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 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Team | Receiver | No | Yds | Avg | TDP |
1991 | Cin. | Eddie Brown | 59 | 827 | 14.0 | 2 |
1991 | Phil. | Calvin Williams | 33 | 326 | 9.9 | 3 |
1992 | Atl. | Michael Haynes | 48 | 808 | 16.8 | 10 |
1993 | Atl. | Michael Haynes | 72 | 778 | 10.8 | 4 |
1996 | Balt. | Michael Jackson | 76 | 1201 | 15.8 | 14 |
1996 | Hou. | Chris Sanders | 48 | 882 | 18.4 | 4 |
1996 | Den. | Anthony Miller | 56 | 735 | 13.1 | 3 |
1996 | Buff. | Bill Brooks | 17 | 224 | 13.2 | 0 |
1997 | G.B. | Antonio Freeman | 81 | 1243 | 15.3 | 12 |
1997 | St.L. | Eddie Kennison | 25 | 404 | 16.2 | 0 |
1998 | Oak. | James Jett | 45 | 882 | 19.6 | 6 |
2002 | G.B. | Bill Schroeder | 36 | 595 | 16.5 | 5 |
2003 | Oak. | Jerry Porter | 28 | 361 | 12.9 | 1 |
2003 | NYJ | Wayne Chrebet | 27 | 289 | 10.7 | 1 |
2004 | G.B. | Javon Walker | 89 | 1382 | 15.5 | 12 |
2005 | Oak. | Randy Moss | 60 | 1005 | 16.8 | 8 |
2005 | Buff. | Lee Evans | 48 | 743 | 15.5 | 7 |
2006 | Clev. | Joe Jurevicius | 40 | 495 | 12.4 | 3 |
2007 | Cin. | Chris Henry | 21 | 343 | 16.3 | 2 |
2008 | G.B. | Greg Jennings | 80 | 1292 | 16.2 | 9 |
2008 | Jac. | Reggie Williams | 37 | 364 | 9.8 | 3 |
2008 | Sea. | Nate Burleson | 5 | 60 | 12.0 | 1 |
2010 | N.O. | Robert Meachem | 44 | 638 | 14.5 | 5 |
2011 | Ten. | Kenny Britt | 17 | 289 | 17 | 3 |
2012 | Jac. | Laurent Robinson | 24 | 252 | 10.5 | 0 |
2014 | Cin. | Marvin Jones | ? | ? | ? | ? |
2014 | Pitt. | Jerricho Cotchery | ? | ? | ? | ? |
—Ian Allan