John Ross hasn’t been at all what I was expecting. I was expecting a different kind of player.

I thought he would have somewhat of breakout kind of season. We’re talking about a former top-10 pick. That hasn’t happened. He’s caught only 20 passes.

And I thought we would see Ross catching lot of deep balls. He’d see a lot of single coverage (opposite A.J. Green), and he he’d be able to hit on long touchdowns pretty consistently. That also hasn’t happened.

Ross, in fact, has been pretty much the opposite. He caught a 39-yard touchdown at Atlanta, but his other 6 TD catches have come from 2, 2, 3, 3, 6 and 22 yards.

His 7 TDs, by my math, have come from an average of 11 yards. In the last 10 years (2008-2017), 212 other wide receivers have caught at least 7 TDs in a season. Only 17 of them have caught their touchdowns from an average of under 11 yards per touchdown.

Here’s how Ross compares to the wide receivers from the 2008-2017 seasons. (That is, I haven’t carefully checked the numbers to see if there’s another short-range receiver from 2018 that I’m overlooking).

UNDER 14 YARDS ON TOUCHDOWN CATCHES
AvgTDYearPlayer
4.992017Jarvis Landry
6.0102013Wes Welker
6.072014Roddy White
6.672010Mike Sims-Walker
6.772016Donte Moncrief
7.172008Dwayne Bowe
7.972008Isaac Bruce
9.482011Roddy White
9.492015Larry Fitzgerald
9.772009Steve Smith (NYG)
10.172013Marlon Brown
10.382011Plaxico Burress
10.3122015Eric Decker
10.382016Michael Crabtree
10.4102013Jerricho Cotchery
10.4142016Jordy Nelson
10.692016Michael Thomas
11.072018John Ross
11.1102012Marques Colston
11.372011Steve Johnson
11.472010Wes Welker
11.472013Anquan Boldin
11.692015Calvin Johnson
11.672008Laveranues Coles
11.7102014Mike Wallace
12.092016Rishard Matthews
12.2132013Dez Bryant
12.482017Michael Crabtree
12.5112008Anquan Boldin
12.6102013Marvin Jones
12.8122013Brandon Marshall
12.882016Anquan Boldin
12.882016Sterling Shepard
13.0132009Larry Fitzgerald
13.0122014Randall Cobb
13.182013Eddie Royal
13.372011Hakeem Nicks
13.4142012James Jones
13.4132012Eric Decker
13.472010Marques Colston
13.772008Hines Ward

—Ian Allan