Shuffling the Numbers/Receiving

With the close of the 2008 regular season, we will take the next few days to look inside the numbers generated by the league’s 32 teams over the 256-game schedule.

Today the focus is on the receivers.

INDIVIDUAL NUMBERS

Houston’s Andre Johnson (right)  was the league’s leading receiver in both catches (115) and yards (1,575). Johnson finished ahead of the second place receivers in receptions (New England’s Wes Welker with 111) and yards (Denver’s Brandon Marshall with 1,265 yards.)

While the NFC dominated the list of top rushers, it was the AFC that dominated the list of top receivers, but the other conference led the way in receiving yardage. Seven of the top 10 in receptions were from the AFC, but six of the top 10 in yardage were from the NFC.

The NFC’s leading receiver was Larry Fitzgerald of Arizona, with 96 catches for 1,431 yards.

Here’s the top 10 in receiving yardage:

 

TEAM NUMBERS

The top passing team in the NFL for the ’08 season was the New Orleans Saints. They averaged 311.1 passing yards per game. The worst passing team in the league was the Oakland Raiders. Despite Al Davis’ love of the long-ball attack, the Raiders averaged just 148.1 yards per game.

Both teams did not make the playoffs. Among the top 10 teams in passing yardage, only four made the post-season. Among the bottom 10 teams in throwing the ball, three had tickets to the tournament. That leaves five teams in the playoffs that finished the season right in the middle of things.

Here are the best and worst passing games:

 

THE 1,000-YARD CLUB

There were 22 receivers that went over 1,000 yards this season, but only Johnson topped the 1,500-yard mark. That’s compared to 23 last year and 19 the season before. The most 1,000-yard receivers in one season came in 1999 with 26 receivers.

There were 12 repeaters from last season. The group of 22 included five first-timers in the 1,000-yard club: Dwayne Bowe of the Chiefs, Detroit’s Calvin Johnson, Greg Jennings of the Packers, Vincent Jackson of the Chargers and Arizona’s Steve Breaston.

Among the repeaters Randy Moss and Owens had their ninth seasons with 1,000 yards or more, Mason his seventh, Driver a sixth, Smith, Wayne and Ward had their fifth seasons. Gonzalez and Boldin enjoyed their fourth seasons, while Johnson, Fitzgerald and Santana Moss had their third years over that mark. It was the second time for White, Marshall, Bryant, Welker and Evans.

No rookies cracked the 1,000-yard mark; Denver’s Eddie Royal was the closest with 980 yards. The last rookie to go over 1,000 yards came in 2006 when Marques Colston of the Saints hit 1,038 yards. Colston is the only rookie in the last four years to top 1,000 yards.

GOING FOR 100 YARDS

There were 161 performances where a receiver caught passes for 100 yards or more. There were 138 by wide receivers, 16 by tight ends and seven by backs. Arizona had the most 100-yard games with 13, followed by Houston with 11 games. Oakland was the only team in the league that did not have at least one game with a receiver over 100 yards.

The top receiving performance of the season came on November 23 when Terrell Owens of t he cowboys caught seven passes for 213 yards against San Francisco. Two other receivers topped 200 yards in a game: Johnson with 207 yards against Tennessee on December 14 on 11 catches and Bryant with 200 yards on nine receptions against Carolina on December 8.

Teams that had a 100-yard receiver were 92-68-1, a winning percentage of .571. Houston’s Johnson had the most 100-yard games with eight; the Texans were 6-2 in those games.

COMBINATIONS

Arizona became the first team in NFL history to have three 1,000-yard receivers in one season with Fitzgerald (1,431), Anquan Boldin (1,038) and Breaston (1,006.)

Green Bay had Jennings (1,292) and Driver (1,012). New England had the duo of Welker (1,165) and Randy Moss (1,008) and the Chiefs had Gonzalez (1,058) and Bowe (1,022).

Houston and Indianapolis each had four receivers that caught 50 passes or more. For the Texans it was Johnson, TE Owen Daniels, WR Kevin Walter and RB Steve Slaton. For the Colts it was Wayne, TE Dallas Clark, WR Marvin Harrison and WR Anthony Gonzalez.

TIGHT ENDS

Gonzalez led all the tight ends in both receptions (96) and yards (1,058). Here’s the top 10 on receiving tight ends

 

RUNNING BACKS

Back when the West Coast/San Francisco offense was so dominant in the league, running backs caught a lot more passes. The scheme has been abandoned or altered so much that backs do not catch as many passes these days. The leader was Jacksonville’s Maurice Jones-Drew with 62 catches for 565 yards. Here’s the top 10 among backs.

 

YARDS PER CATCH/YARDS AFTER THE CATCH

The league’s big-play receiver was New Orleans Devery Henderson, who caught 32 passes for 793 yards, a 24.8-yard average. The only other receiver with an average 20 yards or more was Minnesota’s Bernard Berrian, who caught 48 passes for 964 yards, a 20.1-yard average.

The NFL leader in yards made after the catch was Welker, who caught 111 passes for 1,165 yards, with 758 yards coming after the catch. That was an average of 6.8 yards per catch. Boldin (89 for 1,038, 595 after the catch) and Jones-Drew (62 for 565, with 582 after the catch) were ranked second and third. Backs can produce more yards after the catch than actual receiving yardage because they catch so many balls behind the line of scrimmage.

LONGEST CATCH

Berrian joined the record book list as a receiver with a 99-yard reception. QB Gus Frerotte made the throw against Chicago on November 30. They become the 11th combination to put together a 99-yard play and the first to do it since 2004.