Targets vs Receptions

Sitting here waiting for my delayed flight...killing time...thought this was modestly interesting.

Looking at our WR's this year and last year and comparing stats.

Last year Smitty and Olsen were 46% of Cam's TARGETS
This year KB and Olsen are 47% of Cam's TARGETS

So that's virtually unchanged.

But last year our "Other WR's" (LaFell, Hixon, Ginn) were 31% of RECEPTIONS
And this year Cotch, Avant, Brown and Bersin are 38% of RECEPTIONS

So you can argue that our complementary WR's are making more of their oppty's this year compared to last year.

Although if we keep giving up 89 yard touchdown runs on D it won't really matter. Carry on.

 

Steve Smith likes this.

 

The increased percentage of total receptions by the wide receivers is largely a function of the running backs being hurt and thus not being as involved in the passing game. It's not necessarily a good thing. What we need to look at are catch percentages and yards per target.

2013 Receiving Numbers
Greg Olsen - 73 receptions, 109 targets, 67.0% caught, 816 yards, 7.49 ypt
Steve Smith - 64 receptions, 109 targets, 58.7% caught, 745 yards, 6.83 ypt
Brandon LaFell - 49 receptions, 88 targets, 55.7% caught, 627 yards, 7.13 ypt
Ted Ginn Jr. - 36 receptions, 68 targets, 52.9% caught, 556 yards, 8.18 ypt
DeAngelo Williams - 26 receptions, 36 targets, 72.2% caught, 333 yards, 9.25 ypt
Mike Tolbert - 27 receptions, 32 targets, 84.3% caught, 184 yards, 5.75 ypt


2014 Receiving Numbers
Greg Olsen - 33 receptions, 51 targets, 64.7% caught, 388 yards, 7.61 ypt
Kelvin Benjamin - 31 receptions, 55 targets, 56.3% caught, 416 yards, 7.56 ypt
Jerricho Cotchery - 20 receptions, 29 targets, 69.0% caught, 262 yards, 9.03 ypt
Jason Avant - 17 receptions, 28 targets, 60.7% caught, 179 yards, 6.39 ypt
Philly Brown - 11 receptions, 15 targets, 73.3% caught, 113 yards, 7.53 ypt


Now to my eyes Benjamin has had too many drops, Cotchery has looked old, and Avant has been pretty irrelevant, but the numbers tell a different story. Obviously a lot of this has to do with Cam being a better passer this season than ever before, yet I can't deny that the replacement wideouts have been adequate.

 

The only good WR that left was 89. We should have kept The Ginn family because I don't know if I'll ever trust Phumbles Brown back there.

 

Ginn got paid a lot of money. I agree about returner being an issue, but they could have addressed that without matching Ginn's offer. I would have matched New England's offer to LaFell. His 8.81 yards per target is second on the Patriots behind Tim Wright.

 

You mean the Cotchery that made catch after big catch for us this year? Hes made more of a impact than laffell did.

 

I wanted to strangle him after the one he dropped in Cincy.

 

Yea thats one. But that's been rare this season.

 

Weird looking at Cotches 69% with the two big drops from Sunday. Man, I wish he could have held on to that last one.