How teams distributed their receiving yards in 2019

So we know that, for example, Michael Thomas was the most popular target on the Saints. He had 88 more targets than anyone else on the team, 129 more than any other wide receiver (that’s an insane number). He led the team in receiving yards in 13 different games, was second in two others, and then had only 37 yards (fourth-best) in Week 17.

But looking at the numbers on a player-by-player basis is easy, and can lead to different conclusions than what I’m diving in on today. Because what I want to look at is the numbers on a game-by-game basis, not the players. What I mean by that is, for example, the Buccaneers had Chris Godwin lead the team in receiving yards eight times, Mike Evans four times, Breshad Perriman three times, and Cameron Brate once. BUT, the team averaged 129.0 yards per game out of its leading receiver, 62.1 yards per game out of its No. 2. That 66.9-yard game was comfortably the biggest in the league from leading receiver to No. 2. So the name in a given week might have changed, but whoever was the top receiver each week was really the top receiver. That sort of thing.

Today, I’m looking at the numbers and not the names to see which teams locked on to a single receiver each week (even if that receiver changed), which spread the wealth, and which (*cough*Colts*cough*) just had sad numbers no matter how you look at it.

Most yards for No. 1 receiver

It probably isn’t a big surprise to see the Bucs top this list, though perhaps it’s a surprise to see how much they led by, with almost 16 more yards per game (about 250 for the season) more than any other team. Seven different teams averaged 100-plus receiving yards per game to its top receiver, with a bunch of unsurprising names and then the Chargers, who I bet surprise you.

Least yards for No. 1 receiver

Between T.Y. Hilton’s injuries and Jacoby Brissett’s relative disappointment, the Colts only got 1,050 yards out of their No. 1 by-game receiver, even picking your favorite each week. The Colts weren’t even a good best-ball team. (Five different teams — Atlanta, Carolina, Dallas, and both Los Angeleses — averaged more yards to their second-leading receiver than the Colts got from No. 1.)

Also, this is fun: Terry McLaurin averaged 65.6 yards per game. Washington’s top receiver, no matter who it was, averaged 70.9. It isn’t a perfect comparison, because McLaurin missed two games, but ultimately, the Washington receiving game last year was “Uh, throw it to Terry.”

And the Ravens, man … they had two 100-yard receivers in Week 1, one in Week 2, and then said “that’s enough” and just ran the ball the rest of the way. No 100-yard receivers after Week 2.

Hundred-yard receivers

Six teams had 10 or more hundred-yard games, and I bet you’d easily guess five of them. The Lions might come as a surprise, though. They were sort of the proto-Buccaneers for a chunk of the season, with Kenny Golladay or Marvin Jones — but almost never both — having big games. Add in one big game from T.J. Hockenson and a couple from Danny Amendola, and the Lions were a surprisingly productive receiving team.

I also find it interesting that the Cowboys had 10 hundred-yard receiving games in 2019, but only had a hundred-yard receiver in a game six times. That’s because the team had more games with two hundred-yard receivers (4) than they had with one (2). Basically, the Cowboys’ receiving game exploded or it super-didn’t.

Gap between No. 1 and No. 2

This is the bread and butter of this research. You would expect teams with the most yardage to their top receiver to have the biggest gap between No. 1 and No. 2, teams with the least yardage to No. 1 to have the smallest gaps. That’s just logic, in that there is less room for the teams with less No. 1 yardage to even fit in a No. 2. And for the most part, that holds out — the Buccaneers got the most yardage out of each week’s No. 1 receiver, and then easily had the biggest gap between No. 1 and No. 2. The Colts had the least No. 1 average yardage, then the smallest gap to the No. 2. Simple math dictates that that’s about how that should go.

So it’s the exceptions to that that I find most interesting. For example, the Panthers had the 11th-most yards to the No. 1 receiver (94.7), but then the fifth-most to the No. 2 (69.6), one of the smallest gaps in the league despite plenty of room to maneuver in there.

Another way to look at this information: This graph plots every team’s top receiver in a given game against its No. 2. I’ve identified the notable standout dots:

As hinted at above, the Buccaneers had the top leading receiver, but were more middle-of-the-road for their No. 2, which explains why either Evans or Godwin had big fantasy days in most games, but rarely did they overlap.

On the flip side, the Los Angeles teams were two of the furthest-right dots on the chart. The Rams did it with some combination of Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, Brandin Cooks, Tyler Higbee, and Gerald Everett. The Chargers did it primarily with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams, with the occasional Austin Ekeler. Either way, those teams can offer more fantasy receiving options in a given game than someone like the Bucs.