We have been busy compiling and archiving stats from the 2013 college football season and unfortunately I forgot to pass along a few of the results that we have. While stats certainly aren’t a good method for judging a player, they can give you a glimpse of the production that a certain player had in certain situations that can in turn cause you to look to see why there was or wasn’t production in one area of his game as opposed to another.
Below are the split receiving stats of what many expect to be the top 10 wide receivers in the draft this year and they are sorted by total receptions.
The key areas that will likely jump out at you are the reception percentages and red zone touchdowns for starters. For example, Florida State wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin has the lowest completion rate of the 10 players listed, so that alerts us to the possibility of it either being poor throws by the quarterback or drops. Luckily, we already know that it is most likely drop related with him after watching his tape.
On the flip side, Benjamin was targeted 12 times inside the red zone last season and all seven of his catches resulted in touchdowns. In addition, he has the third best yards per reception of the group, so that alerts us to watch on tape to see if most of those yards came after the catch or if were they mostly deep pass reception related.
Another thing to look at is the number of 20 plus yard receptions each player has. Using Benjamin as the example once again, 22 of his 54 receptions (40.7%) went for 20 yards or more.
It’s little things such as the examples above that will get you looking more on tape at different strengths and weaknesses that a player may or may not have. Stats can be used as a great tool if used correctly.
| PLAYER | TEAM | TAR | REC | COMP % | YDS | AVG | LONG | TD | FD | 20 + | 40 + | RZ TAR | RZ REC | RZ TD | 3D TAR | 3D REC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davante Adams | FRES | 175 | 131 | 74.9% | 1718 | 13.1 | 75 | 24 | 66 | 25 | 9 | 33 | 24 | 12 | 30 | 21 |
| Brandin Cooks | ORST | 168 | 128 | 76.2% | 1730 | 13.5 | 55 | 16 | 71 | 32 | 8 | 29 | 22 | 10 | 33 | 23 |
| Jordan Matthews | VAN | 157 | 112 | 71.3% | 1477 | 13.2 | 55 | 7 | 55 | 22 | 9 | 14 | 10 | 2 | 34 | 19 |
| Sammy Watkins | CLEM | 131 | 101 | 77.1% | 1464 | 14.5 | 96 | 12 | 54 | 19 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 25 | 17 |
| Allen Robinson | PSU | 150 | 97 | 64.7% | 1432 | 14.8 | 65 | 6 | 65 | 18 | 10 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 43 | 27 |
| Jarvis Landry | LSU | 104 | 77 | 74.0% | 1193 | 15.5 | 45 | 10 | 61 | 20 | 2 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 33 | 28 |
| Mike Evans | TA&M | 99 | 69 | 69.7% | 1394 | 20.2 | 95 | 12 | 49 | 28 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 4 | 20 | 12 |
| Odell Beckham | LSU | 90 | 59 | 65.6% | 1152 | 19.5 | 63 | 8 | 47 | 25 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 23 | 15 |
| Marqise Lee | USC | 91 | 57 | 62.6% | 791 | 13.9 | 80 | 4 | 33 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 24 | 15 |
| Kelvin Benjamin | FSU | 87 | 54 | 62.1% | 1011 | 18.7 | 56 | 15 | 41 | 22 | 4 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 9 |
