Professional Football Researchers Association Forum
PFRA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history of professional football. Formed in 1979, PFRA members include many of the game's foremost historians and writers.
Bryan wrote:the first guy I remember having a sub-10 reception average was Greg Baty of the 1986 Patriots, but he was a TE.
This club would be exponentially longer if I included running backs and tight ends. It also would be less interested. RBs have a hard time averaging 10 yards per catch because they catch so many passes near the line of scrimmage. Tight ends usually catch passes in front of the first down markers and usually don't have great speed. It is easy to understand why a running back like Carlos Hyde caught 59 passes this season and averaged 5.9 yards per catch or Tarik Cohen who caught 53 passes and averaged 6.8 yards per catch. Jets tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins caught 50 passes and averaged 7.1 yards per catch.
It was still extremely rare for even a TE to have a sub-10 reception average in the 1980's.
I liked how Raymont Harris could rush for 1000 yards with the 1997 Bears yet average 4.1 yards per reception that year. Adrian Murrell had a 1000 yards rushing for the 1996 Jets and averaged 3.9 yards per reception. Makes you wonder about RB stats in general. To me, so much of a RB's receiving stats are dependent on their offensive system and surrounding talent. Tomlinson caught a ton of dump-offs at SD because he was always the checkdown option and the Chargers had poor WRs, but while I admire his durability I wouldn't say Tomlinson was a great receiving threat. Very few RBs "can't catch", but the media makes such a big deal about it.
Bryan wrote:
It was still extremely rare for even a TE to have a sub-10 reception average in the 1980's.
You are absolutely correct about that. I remember Mark Boyer one year with the Jets where he caught 40 or more passes for less than 400 yards. I looked at his yards per catch and thought, "That is sort of embarrassing."
I would like to nominate Gail Cogdill as an honorary "Seniors Committee" Jarvis Landry Club member. He technically does not meet the criteria, but his wonderful 47-411-8.7-1 TD statline was achieved in the 14 game schedule era for the 1966 Lions. If you pro-rate Gail's season for 16 games, he'd be at 54-470-8.7-1 TD.
The opening post has been updated. Larry Fitzgerald made his second appearance on the list. His 2020 season could possibly be described as the most possession of possession wide receiver seasons. He had 54 receptions with the long going for only 18 yards.
New members to the club are Keenan Allen, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Sterling Shepard, and Greg Ward.
