Over the course of the last two seasons, no player in the NFL has caught more passes than Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown. Even so, many analyst still don’t view him as the best player at his position currently in the game.
When you dig deeper into Brown’s stats over the course of the two years, however, you will find a player that’s more than just a possession receiver on the early downs as he also has led the league in third down receptions. Additionally, Brown is second in the league during that same span when it comes to receptions that have produced either a touchdown or first down.
Not only has Brown caught 68.70% of all passes thrown his way on third downs over the course of the last two seasons, 76.47% of them have resulted in either a first down or a touchdown.
We’ve seen opponents try to do everything possible to attempt to take away Brown during games and often times that has resulted in bracketed coverages. Even so, Brown continues to get his catches.
With second-year wide receiver Martavis Bryant now expected to have an even bigger role this season in the Steelers offense than he had during his rookie season, and third-year wide receiver Markus Wheaton expected to improve on his second-year performance, opposing defenses will have to be especially careful when it comes to how they choose to cover Brown.
In case you’re curious, Bryant and Wheaton had 19 catches combined last season on third downs and 14 of those resulted in either a touchdown or first down.
2013-2014 3rd WR Stats (Minimum 35 Receptions)
| PLAYER | TGT | REC | REC % | REC YDS | YPC | TD | 1D-TD/REC | % | YDS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antonio Brown | 99 | 68 | 68.7% | 957 | 14.1 | 4 | 52 | 76.5% | 827 |
| Anquan Boldin | 90 | 63 | 70.0% | 973 | 15.4 | 6 | 55 | 87.3% | 911 |
| Jordy Nelson | 91 | 57 | 62.6% | 907 | 15.9 | 9 | 48 | 84.2% | 836 |
| Golden Tate | 88 | 56 | 63.6% | 788 | 14.1 | 5 | 40 | 71.4% | 687 |
| Julian Edelman | 68 | 52 | 76.5% | 491 | 9.4 | 3 | 33 | 63.5% | 404 |
| Andre Johnson | 90 | 51 | 56.7% | 569 | 11.2 | 1 | 35 | 68.6% | 499 |
| Demaryius Thomas | 90 | 50 | 55.6% | 733 | 14.7 | 8 | 34 | 68.0% | 610 |
| Kendall Wright | 74 | 48 | 64.9% | 540 | 11.3 | 5 | 29 | 60.4% | 407 |
| Alshon Jeffery | 82 | 46 | 56.1% | 705 | 15.3 | 5 | 38 | 82.6% | 648 |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 68 | 46 | 67.6% | 617 | 13.4 | 8 | 36 | 78.3% | 588 |
| Keenan Allen | 77 | 46 | 59.7% | 680 | 14.8 | 4 | 36 | 78.3% | 585 |
| Vincent Jackson | 96 | 46 | 47.9% | 723 | 15.7 | 4 | 39 | 84.8% | 680 |
| Roddy White | 74 | 45 | 60.8% | 593 | 13.2 | 3 | 36 | 80.0% | 524 |
| Calvin Johnson | 90 | 44 | 48.9% | 759 | 17.3 | 7 | 41 | 93.2% | 730 |
| Steve Smith | 72 | 44 | 61.1% | 684 | 15.5 | 4 | 32 | 72.7% | 609 |
| Eric Decker | 72 | 43 | 59.7% | 561 | 13.0 | 8 | 33 | 76.7% | 510 |
| Doug Baldwin | 61 | 42 | 68.9% | 617 | 14.7 | 3 | 32 | 76.2% | 537 |
| James Jones | 67 | 42 | 62.7% | 391 | 9.3 | 1 | 27 | 64.3% | 318 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | 70 | 42 | 60.0% | 662 | 15.8 | 5 | 37 | 88.1% | 625 |
| Greg Jennings | 65 | 39 | 60.0% | 539 | 13.8 | 4 | 29 | 74.4% | 464 |
| DeAndre Hopkins | 68 | 38 | 55.9% | 630 | 16.6 | 4 | 33 | 86.8% | 609 |
| A.J. Green | 70 | 37 | 52.9% | 484 | 13.1 | 1 | 31 | 83.8% | 465 |
| Brandon Marshall | 66 | 37 | 56.1% | 539 | 14.6 | 9 | 34 | 91.9% | 522 |
| Pierre Garcon | 69 | 37 | 53.6% | 427 | 11.5 | 3 | 26 | 70.3% | 352 |
| Eddie Royal | 57 | 36 | 63.2% | 541 | 15.0 | 5 | 27 | 75.0% | 505 |
| Julio Jones | 63 | 36 | 57.1% | 559 | 15.5 | 3 | 30 | 83.3% | 510 |
| Andre Roberts | 67 | 35 | 52.2% | 461 | 13.2 | 1 | 29 | 82.9% | 435 |
| Dwayne Bowe | 54 | 35 | 64.8% | 459 | 13.1 | 3 | 27 | 77.1% | 389 |
| Mohamed Sanu | 53 | 35 | 66.0% | 489 | 14.0 | 2 | 27 | 77.1% | 437 |
| T.Y. Hilton | 66 | 35 | 53.0% | 594 | 17.0 | 2 | 29 | 82.9% | 558 |
