Fantasy Index

Factoid

Short-range receivers

Touchdown catches coming from shorter distances

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
AvgTDYear
6.0102013Wes Welker
9.5112007Marques Colston
10.4102013Jerricho Cotchery
11.1102012Marques Colston
12.2132013Dez Bryant
12.5112008Anquan Boldin
12.6102013Marvin Jones
12.8122013Brandon Marshall
13.0132009Larry Fitzgerald
13.4142012James Jones
13.4132012Eric Decker
13.5102003Hines Ward
14.2102006Torry Holt
14.5122006Marvin Harrison
14.9162004Muhsin Muhammad
15.1102005Joe Jurevicius
15.3112013Eric Decker
15.8102007Larry Fitzgerald
16.0102005Larry Fitzgerald

—Ian Allan

Fantasy Index