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A.J. Brown

Eagles landed a truly elite receiver

Looking at some the numbers, A.J. Brown has been pretty remarkable – and not just with the Eagles last year. He was also a butt-kicker with the Titans.

Consider yards per target. That is, not yards gained on catches, but average yards gained on pass plays (including incompletions). In that category, Brown has the highest career average of anyone in the 32-team era.

The numbers below include all players who’ve appeared in an NFL game in the last 20 years. You’re looking at their career receiving numbers, including Games played, targets, receptions, receiving yards and yards per target.

To avoid dumping a monstrously long list on you, I’m showing on the players who’ve averaged at least 9 yards per pass play (so when you see Terry McLaurin down at 28th, he’s not last – there are a bunch of other lousy receivers I’m not listing).

Brown, up at 10.2 yards per pass play, checks in at No. 1 on this list, just ahead of All-World Justin Jefferson.

I can’t promise Brown will even be the best wide receiver on his own team this year. (DeVonta Smith is also really good.) But he’s definitely a talent. And he’ll deservedly be one of the first dozen receivers picked in drafts.

CAREER YARDS PER TARGET (300 tgt min)
PlayerSeasonsGTgtRecYardsYd/Tgt
A.J. Brown2019-2022604402734,49110.2
Justin Jefferson2020-2022504763244,82510.1
Devery Henderson2004-20121244422454,3779.9
DeSean Jackson2008-20221831,14464111,2639.8
Malcom Floyd2004-20151215703215,5509.7
Rob Gronkowski2010-20211439606219,2869.7
Julio Jones2011-20221551,41190313,6299.7
George Kittle2017-2022825493955,2549.6
Tyler Lockett2015-20221277425337,1009.6
Deebo Samuel2019-2022513402233,2309.5
Tyreek Hill2016-20221088785988,3409.5
Mike Williams2017-2022854862904,5579.4
Patrick Crayton2004-20111053922473,6509.3
Jordy Nelson2008-20181519246138,5879.3
Tee Higgins2020-2022463272153,0289.3
Will Fuller2016-2021553412133,1369.2
Cooper Kupp2017-2022806965086,3299.1
Doug Baldwin2011-20181237224936,5639.1
Chris Godwin2017-2022876244465,6669.1
Kenny Stills2013-20211305433164,9119.0
T.Y. Hilton2012-20221461,0866389,8129.0
Travis Kelce2013-20221441,14681410,3449.0
Michael Thomas2016-2022736795266,1219.0
Terrance Williams2013-2018833752323,3779.0
Kenny Golladay2017-2022734082263,6709.0
Josh Gordon2012-2022774772524,2849.0
Terry McLaurin2019-2022634772994,2819.0

—Ian Allan

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