Twitter has delivered its first useful, unexpected fact to me

Here it is:

#Browns WR Greg Little has disappointed in CLE, but of 28 WRs drafted in 2011, only AJ Green, Julio Jones and Torrey Smith have more catches

— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) May 15, 2014

 

If you’re curious, those numbers are 260 catches, 174 catches, and 164 catches for the three named. Let’s look at them in some detail. Step on up, AJ Green!

							Receiving							Rushing
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Att	Yds	TD	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	YScm	RRTD	Fmb	AV
2011*	23	CIN	WR	18	15	15	65	1057	16.3	7	58	4.3	70.5	5	53	0	22	10.6	3.5	0.3	1110	7	1	10
2012*	24	CIN	WR	18	16	16	97	1350	13.9	11	73	6.1	84.4	4	38	0	20	9.5	2.4	0.3	1388	11	2	13
2013*	25	CIN	WR	18	16	16	98	1426	14.6	11	82	6.1	89.1								1426	11	1	13
Career					47	47	260	3833	14.7	29	82	5.5	81.6	9	91	0	22	10.1	1.9	0.2	3924	29	4	36

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/16/2014.

You don’t need me to tell you that’s pretty damn good. Remember that his quarterback is Andy Dalton; those are eye popping numbers, and he is an elite wide receiver. Next, we have Julio Jones, who the Browns could have had but didn’t thanks to a draft day trade.

							Receiving							Rushing
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Att	Yds	TD	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	YScm	RRTD	Fmb	AV
2011	22	ATL	WR	11	13	13	54	959	17.8	8	80	4.2	73.8	6	56	0	19	9.3	4.3	0.5	1015	8	1	10
2012*	23	ATL	WR	11	16	15	79	1198	15.2	10	80	4.9	74.9	6	30	0	18	5.0	1.9	0.4	1228	10	0	13
2013	24	ATL	WR	11	5	5	41	580	14.1	2	81	8.2	116.0	1	7	0	7	7.0	1.4	0.2	587	2	2	5
Career					34	33	174	2737	15.7	20	81	5.1	80.5	13	93	0	19	7.2	2.7	0.4	2830	20	3	28

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/16/2014.

Those picks, incidentally, turned into Phil Taylor, Greg Little, Owen Marecic, Brandon Weeden, and with a couple of those extra picks, Trent Richardson. Trent Richardson turned into… Johnny Football (with the help of another pick or two). All of those players have been solid, except Weeden and Manziel, who hasn’t played yet, for the Browns.

Still, let’s stick to the receivers. Jones had a very fine rookie year, improved in his sophomore year, got hurt his junior year (to continue the metaphor). That’s still an excellent five game stretch, and the Falcons got what they asked for: a top flight receiver.

Torrey Smith, weighing in at #3.

							Receiving							Rushing
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Att	Yds	TD	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	YScm	RRTD	Fmb	AV
2011	22	BAL	WR	82	16	14	50	841	16.8	7	74	3.1	52.6	4	39	0	16	9.8	2.4	0.3	880	7	1	8
2012	23	BAL	WR	82	16	16	49	855	17.4	8	54	3.1	53.4	3	9	0	13	3.0	0.6	0.2	864	8	0	8
2013	24	BAL	WR	82	16	16	65	1128	17.4	4	74	4.1	70.5								1128	4	1	8
Career					48	46	164	2824	17.2	19	74	3.4	58.8	7	48	0	16	6.9	1.0	0.1	2872	19	2	24

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/16/2014.

Smith has followed the “three year career path” for receivers almost to the letter. A nice rookie season, a roughly equal second season, and a stellar third season.

Last, and sadly least, Greg Little.

							Receiving							Rushing
Year	Age	Tm	Pos	No.	G	GS	Rec	Yds	Y/R	TD	Lng	R/G	Y/G	Att	Yds	TD	Lng	Y/A	Y/G	A/G	YScm	RRTD	Fmb	AV
2011	22	CLE	WR	15	16	12	61	709	11.6	2	76	3.8	44.3	3	15	0	13	5.0	0.9	0.2	724	2	0	5
2012	23	CLE	WR	15	16	16	53	647	12.2	4	43	3.3	40.4	2	15	0	17	7.5	0.9	0.1	662	4	0	5
2013	24	CLE	WR	18	16	13	41	465	11.3	2	47	2.6	29.1								465	2	0	3
Career					48	41	155	1821	11.7	8	76	3.2	37.9	5	30	0	17	6.0	0.6	0.1	1851	8	0	13

Provided by Pro-Football-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/16/2014.

Oh, Greg. This is a good example of why catch numbers don’t mean everything. He had more catches than everyone but Green his rookie season, but his yards per reception are terrible, and very few of his catches have been touchdowns. Green is a big guy — 6″ plus with enough muscle to be a solid red zone target — yet he has a small problem. He drops the ball. A lot. 2013 wasn’t so bad — his 6 drops were only tied for 19th in the AFC, and both Smith and Green dropped more passes. Still, if you only catch the ball 41 times, 6 drops is not good, either. That’s 10% of your passes. Pro Football Reference doesn’t keep track of targets; only catches. I got the 2013 drops stats from here. I haven’t been able to find drops stats from past seasons, sadly, but I recall from memory that he dropped at least 10 passes in each season. He’s stellar in Madden, but in real life… not so much.

Now, all of this was triggered by that Tweet, so mission accomplished, Twitter. I hope we all learned a valuable lesson: that lesson should be that total catches is a stupid stat without context unless it’s insanely high in a given year (90+).