Pollard, Perine, and the NFL's Top Receiving Backs

NFL Week 11 - The statistical stars of Week 11 were a pair of running backs who didn't do a ton of running—at least, not as running is defined in the NFL play-by-play. But Tony Pollard and Samaje Perine were so deadly as receiving threats that they carried their teams to victory anyway.

Pollard finishes as the best player at his position in our rankings this week, one of the many Cowboys who shined in Dallas' 40-3 demolition of the Minnesota Vikings. His surface-level rushing numbers are fine enough (15 carries for 80 yards, a 5.3-yard average), but while he did rush for five first downs, he was more explosive on the ground than reliable. His totals are boosted by three long runs that gained 17, 18, and 20 yards, but he was also stuffed for no gain or a loss three times, and half of his carries gained 3 yards or less. That all adds up to 13 rushing DYAR, not even among the top 10 running backs this week.

When the Cowboys threw Pollard the ball, however, things went much better. He caught each of the six targets thrown his way, and while they didn't always work out—one catch went for no gain on second-and-3, and another lost 3 yards on second-and-11—he made enough big plays to make it work. Four of his catches produced first downs, including a 30-yard touchdown on second-and-7 and a 68-yard score on third-and-14. Five of those catches came on screen-type receptions behind the line of scrimmage, but the longest was caught downfield, with 22 yards through the air and 46 coming after the catch. The happy totals: six targets, six catches, 109 yards, two touchdowns, 63 receiving DYAR. That latter number is the best for any running back in a game this season.

The season's second-best receiving game by a running back was actually going on at the exact same time in Pittsburgh. While Pollard was boom-or-bust against the Vikings, Perine was mostly bust on the ground in the Bengals' 37-30 win over the Steelers—11 carries, 30 yards, a 2.7-yard average, a long run of just 8 yards, only two first downs, a pair of stuffs, finishing below replacement level in rushing DYAR. But Cincinnati also threw him the ball four times. The results?

• 29-yard touchdown on second-and-9.
• 6-yard gain on first-and-10.
• 11-yard touchdown on first-and-10.
• 6-yard touchdown on second-and-goal.

Each of those touchdowns was caught behind the line of scrimmage, with Perine putting in most of the work after the catch. The first two broke ties on the scoreboard to put the Bengals ahead, while the third extended a fourth-quarter lead from four points to 11, effectively icing a Cincinnati victory. Perine's totals: four targets, four catches, 52 yards, three touchdowns, 61 receiving DYAR.

Pollard and Perine are the first running backs this year to top 60 receiving DYAR in a game. Four players did it last year, led by Cordarrelle Patterson's three-touchdown game against Washington in Week 4, but that was an anomaly, not part of a trend. There were three such games in 2019, but none in 2018 or 2020. Usually there are one or two in each season, with 10 in the 1980s (a decade with two strike years, as well as a 1980 campaign that we haven't processed yet), 16 in the 1990s, and 16 again in the 2000s, but only 12 in the 2010s. Marshall Faulk, of course, leads all running backs with six, twice as many as anyone else.

But that's not to say that what Pollard and Perine did was common. Per Stathead, Pollard is the first running back to catch 100% of his passes for at least 100 yards and two scores in nearly a decade, since Jamaal Charles' eight-catch, 195-yard, four-touchdown game against the Oakland Raiders in Week 15 of the 2013 season. (With end-of-season adjustments, Charles had 112 receiving DYAR that game, setting a record for running backs that still stands.) Perine, meanwhile, is the first back with a perfect catch rate for at least 50 yards and three scores since Danny Woodhead in 2015. So no, statlines like this are not typical.

What's interesting here is that neither Pollard nor Perine are technically first-string players. Pollard has only started three games this season, but he has split time pretty evenly with Ezekiel Elliott, each playing roughly 35 snaps on offense per game. Elliott gets more carries, which frustrates some Cowboys fans because Pollard has been so much more productive, but Pollard has caught three times as many passes and ranks seventh or higher at his position in both DYAR and DVOA as a receiver.

In Cincinnati, Perine is the clear backup behind Joe Mixon, who has doubled Perine in snaps and targets this year and quadrupled him in carries. (Mixon left Sunday's game with a concussion, and Perine saw a season-high 46 offensive snaps as a result.) With only 26 targets, Perine barely qualifies for our running back receiving leaderboard—but qualify he does, and among those 38 qualifiers he ranks fourth in DYAR and first in DVOA. That can happen when you catch 84.6% of your passes for 6.8 yards per throw with four scores. Mixon, by the way, has also been an effective receiver, ranking sixth in DYAR, and Joe Burrow ranks second among quarterbacks in passing DYAR on throws to running backs (foreshadowing!).

The only passer who has done more damage than Burrow on throws to runners this season is Jimmy Garoppolo, who has gotten to play with the best receiving back in the NFL, at least according to DYAR. After Monday Night Football, Christian McCaffrey leads all backs with 141 DYAR as a receiver, leading all players at the position with 462 yards and ranking second with 67 targets and 54 catches. (Austin Ekeler of the L.A. Chargers is first in those categories with 83 targets and 69 catches, for 437 yards, but he is second in DYAR because he is averaging 2 full fewer yards per catch than McCaffrey and also has a fumble.) McCaffrey is catching about one less ball per game with the 49ers than he did with the Panthers, but his catch rate has climbed from 76.7% to 87.5%, and his yards per catch has jumped from 8.4 to 8.8. McCaffrey had 59 DYAR in six games with Carolina, but 82 DYAR in only four games with San Francisco. Other 49ers running backs who have been effective receivers in small sample sizes this year include Kyle Juszczyk (15 targets, 11 catches, seven first downs, 13.9 yards per catch) and Tevin Coleman (three catches—all of them against McCaffrey and the Panthers, coincidentally—for 44 yards and a touchdown).

McCaffrey's opposite has been Indianapolis' Jonathan Taylor, last by a mile in both DYAR (where no qualifying back has been even half as bad) and DVOA. And while the entire Indanapolis offense has been a disaster this season, this appears to be a Taylor problem more than a Colts problem. Nyheim Hines (before he was traded to Buffalo) and Deon Jackson both have positive DYAR on 20-plus targets for the team this season. But Taylor has seen 31 targets (only one—an incompletion on third-and-2—from Sam Ehlinger) and turned them into 21 catches for 97 yards, a pathetic average of only 4.6 yards per reception. Only three of those catches gained first downs, and only one gained 10 yards or more. Despite missing two games, Taylor is on pace to hit negative triple digits in receiving DYAR. Running backs have only hit that mark 11 times on record, the last being Ben Tate with the Houston Texans in 2013. Things haven't significantly improved for Taylor under Jeff Saturday, either—in his last two games, he has caught five of six passes for only 26 yards. That includes a three-catch, 10-yard outing against Philadelphia that made him the least valuable running back this week. Let the watch for -100 begin!