06-01-2015, 11:37 AM
(06-01-2015, 10:49 AM)fredtoast Wrote: Exactly. In 2013 our TEs accounted for about 25% of our pass completions (89 of 364).
The reason they didn't get a lot of yardage is that we rarely throw down the field to our TEs.
Also, to add some information to this....
As far as attempts go, in 2013 AJ accounted for 29.35% himself. MJ 13.14%, Sanu 12.46%, Eifert 9.56%, Gresham 10.75%. TEs combined totaled about 21-22% of targets.
25% of pass completions and 21-22% of targets isn't too shabby, but let's go into more detail about Fred's second point here.
A.J. averaged 14.6 yards per catch and 4.1 YAC per reception. That means he averaged about 10.5 YIA (yards in air) per reception.
MLJ - 14 YPC, 4.2 YAC/rec = 9.8 YIA/rec
Sanu - 9.7 YPC, 5.2 YAC/rec = 4.5 YIA/rec
Eifert - 11 YPC, 6.1 YAC/rec = 4.9 YIA/rec
Gresham - 10 YPC, 6.1 YAC/rec = 3.9 YIA/rec
Let's take a look at the most popular 2 TE set that we've seen in recent history, the 2010 and 2011 New England Patriots. Their top targets were....
2010
Wes Welker - 23.27% of targets, 9.9 YPC, 4.9 YAC/rec = 5 YIA/rec
Deion Branch - 14.2% of targets, 14.7 YPC, 5.4 YAC/rec = 9.3 YIA/rec
Brandon Tate - 8.28% of targets, 18 YPC, 6 YAC/rec = 12 YIA/rec - *low targets/rec could skew data, but 8+% is still reasonable*
Rob Gronkowski - 11.24% of targets, 13 YPC, 4.7 YAC/rec = 8.3 YIA/rec
Aaron Hernandez - 12.62% of targets, 12.5 YPC, 6.7 YAC/rec = 5.8 YIA/rec
2011
Wes Welker - 27.61% of targets, 12.9 YPC, 6 YAC/rec = 6.9 YIA/rec
Deion Branch - 13.89% of targets, 13 YPC, 6.7 YAC/rec = 6.3 YIA/rec
Chad Ochocinco - 5.07% of targets, 18.4 YPC, 3.1 YAC/rec = 15.3 YIA/rec - *could be considered skewed as he only had 5% of team's targets*
Rob Gronkowski - 19.77% of targets, 14.7 YPC, 7.1 YAC/rec = 7.6 YIA/rec
Aaron Hernandez - 17.65% of targets, 11.5 YPC, 6.4 YAC/rec = 5.1 YIA/rec
This is just some work to show that Fred's point is accurate, and while we didn't use our TEs as much as the 2011 Patriots, we used them right about the same amount as the 2010 Patriots except in different ways. The Patriots scheme worked because of a myriad of reasons including the fact that they have future Hall of Famers at QB and TE and quite possibly the greatest head coach to ever live. The numbers show that, for whatever reason, the Bengals just didn't throw it down the field very often to their TEs. The numbers from 2013 show a pretty clear gameplan. Throw it down the field to MLJ and Green and let Sanu, Gresham, and Eifert sit underneath on the shorter routes.
