≡ Menu

Larry Fitzgerald led the NFL in receptions this year, with 107. That’s good, but how important is leading the league in catches? The triple crown is thought of as the leaders in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns, but I think we can all agree that receiving first downs is a better indicator of receiver play than receptions. If I was in charge of stats-keeping, I’d place far more emphasis of receiving first downs than receptions, because receptions that don’t go for first downs are far less valuable than receptions that do go for a first down. And while receptions may be a decent proxy for receiving first downs, there’s a lot of variance there.

The leader in receiving first downs this year was Mike Evans, and he certainly had a better statistical year than Fitzgerald.  Evans had a stat line of 96-1321-12, with 81 first downs, compared to Fitzgerald’s 107-1023-6 and 59 first downs.  That’s right: Evans had 22 more first downs on just 11 fewer grabs, thanks to his 84.4% first down rate compared to Fitzgerald’s 55.1%. Evans dominated the league in this metric, finishing with 15 more than anyone else. [1]Best as we can tell, the record for receiving first downs in a season was 92, shared by Calvin Johnson (2012) and Marvin Harrison (2002), until Julio Jones broke it last year with 93. Evans finished with 6 out of the 100 votes cast for the AP All-Pro team, which seems like a criminally low number that would be higher in first downs were as widely-reported as they should be.

In the interest of data disclosure, the table below shows the receptions, receiving yards, touchdowns, *and receiving first downs* for the top receivers last season. I have also included each player’s receiving first down percentage, and their total number of Adjusted Catch Yards, defined here as receiving first downs * 9, plus receiving yards, plus receiving touchdowns * 11 (because a receiving TD already gets 9 yards since it is counted as a first down, too).

RkReceiverTeamRecRec YdsTD1D1D %ACY
1Mike EvansBuccaneers961321128184.4%2182
2T.Y. HiltonColts91144866672.5%2108
3Odell BeckhamGiants1011367106564.4%2062
4Julio JonesFalcons83140966477.1%2051
5Antonio BrownSteelers1061284126460.4%1992
6Jordy NelsonPackers971257146263.9%1969
7Michael ThomasSaints92113796267.4%1794
8Doug BaldwinSeahawks94112875255.3%1673
9Brandin CooksSaints78117384557.7%1666
10Travis KelceChiefs85112545463.5%1655
11Jarvis LandryDolphins94113645255.3%1648
12Julian EdelmanPatriots98110635556.1%1634
13Amari CooperRaiders83115354756.6%1631
14Larry FitzgeraldCardinals107102365955.1%1620
15Michael CrabtreeRaiders89100385662.9%1595
16Greg OlsenPanthers80107335467.5%1592
17Demaryius ThomasBroncos90108355055.6%1588
18Tyrell WilliamsChargers69105974869.6%1568
19Pierre GarconRedskins79104135265.8%1542
20Emmanuel SandersBroncos79103255063.3%1537
21Golden TateLions91107744650.5%1535
22Davante AdamsPackers75997124560%1534
23DeAndre HopkinsTexans7895445671.8%1502
24Terrelle PryorBrowns77100744862.3%1483
25Kenny BrittRams68100254769.1%1480
26Kelvin BenjaminPanthers6394175079.4%1468
27Mike WallaceRavens72101744359.7%1448
28Rishard MatthewsTitans6594594366.2%1431
29Adam ThielenVikings6996754463.8%1418
30Allen RobinsonJaguars7388365169.9%1408
31Willie SneadSaints7289545170.8%1398
32Jimmy GrahamSeahawks6592364569.2%1394
33A.J. GreenBengals6696444162.1%1377
34Kyle RudolphVikings8384075060.2%1367
35Stefon DiggsVikings8490334756%1359
36DeSean JacksonRedskins56100543460.7%1355
37Cole BeasleyCowboys7583355168%1347
38Marvin JonesLions5593044174.5%1343
39Cameron MeredithBears6688844466.7%1328
40Brandon LaFellBengals6486264265.6%1306
41David JohnsonCardinals8087944252.5%1301
42Marqise LeeJaguars6385134469.8%1280
43Zach ErtzEagles7881644253.8%1238
44Jamison CrowderRedskins6784773450.7%1230
45Dez BryantCowboys5079683876%1226
46Quincy EnunwaJets5885743662.1%1225
47Brandon MarshallJets5978834474.6%1217
48Alshon JefferyBears5282124178.8%1212
49Steve SmithRavens7079953955.7%1205
50Delanie WalkerTitans6580073553.8%1192
51Dontrelle InmanChargers5881043763.8%1187
52Jordan MatthewsEagles7380433852.1%1179
53Sterling ShepardGiants6568384264.6%1149
54Jordan ReedRedskins6668664162.1%1121
55Cameron BrateBuccaneers5766084070.2%1108
56Kenny StillsDolphins4272693071.4%1095
57DeVante ParkerDolphins5674443460.7%1094
58Dennis PittaRavens8672923743%1084
59Martellus BennettPatriots5570173156.4%1057
60Eric EbronLions6171113760.7%1055
61Anquan BoldinLions6758484161.2%1041
62Ted GinnPanthers5475242750%1039
63Jason WittenCowboys6967333347.8%1003
64Jeremy Kerley49ers6466733351.6%997

What do you think?

References

References
1 Best as we can tell, the record for receiving first downs in a season was 92, shared by Calvin Johnson (2012) and Marvin Harrison (2002), until Julio Jones broke it last year with 93.
{ 58 comments }