The Raiders made the big trade for Davante Adams, but I don’t think they’re going to kick their other pass catchers to the curb. Guys like Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow are too good to not have big roles in the offense.
Waller, when he’s on, is one of the very best tight ends in the game – he’s what the Falcons are hoping to develop Kyle Pitts into. And Renfrow has become one of the best slot receivers in the game.
Renfrow last year caught 103 of the 128 passes thrown his way. That’s over 80 percent – the kind of completion rate you might see at a Pro Day. So as great as Adams is, I don’t envision Derek Carr forgetting about Renfrow when he needs a key completion.
I was playing around with the numbers some on this. In the last 40 years, there have only one two wide receivers who’ve had at least 100 targets in a season and also caught over 80 percent of the passes thrown their way. Michael Thomas has done it twice, and now Renfrow.
List appears below. There are 21 guys who have done it, and shockingly, only one of them is a former first-round pick (Larry Fitzgerald). The majority (12 of 21) weren’t even picked in the first two rounds. Wes Welker and Doug Baldwin (who both appear twice) and Cole Beasley weren’t even drafted at all.
I think the tendency to see lower draft picks on this chart is connected with almost all of these receivers being inside receivers who’re running a lot of shorter, underneath routes, with a higher success rate. It’s harder to connect on the vertical downfield routes, and when teams are using first-round picks on wide receivers, it’s more often in hopes of landing one of those playmaking kind of guys.
Nevertheless, Renfrow is a smart, reliable player, and I think he’s got a lot good years left in him. In his revised situation, 100 catches isn’t going to happen, but I think 70-plus looks very realistic.
| 100-PLUS TARGETS AND 75 PERCENT CATCH RATES | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Pct |
| 2018 | Michael Thomas, N.O. | 147 | 125 | 1,405 | 11.2 | 9 | 85.0% |
| 2019 | Michael Thomas, N.O. | 185 | 149 | 1,725 | 11.6 | 9 | 80.5% |
| 2021 | Hunter Renfrow, L.V. | 128 | 103 | 1,038 | 10.1 | 9 | 80.5% |
| 2007 | Wes Welker, N.E. | 145 | 112 | 1,175 | 10.5 | 8 | 77.2% |
| 2020 | Davante Adams, G.B. | 149 | 115 | 1,374 | 12.0 | 18 | 77.2% |
| 2021 | Chris Godwin, T.B. | 127 | 98 | 1,103 | 11.3 | 5 | 77.2% |
| 2012 | Randall Cobb, G.B. | 104 | 80 | 954 | 11.9 | 8 | 76.9% |
| 2017 | Golden Tate, Det. | 120 | 92 | 1,003 | 10.9 | 5 | 76.7% |
| 2020 | Cole Beasley, Buff. | 107 | 82 | 967 | 11.8 | 4 | 76.6% |
| 2020 | Stefon Diggs, Buff. | 166 | 127 | 1,535 | 12.1 | 8 | 76.5% |
| 2016 | Michael Thomas, N.O. | 121 | 92 | 1,137 | 12.4 | 9 | 76.0% |
| 2009 | Wes Welker, N.E. | 162 | 123 | 1,348 | 11.0 | 4 | 75.9% |
| 2021 | Cooper Kupp, LAR | 191 | 145 | 1,947 | 13.4 | 16 | 75.9% |
| 2020 | JuJu Smith-Schuster, Pitt. | 128 | 97 | 831 | 8.6 | 9 | 75.8% |
| 2020 | Tyler Lockett, Sea. | 132 | 100 | 1,054 | 10.5 | 10 | 75.8% |
| 2015 | Doug Baldwin, Sea. | 103 | 78 | 1,069 | 13.7 | 14 | 75.7% |
| 2021 | Amon-Ra St. Brown, Det. | 119 | 90 | 912 | 10.1 | 5 | 75.6% |
| 2016 | Doug Baldwin, Sea. | 125 | 94 | 1,128 | 12.0 | 7 | 75.2% |
| 2015 | Larry Fitzgerald, Ariz. | 145 | 109 | 1,215 | 11.2 | 9 | 75.2% |
| 2014 | Jarvis Landry, Mia. | 112 | 84 | 758 | 9.0 | 5 | 75.0% |
| 2016 | Stefon Diggs, Min. | 112 | 84 | 903 | 10.8 | 3 | 75.0% |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan