Teams are passing more and using more spread formations, and as a byproduct of that shift, we’re seeing more dink-and-dunk than in the past. The tendency is to get the ball out of quarterbacks hands more quickly – meaning shorter pass routes.
As I am dinking around with the numbers, I notice that receivers are scoring shorter touchdowns than in the past.
In this century (that is, the 14 seasons from 2000 to 2013) we’ve seen 97 wide receivers score at least 10 TDs in a season. Of that group, only eight scored their touchdowns from an average of under 13 yards. That is, in this group, those guys weren’t scoring many long-range touchdowns.
Of those short-range guys, five of the eight came from the 2013 season.
Weird.
GUYS SCORING SHORT TOUCHDOWNS | |||
---|---|---|---|
Avg | TD | Year | |
6.0 | 10 | 2013 | Wes Welker |
9.5 | 11 | 2007 | Marques Colston |
10.4 | 10 | 2013 | Jerricho Cotchery |
11.1 | 10 | 2012 | Marques Colston |
12.2 | 13 | 2013 | Dez Bryant |
12.5 | 11 | 2008 | Anquan Boldin |
12.6 | 10 | 2013 | Marvin Jones |
12.8 | 12 | 2013 | Brandon Marshall |
13.0 | 13 | 2009 | Larry Fitzgerald |
13.4 | 14 | 2012 | James Jones |
13.4 | 13 | 2012 | Eric Decker |
13.5 | 10 | 2003 | Hines Ward |
14.2 | 10 | 2006 | Torry Holt |
14.5 | 12 | 2006 | Marvin Harrison |
14.9 | 16 | 2004 | Muhsin Muhammad |
15.1 | 10 | 2005 | Joe Jurevicius |
15.3 | 11 | 2013 | Eric Decker |
15.8 | 10 | 2007 | Larry Fitzgerald |
16.0 | 10 | 2005 | Larry Fitzgerald |
—Ian Allan