Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

In a 13 year career with exactly 400 receptions, Jimmy Orr averaged a ridiculous 19.8 yards per catch. His lowest single season average YPC was 16.7. Nobody has ever compared Jimmy Orr to Paul Warfield but the numbers are similar across the board except in TD catches where Paul had 85 and Jimmy had 66.

JohnH19 wrote:In a 13 year career with exactly 400 receptions, Jimmy Orr averaged a ridiculous 19.8 yards per catch. His lowest single season average YPC was 16.7. Nobody has ever compared Jimmy Orr to Paul Warfield but the numbers are similar across the board except in TD catches where Paul had 85 and Jimmy had 66.

He put up some absolutely mind boggling yards per reception seasons. Though back then you definitely saw it more often with the way the game was played...today you're liable to find guys catching 80 or so passes and still have under 1000 yards receiving. Orr's rookie season in particular looks like a misprint. 33 receptions...for 910 yards. Stanley Morgan also had some seasons like that. He topped 1,000 yards twice with 44 receptions

Wesley Walkers 1978 season was unreal. 1,169 yards on just 48 catches. James Lofton had a few like that as well. Willie Gault had a bunch of 20.0+ yards per catch season.

And of course...Roger Carr, early in his career he had that crazy 43 catch 1,112 yard 11td season (25.9 a reception) Second half of his career was more like 15 or so ypc give or take.

You want crazy? Here's maybe my all-time crazy stat. Even better, it involves another Colts receiver, even though he's rarely remembered as such.

In 1962, rookie Bake Turner had 1 reception for 111 yards and 1 TD. That's right, his YPC was 111.0. Not bad, eh?

But it could've been even weirder. In the fading moments of a Colts loss to Chicago, backup QB Lamar McHan hit R.C. Owens with a short pass. Owens lateraled the ball to Turner, who took it 37 yards down the sideline. He was knocked out of bounds just a couple yards shy of scoring. So Turner got credit for receiving yardage even though he didn't make the catch.

In the final game of the season, a blowout win over the Vikes, Turner caught a 74-yd TD pass from McHan. The lateral tacked onto his one catch accounted for that crazy stat line.

But what if Bake had managed to score on that lateral? He would've gotten a couple more yards on his yardage and his final season stats would've read:

1 reception, 113 yards, 2 TD, 113.0 YPC.

BTW---loved Jimmy Orr as a kid, along with Johnny U and all the Colts. One corner of our yard in Detroit was always "Orrsville" when my kid brother and I threw bombs to each other on a winter afternoon. (He was Max McGee.) Good times!

RichardBak wrote:In 1962, rookie Bake Turner had 1 reception for 111 yards and 1 TD. That's right, his YPC was 111.0. Not bad, eh?

I never noticed that before. Lenny Moore had a season where he had 0 kick returns for 92 yards and 1 TD on a "home run throwback" against the Rams.

Jimmy Orr was such a unique player. So slow yet no one could tackle him. My favorite play is against the Lions in 64...Orr catches a pass and in slow-motion fakes out three Lions one at a time, after the third fake the rest of the Colts offense (including Unitas & Jim Parker) catches up with Orr and starts blocking the remaining Lions. Orr fakes out another Lion, then is tackled at the goal line and fumbles into the endzone. Lenny Moore recovers for a TD. Such a crazy looking play.

Bryan wrote:

RichardBak wrote:In 1962, rookie Bake Turner had 1 reception for 111 yards and 1 TD. That's right, his YPC was 111.0. Not bad, eh?

I never noticed that before. Lenny Moore had a season where he had 0 kick returns for 92 yards and 1 TD on a "home run throwback" against the Rams.

Jimmy Orr was such a unique player. So slow yet no one could tackle him. My favorite play is against the Lions in 64...Orr catches a pass and in slow-motion fakes out three Lions one at a time, after the third fake the rest of the Colts offense (including Unitas & Jim Parker) catches up with Orr and starts blocking the remaining Lions. Orr fakes out another Lion, then is tackled at the goal line and fumbles into the endzone. Lenny Moore recovers for a TD. Such a crazy looking play.

Just watched it again on YouTube. A couple thoughts: Lenny Moore's recovery in EZ kept his consecutive-game TD streak going. (Wasn't it like 15 or 16 games?) And the guy who knocked the ball loose from Orr was Bruce Maher. His cousin was my first girlfriend (first date, first dance, first kiss). Bruce was a cool guy. Good times in Detroit, a long time ago.

Here is a fact that I heard cited in the recent Packers-Jets game...don't know if it's true or not, but on the broadcast it was stated that Marcedes Lewis is the only 1st round draft pick to ever catch a TD pass from Aaron Rodgers.

It's threads like this that makes me wish we had a "Like" button on this forum. Great stuff on Jimmy Orr. Not old enough to remember him but it's clear he was an excellent player from the video I've seen and the stats.

Is Stanley Morgan a good comparison? Maybe Steve Watson?