Fantasy Index

Factoid

May 06, 2015

Adrian Peterson

Peterson nothing special in the passing game

Adrian Peterson I’m sure is champing at the bit to get back on the field and re-establish himself as the league’s premier running back. He’s 30, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he won the rushing title.

But somebody in Minnesota needs to play on passing downs, and that’s an issue. Peterson, Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon all look less than ideal for third-down duty. McKinnon was mostly a quarterback in college; he’s still learning the position. Asiata is awfull slow and doesn’t have great hands. And Peterson, great as he is, isn’t much of a pass catcher.

In each of his last two seasons, Peterson has averaged under 6.0 yards per pass play.

Ultimately, on all of these position, we should probably look not at yards per catch but at yards per pass attempt. You get nothing on incompletions, after all, so If one back catches 3 passes for 20 yards (with no incompletions), why should he appear to be less effective than a player who catches 2 of 6 balls, for 20 yards?

Using the average yards per pass play metric, all three of the Minnesota running backs rank in the bottom 10 over the last two years among players at that position with at least 40 targets.

RUNNING BACKS, YARDS PER PASS PLAY (2013-14)
RkPlayerNoYardsTgtPctAvg
1.DeAngelo Williams313774273.8%8.98
2.Roy Helu737288982.0%8.18
3.Marshawn Lynch736839279.3%7.42
4.Knowshon Moreno615567581.3%7.41
5.C.J. Anderson343244477.3%7.36
6.LeVeon Bell128125317174.9%7.33
7.Joique Bell8786912171.9%7.18
8.Bruce Miller434326170.5%7.08
9.Eddie Lacy776849977.8%6.91
10.LeSean McCoy8069410179.2%6.87
11.Giovani Bernard9986313076.2%6.64
12.Darren Sproles11199115273.0%6.52
13.Benny Cunningham514116479.7%6.42
14.Pierre Thomas12289113987.8%6.41
15.Toby Gerhart332744376.7%6.37
16.Trent Richardson625458672.1%6.34
17.Andre Ellington8576612269.7%6.28
18.Matt Forte176140222478.6%6.26
19.Ahmad Bradshaw453425680.4%6.11
20.Jamaal Charles11098416367.5%6.04
21.Branden Oliver362714580.0%6.02
22.Ryan Mathews352584381.4%6.00
23.Shane Vereen9987414667.8%5.99
24.Dexter McCluster7970811966.4%5.95
25.Theo Riddick383425865.5%5.90
26.DeMarco Murray11076613084.6%5.89
27.Rashad Jennings665188875.0%5.89
28.Chris Johnson664968676.7%5.77
29.Fred Jackson11388815672.4%5.69
30.Travaris Cadet403015375.5%5.68
31.Mike Tolbert392774979.6%5.65
32.Frank Gore272524560.0%5.60
33.Donald Brown564257673.7%5.59
34.Reggie Bush9475913669.1%5.58
35.Knile Davis272224067.5%5.55
36.James Starks282294266.7%5.45
37.Arian Foster605109463.8%5.43
38.Ronnie Hillman332584868.8%5.38
39.Marcel Reece6959611361.1%5.27
40.Bobby Rainey443426567.7%5.26
41.Fozzy Whittaker262154163.4%5.24
42.Montee Ball292074072.5%5.18
43.Lamar Miller644458773.6%5.11
44.Maurice Jones-Drew543857671.1%5.07
45.Zac Stacy442935875.9%5.05
46.Jacquizz Rodgers8151410279.4%5.04
47.C.J. Spiller523106283.9%5.00
48.Bilal Powell473647364.4%4.99
49.Jordan Todman393146460.9%4.91
50.Justin Forsett593457578.7%4.60
51.Matt Asiata493257169.0%4.58
52.Chris Ogbonnaya483437564.0%4.57
53.Mark Ingram362134776.6%4.53
54.Steven Jackson533397669.7%4.46
55.Ray Rice583217379.5%4.40
56.Adrian Peterson311894372.1%4.40
57.Darren McFadden533208066.3%4.00
58.Jerick McKinnon271354165.9%3.29
59.Ben Tate432006170.5%3.28
60.Doug Martin251304456.8%2.95

—Ian Allan

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