth, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	Depth of Target
1	Danny Amendola	SL	5.30
2	Wes Welker	NE	5.45
3	Chansi Stuckey	CLV	5.76
4	Nate Burleson	DET	6.80
5	Percy Harvin	MIN	6.98
6	Brandon Stokley	SEA	7.12
7	Santana Moss	WAS	7.79
8	Austin Collie	IND	8.18
9	Jordan Shipley	CIN	8.89
10t	Eddie Royal	DEN	9.21
10t	Miles Austin	DAL	9.21
12	Donald Driver	GB	9.46
13	Blair White	IND	9.59
14	Earl Bennett	CHI	9.72
15	Jerricho Cotchery	NYJ	9.73
16	Mike Thomas	JAX	9.81
17	Jason Avant	PHI	10.52
18	Anquan Boldin	BLT	11.63
19	Marques Colston	NO	11.69
20	Hines Ward	PIT	11.81

 

Yards Per Catch

That last list leads in quite nicely to the yards per catch portion of the piece, with those with the highest average depth of target also finishing with the highest yard per catch. Worth noting that the following list came about after editing it down to look at receivers who had at least 25 receptions from the slot, otherwise Mike Wallace, Johnny Knox and Desean Jackson would have runaway with this award, despite picking up relatively few slot receptions.
 

Wide Receivers, Slot Yards per Catch, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	Slot YPC
1	Hines Ward	PIT	14.93
2	Miles Austin	DAL	14.60
3	Anquan Boldin	BLT	14.38
4	Greg Jennings	GB	14.28
5	Mike Thomas	JAX	13.83
6	Earl Bennett	CHI	13.53
7	Marques Colston	NO	13.13
8	Jordy Nelson	GB	13.00
9	Jerricho Cotchery	NYJ	12.93
10	Donald Driver	GB	12.32
11	David Nelson	BUF	12.06
12	Jordan Shipley	CIN	12.00
13	Nate Burleson	DET	11.76
14	Jason Avant	PHI	11.61
15	Roscoe Parrish	BUF	11.57

 

Yards After The Catch

Which slot receivers helped out their quarterbacks the most with yards after the catch?  Unsurprisingly we see familiar faces in Amendola, Welker, and Royal near the top. Again, it’s not really until you get to Marques Colston that you get a real “different” type of receiver when you consider he doesn’t run quite so many underneath routes in the Saints offense.
 

Wide Receivers, Slot Yards After the Catch, 2010

Rank	Player	Team	Slot YAC
1	Danny Amendola	SL	349
2	Wes Welker	NE	302
3	Eddie Royal	DEN	283
4	Nate Burleson	DET	274
5	Percy Harvin	MIN	273
6	Austin Collie	IND	252
7	Santana Moss	WAS	236
8	Miles Austin	DAL	208
9	Jason Avant	PHI	196
10	Donald Driver	GB	194
11	Mike Thomas	JAX	188
12	Marques Colston	NO	187
13	Jordan Shipley	CIN	186
14t	Anquan Boldin	BLT	182
14t	Jordy Nelson	GB	182

 

After all that information, I’m a little bit tabled out, but there you have a pile of data that will be of interest to those intent on finding out just what players are doing damage from the slot. Guys like Danny Amendola and Wes Welker won’t come as a surprise to many, but even watching a lot of the Saints, it took me about 10 guesses before I realized Marques Colston had more slot yardage than any other (much to the delight of my tormentor-in-chief, Neil Hornsby, who had the data in hand).
 
Will the Saints’ use of Colston change the way other teams do things? Perhaps more will look to create that type of mismatch against defenses that don’t shift personnel to follow receivers. A successful formula in the NFL is soon to be mimicked.
 
The Saints, though, are a unique offense, and it wouldn’t simply be a case of putting a big, physical guy in the slot and expecting dividends. New Orleans has threats out of the backfield, and used players like Lance Moore lined-up outside to run their underneath routes and create more mismatch problems.
 
Still, it’s fun to see something different from teams, and it’s nice to have the information available to shine proper light on it.
 
 
PFF Fantasy guru, Mike Clay, also dove into the slot numbers recently. Check out his notes on the topic that were posted in PFF’s Fantasy section.
 
 
Follow Khaled on Twitter: @PFF_Khaled