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Receivers who can't find the end zone

Posted Mar. 20 at 03:04 PM

I'm taking my first extended look at Green Bay, where Donald Driver caught only 2 TDs last year despite catching 82 balls. That's unusual (for a guy to finish with that many receptions without scoring more touchdowns). By my computer-assisted count, over the last 15 years, 196 wide receivers have caught 80-plus passes in a season, and only five of those guys have failed to score more than 2 TDs.

In looking at those numbers, however, I noticed that it actually happened twice last year. Jerricho Cotchery of the Jets also caught 82 balls and just 2 TDs. And to further the idea that 2007 was kind of a screwball year, that season was also over-represented at the other end of the spectrum, where Randy Moss, Braylon Edwards and Terrell Owens all kept getting into the end zone over and over.

The following two charts so the frequency of touchdown catches for wide receivers who've caught 80-plus passes in the last 15 seasons.

BEST TOUCHDOWN RATIOS
Wide receivers finishing with the most touchdowns per reception. (Moss, for example, averaged a touchdown for every 4.3 receptions).

Rec per TD
4.3 2007 Randy Moss (98-1493-23)
5.0 2007 Braylon Edwards (80-1289-16)
5.2 1994 Sterling Sharpe (94-1119-18)
5.4 2007 Terrell Owens (81-1355-15)
5.7 1993 Andre Rison (86-1242-15)
5.7 2004 Marvin Harrison (86-1113-15)
5.8 2001 Terrell Owens (93-1412-16)
5.8 2004 Muhsin Muhammad (93-1405-16)
5.8 1995 Carl Pickens (99-1234-17)
6.0 1998 Antonio Freeman (84-1424-14)


WORST TOUCHDOWN RATIOS
Wide receivers finishing with the fewest touchdowns per receptions.

Rec per TD
106.0 2001 Keyshawn Johnson (106-1266-1)
90.0 2004 Laveranues Coles (90-950-1)
41.0 2007 Donald Driver (82-1048-2)
41.0 2007 Jerricho Cotchery (82-1130-2)
40.5 2002 Tim Brown (81-930-2)
32.3 2002 Troy Brown (97-890-3)
29.7 1998 Frank Sanders (89-1145-3)
28.7 2005 Derrick Mason (86-1073-3)
28.3 1993 Reggie Langhorne (85-1038-3)
28.3 1996 Keenan McCardell (85-1129-3)

--Ian Allan

Readers' Comments

Posted by MICHAEL LONG | Mar. 21 at 09:35 AM

In 1997, James Jett scored 12 TD's on only 46 catches. That's a ratio of 3.8! I remembered that because he was on my team. He didn't have 80 catches that year, so he's not on your list...but is that the most TD's on the fewest catches?

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