Signature Stats: Yards Per Route Run

Box score fanatics look away, because it’s time for another installment of Pro Football Focus: Signature Stats.

When we started this over six years ago it wasn’t too collect stats, but that has become a happy by-product of what we do. It means we can challenge narratives led by numbers that lack the kind of context to paint anywhere near a complete picture.

This week we’re going to look at Yards Per Route Run for wide receivers. A simple enough concept, that means we’re not looking at just the total yards but rather the opportunity players had to collect those yards. After all, 1000 is a big number and certainly bigger than 600. But if you collected those 600 yards running just one hundred routes, as opposed to collecting 1000 running 500, is the 600 not more impressive?

Top of the Charts

Sometimes you never know what you’ve got until it’s gone. And other times you know what you’ve lost before it’s even been put on injured reserve for the year. 2013 was a horrible year for the usually competitive Falcons and nothing summed it up quite like the loss of Julio Jones for the year. With Roddy White down at the start of the season the third-year man stepped up and delivered a humongous 2.74 yards per route run. The best of all receivers who ran at least 200 routes.

That put him ever so narrowly ahead of Calvin Johnson who ended with a 2.72 score. A mighty fine showing and while many were quick to scream “drop-off” Johnson actually picked up more yards per route run than in his stellar 2012 season where he ended with a 2.55 figure. Less “drop-off” and more “well he missed time so what did you expect would happen”. Also featuring in the Top 5 were Josh Gordon, Anquan Boldin and DeSean Jackson, and while Antonio Brown would finish sixth Demaryius Thomas could only end up in 12th in this metric. Though it’s somewhat fair to say that has something to do with Denver having two more guys in the Top 40 (out of 92 qualifying candidates) as well as a tight end who was eighth in his position.

Here’s the Top 10:

The Rookies

A turn now to rookies and it will surprise absolutely no one to see Keenan Allen leading the way. Perhaps more impressively for the man who finished 21st overall in yardage is that he would end up 14th overall, showing just how productive he was when he was on the field. That was ahead of guys like Dez Bryant, Jordy Nelson and T.Y. Hilton.

Patriots fans will be happy/ surprised to see Aaron Dobson come in as the next rookie in a healthy 36th spot. His 1.65 yards per route run were surprisingly competitive against both Danny Amendola (1.7) and Julian Edelman (1.78) and they’ll be hoping to see that number jump up next year. In third spot of all rookies is the Vikings Cordarrelle Patterson who may have only run 293 routes but it was enough for the team to develop some extremely high hopes for him.

The Free Agents

What for the guys that are about to hit the open market? Well you’ve already seen the name of the ageless Anquan Boldin up in fourth spot overall so you know he led the way in that regard, with Eric Decker the next man up in 18th spot. Interestingly (especially if you’re this players agent) he’s only one spot ahead of Golden Tate. So while Decker ended up with nearly four hundred more yards, it’s worth noting that he needed to run almost two hundred more routes to do so. They’re the Top 3 with restricted free agent Doug Baldwin in 25th overall while, despite having an off year by his standards, Hakeem Nicks still featured in the top half of this thing in 32nd overall. It’s a big drop though for a guy who has recently as 2011 was averaging 0.3 yards more per route run.

Down at the Other End

There was a feeling that Greg Little had turned something of a corner after a much improved second half of 2012. A playmaker with the ball in his hands, the problem for him has always been actually securing it with those bad boys and so it proved once again. He finished 42nd of all receivers in terms of targets but just 71st in terms of yards, not helping himself with the sixth worst drop rate in the NFL. This all led to the worst yards per route run number (0.7) of all receivers. If there’s any consolation he’s not alone in Cleveland with Davone Bess also in the Bottom 5 as whoever was behind center wisely decided that Josh Gordon was the guy to go to.

Bottom 10

As ever with signature stats something of a disclaimer. Are these numbers better than what the box score tells you? In our opinion without doubt otherwise why would we bother showcasing them on our site. But are they as good as our grades? Without doubt they are not. When looking at any number a certain degree of context beyond what the stat sheet tells you and instead as to what the eye tells you is needed. After all a 10 yard reception where you beat three defenders and then dive for the end zone might be better than say an 80-yard grab where the defense has all collectively gone for a nap and yet you saunter down the field.

In either case, if you want all these stats, all the grades and much more then grab yourself a PFF Premium Package today. Be good to yourself.

Follow Khaled on Twitter: @PFF_Khaled