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Factoid

Unheralded receivers

Can Cotchery, Jones be counting on for more touchdowns?

What do we make of Marvin Jones and Jerricho Cotchery? These guys each caught 10 touchdowns last year, even though they weren’t heavily used receivers. Jones caught only 51 passes for the Bengals, while Cotchery caught only 46 passes for Pittsburgh.

At the start of last year, I think these guys were considered the third-best receivers on those teams. I think everybody had Cotchery behind Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders in Pittsburgh. I think the vast majority had Jones behind both A.J. Green and Mohamed Sanu (who caught 4 TDs in his final three games as a rookie).

Cotchery has signed with Carolina, where he’ll probably start, but that’s still up in the air. Jones is a starter in Cincinnati, but they use Sanu a lot as well and also have a pair of first-round tight ends. And Green. And a great pass-catching running back (Gio Bernard).

The track record of these kind of receivers isn’t very good. That is, receivers who score a lot of touchdowns but don’t catch many passes. Since 1990, 25 wide receivers have caught 9 TDs while catching fewer than 60 passes. Only eight of those receivers (about a third) scored more than 5 TDs the following year.

‘SCORER’ RECEIVERS, THE NEXT YEAR
YearTeamReceiverNoYdsAvgTDP
1991Cin.Eddie Brown5982714.02
1991Phil.Calvin Williams333269.93
1992Atl.Michael Haynes4880816.810
1993Atl.Michael Haynes7277810.84
1996Balt.Michael Jackson76120115.814
1996Hou.Chris Sanders4888218.44
1996Den.Anthony Miller5673513.13
1996Buff.Bill Brooks1722413.20
1997G.B.Antonio Freeman81124315.312
1997St.L.Eddie Kennison2540416.20
1998Oak.James Jett4588219.66
2002G.B.Bill Schroeder3659516.55
2003Oak.Jerry Porter2836112.91
2003NYJWayne Chrebet2728910.71
2004G.B.Javon Walker89138215.512
2005Oak.Randy Moss60100516.88
2005Buff.Lee Evans4874315.57
2006Clev.Joe Jurevicius4049512.43
2007Cin.Chris Henry2134316.32
2008G.B.Greg Jennings80129216.29
2008Jac.Reggie Williams373649.83
2008Sea.Nate Burleson56012.01
2010N.O.Robert Meachem4463814.55
2011Ten.Kenny Britt17289173
2012Jac.Laurent Robinson2425210.50
2014Cin.Marvin Jones????
2014Pitt.Jerricho Cotchery????

—Ian Allan

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