Do the Redskins Have the Worst Wide Receiving Unit in the NFL?

Just two years ago, the Redskins were coming off a season with two receivers who had over 1000 receiving yards (Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson). The 2017 off-season saw both receivers depart for greener pastures (or maybe to be put out to the pasture), while the Redskins attempted to fill the void with relatively up-proven talent at the position.

Well, that didn’t work out so well!

The Redskins entered 2017 with the following wide receivers on the 53-man roster. Below are their stats for the season:

Jamison Crowder: 66 receptions, 789 yards, 3 touchdowns

Ryan Grant: 45 receptions, 573 yards, 4 touchdowns

Josh Doctson: 35 receptions, 502 yards, 6 touchdowns

Terrelle Pryor Sr.: 20 receptions, 240 yards, 1 touchdown (was placed on injured reserve)

Brian Quick: 6 receptions, 76 yards, 0 touchdowns

Maurice Harris: 4 receptions, 62 yards, 1 touchdown

- The receiving corps accounted for just 176 receptions, 2242 yards and 15 touchdowns on the season.

- The Steelers Antonio Brown himself accounted for 101 receptions, 1533 yards and 9 touchdowns on the season. He was just 75 receptions, 709 yards, and 6 touchdowns short of matching the entire Redskins receiving corps totals for the season.

- DeAndre Hopkins (13 touchdowns) came just two touchdowns shy of the Redskins entire wide receiving group.

Compare the stats of our top six receivers in 2017, to our top three wide receivers in 2016:

Pierre Garcon: 79 receptions, 1041 yards, 3 touchdowns

DeSean Jackson: 56 receptions, 1005 yards, 4 touchdowns

Jamison Crowder: 67 receptions, 847 yards, 7 touchdowns

The top three receivers in 2016 accounted for 202 receptions, 2893 yards, and 14 touchdowns.

This drop in production resulted in Kirk Cousins throwing for 800 yards less than the previous season, and the lowest total he’s put up as an NFL starting quarterback for a full season. His completion percentage dropped from 67% in 2016 to 64% in 2017.

Catch Rate - Catch rate is a good metric for evaluating receivers (although it’s not perfect), because it takes into account the amount of catches vs. the number of targets thrown that players way. Things like drops, separation and routes run (for example, a pure deep threat will usually have a lower catch rate than a possession receiver or slot receiver) all factor in. That being said, the average catch rate for a wide receiver seeing at least 50 targets is 65%

The Redskins top three receiver’s catch rate is listed below:

Ryan Grant - 69%

Jamison Crowder - 64%

Josh Doctson - 45%

*average catch rates for slot receivers is 71%

Only one receiver, Ryan Grant, ranks above average in catch rate. Crowder is about average when compared to receivers in general, but falls well below average when compared to slot receivers. Doctson ranks as one of the lowest receivers in the NFL in catch percentage of players receiving at least 50 targets.

Here the the receivers the Redskins have under contract for 2018:

Josh Doctson

Jamison Crowder

Robert Davis

Maurice Harris

I know injuries really hurt the overall performance of our team, and losing Pryor, who had a catch rate of 54% before he was placed on injured reserve, certainly didn’t help, but overall, our wide receivers stayed relatively healthy, but just didn’t preform well on the season.

If the Redskins want to sign Kirk Cousins to a long-term deal this winter/spring, they better get a plan in place to improve this below-average unit.