2017 DVOA by Routes: Receivers

by Scott Kacsmar

Before we can put a bow on our 2017 stat studies, we have another three-part study to look at: DVOA by pass routes. One subset of data from Sports Info Solutions that we have been very happy to have is the routes run by receivers on their targets. We introduced this on the site a year ago and were able to include some nuggets in Football Outsiders Almanac 2018.

Last year I wrote that "it sure would be interesting if future seasons of this data show that certain receivers tend to excel or struggle with certain types of routes." It's still only two years of data, but we have found some cases of this already. Obviously the skill of the quarterback will also affect many of these numbers, which is why we will look at quarterbacks in Part II. For now, we'll just focus on receivers, which include some running backs and tight ends. We did not want to break up what is already a small sample of plays to something even smaller to focus on those positions.

We are also sticking with the same 12 common routes we studied a year ago: curl, out, dig, slant, drag, go/fly, WR screen, post, comeback, broken play, fade, and seam. The following tables are sorted by receiving DYAR, just like what is shown on the wide receiver pages here. So we could now break down all of Antonio Brown's league-high 430 DYAR by the type of route he ran, which is done in the following table.

Antonio Brown: 2017 Play Design
Route Type	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Slant	88	37.5%	22	203	72.7%	7.4	5.2
Go/Fly	82	38.8%	20	296	29.4%	35.2	3.6
Post	82	67.1%	14	199	53.8%	19.1	7.3
Fade	43	111.2%	4	44	75.0%	12.5	3.0
Dig	41	71.1%	7	105	71.4%	13.6	5.8
Wheel	37	211.6%	2	60	100.0%	13.0	35.0
Broken Play	30	46.3%	7	125	71.4%	17.3	8.4
Out	26	7.5%	17	130	70.6%	12.4	0.8
Quick	20	64.2%	3	18	100.0%	-0.3	6.3
Drag	20	5.5%	15	105	80.0%	1.2	7.2
Comeback	11	17.7%	4	33	75.0%	11.8	0.3
Corner	11	5.0%	9	79	44.4%	23.6	-0.5
Route Type	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Fade - Back Shoulder	8	8.9%	5	43	50.0%	16.2	1.0
Post Corner	7	30.2%	2	23	50.0%	19.5	0.0
Angle	6	56.0%	1	11	100.0%	11.0	0.0
Sluggo	6	24.6%	2	30	50.0%	21.0	5.0
Deep Cross	1	-10.4%	3	26	33.3%	19.3	9.0
Curl	-1	-14.4%	10	57	60.0%	7.9	1.2
Seam	-4	-22.2%	6	40	16.7%	23.0	2.0
Flat	-13	-66.7%	3	29	66.7%	3.0	12.5
Beneath	-14	-175.8%	1	-5	100.0%	-6.0	1.0
Out & Up	-20	-98.1%	2	0	0.0%	12.0	-
WR Screen	-36	-58.0%	10	37	90.0%	-1.6	5.6
Totals	430	20.1%	169	1,688	62.0%	14.0	4.8

Due to space limitations, we obviously cannot show breakdown after breakdown for every player, so we will stick with leaderboards with the players who had the most targets for each route, sorted by descending DYAR. We chose the 12 routes that are most widely utilized (all had at least 375 attempts in 2017) by wide receivers in particular. The league totals are shown at the bottom of each table. The number of passes include defensive pass interference penalties.

Curl

The curl route was the league's most common throw again last year, with 2,630 attempts according to SIS. The following table looks at 21 players with at least 20 curls last year.

Curl Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Keenan Allen	LAC	94	30.0%	29	245	84.0%	7.4	3.4
Julio Jones	ATL	78	32.7%	22	251	77.3%	9.0	5.4
Michael Thomas	NO	63	16.7%	26	190	73.1%	6.8	2.8
DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	57	12.8%	28	171	76.0%	6.9	1.3
Rishard Matthews	TEN	53	20.3%	21	177	81.0%	8.7	1.6
Tyreek Hill	KC	49	11.8%	25	188	87.5%	6.3	2.0
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	42	13.6%	21	181	81.0%	8.1	3.2
Travis Kelce	KC	41	11.9%	32	226	81.3%	6.5	3.0
A.J. Green	CIN	37	7.6%	23	174	68.2%	8.7	2.3
Michael Crabtree	OAK	29	0.6%	28	176	67.9%	6.8	3.3
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	20	-0.9%	23	158	73.9%	7.0	1.9
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Delanie Walker	TEN	19	7.3%	21	158	85.7%	7.2	2.2
Jarvis Landry	MIA	16	-2.4%	21	119	81.0%	5.9	1.6
Evan Engram	NYG	16	1.5%	28	186	67.9%	6.3	3.3
Adam Thielen	MIN	8	-8.4%	25	237	80.0%	7.6	3.5
Jason Witten	DAL	7	-2.8%	29	203	82.8%	7.1	1.1
Robby Anderson	NYJ	6	-9.2%	21	133	66.7%	6.9	2.9
Seth Roberts	OAK	2	-11.8%	22	138	68.2%	6.8	2.9
Mike Evans	TB	-5	-14.8%	30	174	56.7%	9.0	1.2
Jermaine Kearse	NYJ	-29	-29.7%	22	121	68.2%	5.5	2.7
T.Y. Hilton	IND	-36	-31.3%	26	115	50.0%	7.9	0.8
NFL Curls	TOT	2,002	-0.6%	2,630	17,323	71.7%	6.6	2.9

In 2016, Michael Thomas was the NFL's Curl Champion for the Saints, catching 26-of-28 curls for the most DYAR (121) and the highest DVOA (42.6%). He still did well in 2017, catching 19-of-26 curls, but his DYAR was almost cut in half at 63. Travis Kelce led all players with 32 targets on curls, but Keenan Allen had the most DYAR (94), and Julio Jones had the highest DVOA (32.7%). Jones and Mike Evans tied for the deepest curls, thrown at an average distance of 9.0 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

T.Y. Hilton looks especially bad here for the Colts with the worst DYAR and DVOA. Hilton (50.0 percent) and Mike Evans (56.7 percent) are the only listed receivers who did not catch more than two-thirds of their curls. His teammate Jack Doyle had -26 DYAR on 18 curls (second lowest among tight ends), so you might think Jacoby Brissett just couldn't make these simple throws. Maybe there was some truth to that, but it doesn't excuse the fact that Hilton is the only listed receiver who averaged less than 1.0 YAC when he did catch the ball. The Jets didn't get much out of curls, with Robby Anderson and Jermaine Kearse both ranking in the bottom five in DYAR. Kearse (5.0 aDOT) had the shortest curls in the league. The only other receiver under 6.0 yards was, not surprisingly, Jarvis Landry in Miami.

Curls are a nice high-percentage play to gain minimal yardage. Only one broke 50 yards last season, and that was when Minnesota's Adam Thielen broke a tackle to race 65 yards for a touchdown against the Rams. The play was worth 35 DYAR, the most for any curl last year. That also means Thielen produced -27 DYAR on his 24 other curl routes, which included all three of his fumbles (two lost) in 2017.

Out

The out, or quick out, had 1,816 attempts last season. The following table looks at 26 players with at least 16 out routes.

Out Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Keenan Allen	LAC	106	46.7%	23	275	73.9%	8.3	7.5
Alvin Kamara	NO	79	69.5%	16	145	87.5%	4.7	5.9
Cooper Kupp	LAR	67	28.9%	21	232	81.0%	7.6	5.6
Mohamed Sanu	ATL	40	9.1%	22	143	77.3%	4.7	3.4
Michael Thomas	NO	38	14.1%	17	106	82.4%	6.4	2.6
Golden Tate	DET	36	14.7%	18	143	77.8%	8.7	2.5
T.Y. Hilton	IND	34	7.8%	21	217	71.4%	9.8	5.3
Kendall Wright	CHI	33	6.3%	23	160	63.6%	8.2	1.4
Eric Decker	TEN	27	8.1%	17	124	76.5%	9.7	0.8
Antonio Brown	PIT	26	7.5%	17	130	70.6%	12.4	0.8
Eric Ebron	DET	23	15.0%	16	137	56.3%	9.6	5.1
DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	23	-0.9%	26	167	64.0%	9.9	1.3
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	22	2.4%	19	141	57.9%	9.6	2.6
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Stephen Anderson	HOU	18	9.2%	17	148	52.9%	10.0	4.0
Cole Beasley	DAL	15	-4.3%	22	165	59.1%	6.5	6.7
Kenny Stills	MIA	13	-1.8%	16	102	62.5%	9.9	1.0
Randall Cobb	GB	6	-8.1%	16	92	75.0%	6.1	2.3
Robert Woods	LAR	4	-9.5%	16	110	56.3%	11.1	2.0
Amari Cooper	OAK	-2	-14.2%	18	110	66.7%	6.7	3.2
Doug Baldwin	SEA	-2	-14.3%	18	108	66.7%	6.7	3.2
Jack Doyle	IND	-6	-11.9%	22	130	77.3%	5.5	2.2
Delanie Walker	TEN	-7	-11.5%	24	161	66.7%	8.0	2.7
Jared Cook	OAK	-7	-12.1%	23	144	56.5%	9.3	1.3
Jarvis Landry	MIA	-10	-18.5%	22	124	63.6%	6.5	2.4
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	-15	-23.5%	18	116	61.1%	10.3	1.5
Evan Engram	NYG	-22	-25.9%	18	89	55.6%	7.2	3.0
NFL Outs	TOT	619	-7.1%	1,816	11,158	63.9%	7.7	2.6

Keenan Allen is two-for-two as the 2017 DYAR leader in both curls and out routes. Alvin Kamara had a great rookie effort with 79 DYAR on 16 out routes as a running back. He also had the highest catch rate and DVOA, so that was a very effective play for the Saints last year. Michael Thomas also ranked in the top five in DYAR for the Saints, and Cooper Kupp was a stellar rookie in the slot for the Rams. Hilton also looks much better here. He finished seventh in out DYAR after finishing sixth in 2016, making Hilton the only player to repeat in the top 10 in DYAR.

Cole Beasley was the top out route receiver in 2016 with 119 DYAR. Last year was a much different story in Dallas as he struggled to produce on a weekly basis. Beasley still butters his bread with out routes, but his DYAR dropped to just 15 with -4.3% DVOA. He'll have to be much better for Dallas with Dez Bryant and Jason Witten gone. With only nine out routes, Bryant did not qualify for the table, but his -37 DYAR was the worst total in the league on those patterns.

DeAndre Hopkins was second in out DYAR (99) in 2016, so it made sense to throw him a league-high 26 out routes in 2017. They just weren't as successful this time around (23 DYAR). You might think playing with three different quarterbacks had something to do with that, but Hopkins actually had more DYAR on out rotes from T.J. Yates (9 DYAR) and Tom Savage (8 DYAR) than he did from Deshaun Watson (6 DYAR). Houston tight end Stephen Anderson had the lowest catch rate (53 percent) on out routes. It's a play the Texans love to use, but it hasn't always been that effective for the offense the last two years.

Out of the listed players, Giants rookie tight end Evan Engram had the lowest DYAR and DVOA on out routes. He only had one drop on those plays, and Eli Manning has been poor on out routes lately. Engram will be looking for a stronger connection in Year 2.

We mentioned Hilton earlier, but he actually had the top DYAR gain (33) on an out route last year when he got lost in the Cleveland secondary for a 61-yard touchdown.

Dig

Out of the nine route types with at least 650 plays in 2017, the dig had the highest DVOA (7.6%). These throws are a few yards deeper than the typical curl or out, but they were still completed at a rate of 60.0 percent in 2017. The following table looks at 24 players with at least 12 dig routes.

Dig Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Golden Tate	DET	68	25.9%	23	227	69.6%	7.3	7.3
Keenan Allen	LAC	61	26.1%	22	225	59.1%	12.1	6.0
Devin Funchess	CAR	58	58.4%	12	167	66.7%	15.4	5.1
Marvin Jones	DET	56	32.3%	17	161	75.0%	10.5	2.6
Marqise Lee	JAX	47	27.6%	15	146	66.7%	9.5	5.2
Jamison Crowder	WAS	43	23.5%	16	149	62.5%	9.6	6.9
Zach Ertz	PHI	36	27.0%	16	135	75.0%	9.9	1.2
Jermaine Kearse	NYJ	32	18.8%	13	111	63.6%	10.3	2.3
Julio Jones	ATL	24	9.0%	14	115	64.3%	10.1	2.4
Dez Bryant	DAL	21	1.9%	19	145	57.9%	11.3	1.5
Sammy Watkins	LAR	19	5.2%	13	105	53.8%	12.6	2.1
Keelan Cole	JAX	17	1.4%	15	179	66.7%	9.4	8.8
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Jarvis Landry	MIA	16	6.3%	12	99	58.3%	7.8	7.0
Mike Evans	TB	15	1.7%	14	108	53.8%	12.9	0.4
Brandin Cooks	NE	13	0.3%	14	129	50.0%	16.1	2.9
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	9	-5.6%	17	117	58.8%	9.9	2.1
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	7	-6.5%	14	85	46.2%	11.6	2.5
Pierre Garcon	SF	4	-8.6%	13	83	61.5%	8.8	2.8
DeVante Parker	MIA	-1	-13.3%	12	85	66.7%	8.9	3.8
Terrance Williams	DAL	-4	-16.5%	12	74	66.7%	6.7	1.5
Chris Hogan	NE	-6	-18.4%	13	92	61.5%	8.7	2.6
Josh Doctson	WAS	-11	-24.3%	12	56	41.7%	10.7	1.4
Kenny Stills	MIA	-23	-38.4%	12	53	33.3%	12.4	0.8
Roger Lewis	NYG	-58	-72.3%	12	16	16.7%	10.1	1.0
NFL Digs	TOT	1,566	7.6%	1,111	9,050	60.4%	10.1	3.6

Keenan Allen almost had another one, but Golden Tate just beat him out by 7 DYAR on one more dig route. They were the only two players with more than 19 dig routes. Tate's average dig route was 7.3 yards deep compared to 12.1 for Allen (NFL average: 10.1 yards). The only player to run them shallower than Tate last year was Dallas' Terrance Williams (6.7 aDOT). However, Williams averaged 1.3 YAC compared to 7.3 YAC for the elusive Tate. That's second to Keelan Cole, who averaged 8.8 YAC in a surprise breakout year with Jacksonville as an undrafted rookie.

We wrote last year that Brandin Cooks could help the Patriots on dig routes, but he only had 13 DYAR on 14 targets in his one season there. His digs were the deepest, though, at 16.1 yards. He'll try to expand on Sammy Watkins' role with the Rams now.

Devin Funchess had the highest DVOA (58.4%) in his best season yet. Mastering the dig route could be a nice asset to him in a Norv Turner offense. Julio Jones was the best at dig routes in 2016 with 102 DYAR, but he dropped to just 24 DYAR last year. That still makes Jones the only player to repeat in the top 10.

The bottom 10 repeats two players from 2016 in Demaryius Thomas and Larry Fitzgerald, though both will have new quarterbacks this season. Roger Lewis makes this the second route in a row where the bottom player in DYAR and DVOA played with Eli Manning for the Giants. Lewis really only saw these opportunities after the rest of the wide receivers were injured. He's not likely to see many targets this season.

Not everything is gloomy for the Giants. The top DYAR gain (34) of 2017 was when Sterling Shepard created a 67-yard touchdown against the Eagles on a very shallow dig with some help from a pick. On second glance, we might need to start charting passes like that as "pick plays" next season.

Slant

We probably don't see enough slants in the NFL. There were 1,327 of them last year with a good DVOA (7.2%) and respectable completion rate (62 percent). We looked at 30 players with at least 12 slant routes.

Slant Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Sammy Watkins	LAR	101	88.0%	12	123	83.3%	5.4	6.7
Sterling Shepard	NYG	100	44.1%	22	240	81.8%	7.6	5.8
Antonio Brown	PIT	88	37.5%	22	203	72.7%	7.4	5.2
Michael Thomas	NO	85	28.6%	26	217	84.0%	5.4	4.2
Rob Gronkowski	NE	84	96.1%	12	177	83.3%	8.7	8.5
Davante Adams	GB	75	24.7%	26	182	65.4%	6.7	4.0
DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	68	39.6%	16	131	56.3%	7.9	7.1
Jermaine Kearse	NYJ	54	28.4%	17	206	64.7%	8.4	10.0
Julio Jones	ATL	53	42.9%	12	133	75.0%	7.2	6.8
Dez Bryant	DAL	51	13.1%	25	221	56.0%	8.2	7.7
Alshon Jeffery	PHI	40	11.0%	23	161	60.9%	6.5	3.7
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	38	13.9%	18	156	76.5%	5.9	5.7
A.J. Green	CIN	37	9.3%	22	163	57.1%	8.5	4.4
Keenan Allen	LAC	34	4.5%	24	157	56.5%	6.5	4.1
Marquise Goodwin	SF	34	21.3%	12	101	75.0%	6.5	4.2
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Devin Funchess	CAR	32	9.4%	18	111	55.6%	8.3	2.9
Jarvis Landry	MIA	31	11.4%	16	124	62.5%	7.4	3.6
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	25	4.6%	19	134	72.2%	5.8	4.4
Zach Ertz	PHI	18	16.4%	12	65	58.3%	6.3	2.4
Mike Evans	TB	15	-2.3%	18	123	61.1%	7.9	2.8
Kelvin Benjamin	2TM	10	-5.1%	16	100	68.8%	7.1	1.5
T.Y. Hilton	IND	9	-4.8%	14	144	50.0%	6.9	14.7
Odell Beckham	NYG	7	-4.8%	12	80	66.7%	7.2	2.6
Mike Wallace	BAL	-2	-14.5%	13	95	53.8%	6.3	7.0
Robby Anderson	NYJ	-3	-15.4%	15	102	46.7%	10.5	5.1
Emmanuel Sanders	DEN	-8	-18.7%	18	109	44.4%	6.9	6.8
Amari Cooper	OAK	-19	-30.4%	13	40	38.5%	6.5	2.6
Michael Crabtree	OAK	-23	-34.5%	13	91	61.5%	6.0	5.6
Brandon LaFell	CIN	-26	-30.3%	19	87	42.1%	7.3	4.9
Roger Lewis	NYG	-29	-31.4%	20	83	45.0%	7.5	1.9
NFL Slants	TOT	1,988	7.2%	1,327	9,951	61.9%	6.9	5.2

So we are seeing how throwing 12 digs and 20 slants to Roger Lewis was problematic for the Giants. He again had the lowest DYAR in a route, but fortunately, Shepard did his part here by finishing second in DYAR with 100. This is really Odell Beckham's route. Beckham was third in slant DYAR in 2016 with 108. The fact that he had 12 slants in four games last year shows that the Giants understand how good he can be with those opportunities. That would put him on pace for 48 slants in a season (Michael Thomas and Davante Adams led the way with 26 each). He won't likely see that many in 2018, but anything to get the ball more often to Beckham with forward momentum rather than Lewis is big for this offense.

Rob Gronkowski having the highest DVOA makes plenty of sense, but why only 12 slants for the most physically imposing receiver in the league? It was a surprise to not see the Chiefs with any player with at least 12 slants. Travis Kelce was the dominant tight end on slants in 2016 with 88 DYAR. Maybe Sammy Watkins can fill that role for Andy Reid after having the most DYAR on slants with the Rams last year.

Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper were both in the bottom eight in slant DYAR in 2016. They are in the bottom four in the table above for 2017. The common link is obviously Derek Carr at quarterback. We'll have to see if Jon Gruden can get his 20th-century version of the West Coast offense off the ground in Oakland this year. Crabtree went to Baltimore, which no longer employs Mike Wallace (now in Philadelphia). Wallace had the most slant DYAR in 2016, but dropped to -2 last year.

A player not listed to keep an eye on is Trent Taylor in San Francisco. He had 72 DYAR on 11 slants. He could be a good security blanket in the slot for Jimmy Garoppolo this season.

For the second time so far, T.Y. Hilton had the biggest DYAR gain (37) on a route in 2017. His 80-yard touchdown on a slant against the Texans was very improbable. Hilton was thought to be touched down before he got up and finished the play for a big touchdown.

Drag

The drag route had 799 attempts last year. This gives the quarterback an even shorter throw than the previous routes, but he often has to wait for a receiver brave enough to cross into the middle of the field and deal with linebackers and safeties. We looked at 25 receivers with at least eight drag routes.

Drag Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Marqise Lee	JAX	67	43.4%	15	146	80.0%	4.7	7.8
JuJu Smith-Schuster	PIT	54	54.0%	10	142	100.0%	3.6	10.6
Julio Jones	ATL	46	33.1%	14	167	78.6%	3.6	11.4
Stefon Diggs	MIN	34	19.2%	13	109	92.3%	2.5	6.6
Michael Thomas	NO	29	22.5%	11	94	81.8%	3.6	5.8
Evan Engram	NYG	22	15.5%	14	133	64.3%	2.6	12.2
Golden Tate	DET	21	7.7%	13	98	61.5%	4.2	7.4
Antonio Brown	PIT	20	5.5%	15	105	80.0%	1.2	7.2
Kendall Wright	CHI	18	15.9%	8	63	87.5%	3.0	5.7
Tyrell Williams	LAC	18	1.4%	18	149	88.9%	2.3	7.9
Benjamin Watson	BAL	12	13.4%	9	66	88.9%	4.1	4.3
Charles Clay	BUF	9	10.4%	8	53	62.5%	4.0	6.6
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Jarvis Landry	MIA	3	-8.6%	10	58	70.0%	3.4	4.7
Martavis Bryant	PIT	2	-10.3%	10	44	70.0%	0.8	5.4
Albert Wilson	KC	0	-13.2%	8	41	62.5%	2.4	5.6
Robert Woods	LAR	-3	-17.0%	8	34	57.1%	5.1	2.3
Jason Witten	DAL	-9	-19.9%	9	42	62.5%	4.3	2.6
Julius Thomas	MIA	-11	-27.0%	9	58	88.9%	3.7	3.1
DeVante Parker	MIA	-11	-27.6%	9	39	77.8%	2.1	3.4
A.J. Green	CIN	-11	-29.3%	9	38	66.7%	3.3	3.0
Adam Thielen	MIN	-14	-31.5%	9	49	66.7%	2.2	6.2
Rashard Higgins	CLE	-14	-33.9%	8	43	62.5%	2.8	5.2
Mike Wallace	BAL	-18	-33.3%	12	66	75.0%	3.8	3.2
Keelan Cole	JAX	-19	-30.7%	14	79	57.1%	4.8	4.9
Dede Westbrook	JAX	-33	-72.5%	8	39	62.5%	3.4	5.0
NFL Drags	TOT	101	-9.6%	799	5,106	68.3%	3.5	5.8

This is a fun one as the table is bookended by Jacksonville wideouts. Marqise Lee led everyone with 67 DYAR. Only Pittsburgh rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster had a higher DVOA, thanks in part to catching all 10 of his drag routes. While Lee was productive on these plays, his young teammates Keelan Cole and Dede Westbrook had the worst DYAR totals in the table. Tight end Marcedes Lewis (now with Green Bay) also had -33 DYAR on seven drag routes, the second-worst DYAR in 2017, but he also had two drops. Was there a big Blake Bortles influence here? On the 15 drags to Lee, there was one drop and one play where the defense got away with rerouting the receiver. On Cole's 14 drags, he had two drops, but also multiple plays where the ball was tipped before he ever had a chance to make a catch. Westbrook also had some bad luck as two of his eight targets were batted down at the line. So there's some quarterback influence there, but overall, more of these plays should probably be going to Lee in 2018.

We called Tyrell Williams "The Drag King" last year with 29 drag routes and the best DYAR (103). The Chargers tried to repeat this success as Williams again led the league with 18 drag routes, but he only produced 18 DYAR this time.

The biggest DYAR gain (25) on a drag route in 2017 belonged to Randall Cobb when he got lost in the Carolina secondary before breaking tackles to score a 33-yard touchdown.

Go/Fly

It doesn't get much simpler than the go (or fly) route. That is just pure speed running in a straight line down the field for a deep ball. Since the average go route comes more than 30 yards down the field, these were only completed 25.2 percent of the time in 2017. But if it's going to be a big gain once every four plays, it's worth the risk sometimes. There were 694 of these last season, and we looked at 25 players with at least nine go/fly routes.

Go/Fly Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Marvin Jones	DET	149	130.4%	15	307	50.0%	32.9	2.3
Tyreek Hill	KC	133	162.5%	10	330	60.0%	38.2	15.7
Brandin Cooks	NE	123	97.2%	14	326	50.0%	37.8	6.2
Robby Anderson	NYJ	109	90.1%	14	255	50.0%	32.6	4.4
Josh Doctson	WAS	87	107.5%	9	207	50.0%	33.1	9.3
Antonio Brown	PIT	82	38.8%	20	296	29.4%	35.2	3.6
DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	79	93.5%	11	170	44.4%	30.3	2.5
Kenny Golladay	DET	55	66.1%	10	162	40.0%	31.7	7.8
Paul Richardson	SEA	30	31.9%	9	132	37.5%	31.7	1.3
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	22	16.0%	10	104	33.3%	26.7	3.7
Deonte Thompson	2TM	15	6.3%	10	90	22.2%	31.5	3.0
Kenny Stills	MIA	13	6.5%	9	109	33.3%	33.6	2.7
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Mike Wallace	BAL	13	1.5%	12	157	20.0%	33.3	7.0
Michael Crabtree	OAK	11	2.6%	10	119	12.5%	32.5	2.0
J.J. Nelson	ARI	11	0.5%	11	117	27.3%	34.5	1.7
Julio Jones	ATL	-11	-24.6%	11	104	18.2%	37.2	0.0
Martavis Bryant	PIT	-13	-23.9%	15	117	14.3%	39.6	0.5
Dez Bryant	DAL	-13	-31.1%	9	61	12.5%	29.8	0.0
Ricardo Louis	CLE	-14	-35.9%	9	68	22.2%	33.6	0.0
Marqise Lee	JAX	-15	-33.3%	10	64	11.1%	26.2	17.0
DeVante Parker	MIA	-20	-38.0%	10	67	20.0%	33.9	4.5
DeSean Jackson	TB	-24	-43.7%	10	38	11.1%	38.1	0.0
Alshon Jeffery	PHI	-37	-61.9%	10	41	0.0%	34.9	-
Mike Evans	TB	-38	-58.5%	11	37	9.1%	29.1	0.0
A.J. Green	CIN	-44	-45.5%	17	111	12.5%	27.7	21.0
NFL Go/Fly	TOT	933	5.8%	694	7,595	25.2%	32.9	5.4

In 2016, the go route seemed to be the only time Dak Prescott and Dez Bryant connected well in Dallas. Bryant's 140 DYAR, 130.4% DVOA, and 285 receiving yards led all receivers in 2016. When those numbers dropped off drastically in 2017, the Cowboys parted ways with the receiver after eight seasons.

Meanwhile, some younger receivers were thriving deep down the field in 2017, especially in Detroit. Marvin Jones led all receivers with 149 DYAR on deep balls, but rookie Kenny Golladay was also impressive with 55 DYAR. Tyreek Hill became a great deep threat in his second season. Alex Smith will miss him, but Josh Doctson at least did well in this area in Washington last year with 87 DYAR. Antonio Brown led all players with 20 go routes, but Ben Roethlisberger could have been sharper on a few of those throws to do better than 82 DYAR.

Some great wide receivers have negative DYAR, including Julio Jones, A.J. Green, and Mike Evans. The fact that DeSean Jackson also ranked in the bottom four doesn't say much for Jameis Winston's ability to throw the go route with accuracy, but we'll get into the quarterbacks next week.

The Eagles brought in Alshon Jeffery to stretch the field in 2017, which he did, but he was actually 0-for-10 at connecting on a go route. He did draw a 41-yard flag for defensive pass interference on one of those plays, but was overthrown four times and had one other pass defensed after he had it in his hands. Only two of those 10 passes were thrown by Nick Foles, including one underthrown interception.

For the second year in a row, the Jets allowed the biggest DYAR gain (35) on a go/fly route. Tyreek Hill burned Doug Middleton for a 79-yard touchdown in December.

WR Screen

The wide receiver screen, which is often a bubble screen, is one of the easiest completions in the game (88.4 percent complete last year). It was used 706 times last year, even though the modern game makes it feel like so many more. We can spend a lot of time berating this play, which had -27.5% DVOA, but we'll let these numbers do some of the talking for us. Here are the 25 receivers with at least eight wide receiver screens last year.

WR Screen Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Albert Wilson	KC	51	40.2%	12	106	75.0%	-2.5	13.9
Alvin Kamara	NO	34	66.5%	8	69	100.0%	-2.8	11.4
Rishard Matthews	TEN	33	38.5%	8	103	87.5%	-1.6	16.6
Davante Adams	GB	31	29.2%	10	91	100.0%	-0.9	10.0
DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	20	16.5%	10	121	90.0%	-2.1	15.6
Ted Ginn	NO	19	18.1%	9	87	100.0%	-2.7	12.3
Tyreek Hill	KC	16	-1.3%	19	148	89.5%	-1.1	9.8
Taylor Gabriel	ATL	16	8.8%	10	88	100.0%	-3.3	12.1
Golden Tate	DET	5	-10.1%	25	149	96.0%	-1.6	7.8
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	-2	-15.4%	8	26	87.5%	-0.5	4.3
Nelson Agholor	PHI	-8	-26.0%	8	27	87.5%	-2.4	6.6
Martavis Bryant	PIT	-8	-27.4%	8	40	87.5%	-2.3	8.0
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Travis Kelce	KC	-8	-22.3%	8	42	100.0%	-1.6	6.9
Adam Humphries	TB	-12	-22.0%	18	110	88.9%	-0.8	8.0
Tarik Cohen	CHI	-16	-47.7%	10	41	100.0%	-2.0	6.1
Brandon LaFell	CIN	-19	-38.7%	9	43	77.8%	-1.4	7.6
Brandin Cooks	NE	-19	-37.3%	10	35	90.0%	-1.4	5.4
Keenan Allen	LAC	-21	-45.1%	8	32	100.0%	-1.4	5.4
Christian McCaffrey	CAR	-23	-54.7%	11	31	72.7%	-3.5	7.9
Randall Cobb	GB	-25	-48.5%	9	34	77.8%	-0.9	6.1
Michael Thomas	NO	-26	-44.3%	12	49	83.3%	-2.5	7.7
Antonio Brown	PIT	-36	-58.0%	10	37	90.0%	-1.6	5.6
Jamison Crowder	WAS	-50	-75.8%	13	58	69.2%	-1.9	8.4
Jarvis Landry	MIA	-58	-44.2%	25	124	100.0%	-1.3	6.3
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	-69	-45.0%	28	108	89.3%	-1.7	6.2
NFL WR Screens	TOT	-720	-27.5%	706	3,859	88.4%	-1.8	8.1

There is some fascinating stuff here for Miami and Kansas City fans. Jarvis Landry was of course prominently featured on screens with 25 of them, tied with Golden Tate and only trailing Larry Fitzgerald (28) for the most in the league last year. Even though Landry caught all 25 of them, they weren't very successful plays (-58 DYAR), and only three gained more than 9 yards. Meanwhile, Albert Wilson put up a league-high 51 DYAR on 12 screens, and he could have done even better if he didn't drop his three incompletions. Seven of Wilson's screens gained at least 10 yards with six first downs on those plays, so he wasn't just gaining 10 yards on third-and-25. Wilson could replace this role in Miami for Landry and do it better. Beyond that, Miami's Jakeem Grant (not listed) had 44 DYAR on seven WR screens, second-most DYAR in the league. Oh, and Tennessee's Rishard Matthews, a former Dolphin and DVOA darling, also did a great job last year with 33 DYAR on eight screens.

The blocking obviously matters a lot on WR screens, and you wouldn't expect a lot of year-to-year consistency on the success of these plays if only due to the small sample sizes where one broken tackle can wildly skew results. However, Golden Tate and Taylor Gabriel repeated in the top 10 in DYAR. It also wouldn't be surprising to see the two rookie backs known for their versatility in Alvin Kamara and Christian McCaffrey get a lot of chances again in 2018 on these plays.

One thing that definitely did repeat in 2017 from 2016 was that, contrary to Wilson's success in this offense, Tyreek Hill is nothing special on these screens. Somehow I doubt Hill is an incredible blocker and Wilson is a terrible one that is creating this difference, but that would be one hypothesis. In 2016, Hill had the third-lowest DYAR (-58) on 23 screens. You might think the 2017 numbers say otherwise since 16 DYAR on 19 passes is respectable given the league averages, but Hill's numbers include the outlier of all outliers in 2017. Remember that time he caught a "Hail Mary Checkdown" for a 56-yard touchdown against Dallas before halftime? We charted that as a WR screen, because what else would you call it? In that situation, no offense would really be looking to throw a pass like that, and no defense would line up to defend that type of route, but the Chiefs made it work after some incredibly bad tackling and nice moves from Hill, who had -13 DYAR on his other 18 screens. That play was worth 29 DYAR; believe it or not, but five other WR screens beat it in 2017. The biggest DYAR gain (34) was when DeAndre Hopkins, never known for YAC, went 72 yards for a touchdown against Seattle. Kam Chancellor had a great chance to minimize that gain, but Hopkins put a move on him.

Post

The post route is another longer throw in the game (average: 21.3 yards), but once again no route produced more DYAR (2,097) in the NFL last year. There were 607 post routes in 2017. We looked at the 25 receivers with at least six post routes.

Post Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Mike Evans	TB	98	125.3%	10	197	80.0%	22.1	1.3
Jaron Brown	ARI	85	192.9%	6	147	83.3%	22.3	5.8
Antonio Brown	PIT	82	67.1%	14	199	53.8%	19.1	7.3
Rishard Matthews	TEN	77	101.1%	10	199	70.0%	19.7	8.4
A.J. Green	CIN	65	40.6%	16	229	56.3%	15.3	11.3
Kendall Wright	CHI	65	110.9%	7	117	100.0%	16.0	0.7
Marquise Goodwin	SF	62	42.4%	15	238	53.3%	24.4	8.4
Amari Cooper	OAK	58	152.8%	6	160	40.0%	33.5	23.5
Martavis Bryant	PIT	55	80.4%	8	137	71.4%	22.1	3.6
Keenan Allen	LAC	52	99.5%	6	111	83.3%	16.0	4.8
Brandin Cooks	NE	48	81.6%	7	132	57.1%	30.9	5.5
Delanie Walker	TEN	46	70.2%	9	138	66.7%	21.1	2.7
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Travis Kelce	KC	45	102.8%	7	99	71.4%	18.6	1.8
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	44	50.4%	9	104	62.5%	15.2	2.0
Tyrell Williams	LAC	42	79.9%	6	131	33.3%	34.2	25.5
Sammy Watkins	LAR	38	65.2%	6	105	60.0%	28.7	3.7
Ed Dickson	CAR	36	90.2%	7	114	57.1%	16.6	12.5
Seth Roberts	OAK	28	48.3%	6	87	66.7%	15.8	3.8
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	25	32.5%	7	86	40.0%	21.1	4.5
Travis Benjamin	LAC	22	31.1%	7	108	28.6%	32.6	12.0
Cameron Brate	TB	20	33.7%	6	70	50.0%	18.8	3.0
Doug Baldwin	SEA	14	19.7%	6	60	33.3%	30.8	0.0
Robby Anderson	NYJ	7	3.5%	6	38	33.3%	23.5	1.0
Mike Wallace	BAL	-5	-20.4%	8	80	25.0%	21.3	10.5
Corey Coleman	CLE	-36	-94.8%	6	0	0.0%	19.0	-
NFL Posts	TOT	2,097	36.1%	607	7,375	49.0%	21.3	5.1

It was not a banner year for Kendall Wright in Chicago, but the post route was money for him as he caught all seven of his opportunities. Chalk that up as another reason to believe he would make a lot of sense in the slot for Minnesota. In 2016, Kirk Cousins had great success on post throws to DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon. Also, Laquon Treadwell (not listed) had a league-low -22 DYAR on three post routes. Incredibly, the player right above Treadwell with -22 DYAR was Julio Jones, who crushed post routes in 2016 when he had a league-high 115 DYAR on 17 post routes. What happened last year? It was only five plays, but Jones dropped one and had two more defensed by the Patriots in Week 7.

A.J. Green had the most post routes (16), but Mike Evans was the DYAR leader at 98. Arizona's Jaron Brown is an interesting name to rank second behind Evans, but he caught five of his six post routes, including a great 52-yard touchdown from Blaine Gabbert, of all people.

The top DYAR gain (40) of 2017 on a post route was a big one when Derek Carr found Amari Cooper for an 87-yard touchdown on third-and-22 against the Chargers.

With Andrew Luck back in Indianapolis, let's hope we'll see the return of more post routes. In 2016, T.Y. Hilton tied Julio Jones for the league lead with 17 post routes, and he was second in DYAR with 112. But last year without Luck, Hilton only had four post routes and caught three of them for 61 DYAR. That will work for the Colts.

Corey Coleman wasn't working out in Cleveland as he only had -36 DYAR on six post routes, catching zero of those plays. Was an inaccurate quarterback to blame? Coleman had one drop, but also saw two passes defensed, two overthrown, and one come out funky after the quarterback was hit in motion. At least Coleman has a new quarterback in Buffalo, which should … not change a damn thing, probably.

Comeback

These plays have the lowest average YAC (0.9) of any route type with at least 100 attempts, but when the play is well timed and the pass is accurate, it is nearly impossible to defend. There were 376 comeback routes last year. We looked at 25 players with at least five comeback routes.

Comeback Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Eric Decker	TEN	39	94.9%	5	74	100.0%	14.4	0.4
DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	37	21.7%	14	138	78.6%	9.7	2.6
J.J. Nelson	ARI	35	35.4%	10	115	77.8%	14.1	0.7
Mike Evans	TB	33	46.3%	7	77	85.7%	11.3	1.5
Corey Coleman	CLE	29	64.8%	5	58	75.0%	12.6	0.7
Adam Thielen	MIN	26	32.3%	8	73	71.4%	10.8	1.2
Kenny Stills	MIA	21	33.9%	6	65	66.7%	12.3	2.5
Ricardo Louis	CLE	20	9.2%	12	89	54.5%	11.8	0.7
Martavis Bryant	PIT	19	37.0%	5	54	75.0%	12.2	-0.3
Brandin Cooks	NE	13	4.7%	11	92	60.0%	14.3	0.2
Rishard Matthews	TEN	11	7.2%	7	53	57.1%	10.4	2.5
Kasen Williams	CLE	10	9.4%	6	43	60.0%	8.2	0.0
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Deonte Thompson	2TM	9	11.1%	5	39	60.0%	13.8	0.0
Marquise Goodwin	SF	9	2.2%	7	64	57.1%	16.4	0.3
Stefon Diggs	MIN	5	3.3%	5	34	60.0%	10.4	0.3
A.J. Green	CIN	4	-4.3%	6	42	50.0%	12.5	1.0
Chris Moore	BAL	0	-13.7%	5	33	60.0%	13.8	0.3
Julio Jones	ATL	-2	-17.3%	5	33	50.0%	10.4	0.0
Doug Baldwin	SEA	-3	-20.4%	5	29	50.0%	10.2	0.5
Donte Moncrief	IND	-5	-21.8%	6	29	50.0%	9.8	0.0
Emmanuel Sanders	DEN	-6	-24.9%	6	30	50.0%	9.8	0.0
John Brown	ARI	-8	-34.6%	5	26	40.0%	12.0	0.0
Terrance Williams	DAL	-15	-43.3%	6	23	33.3%	9.8	0.0
Kenny Britt	2TM	-15	-53.3%	5	20	40.0%	10.8	0.5
Michael Crabtree	OAK	-20	-53.5%	7	18	28.6%	10.9	-0.5
NFL Comebacks	TOT	174	-6.6%	376	2,602	54.2%	11.5	0.9

Prior to adding the full names here, I was confused by this table when I saw "J.Nelson" and assumed it was Jordy Nelson, only to find it was J.J. Nelson in Arizona. But Carson Palmer was 6-for-6 on his comeback throws to Nelson, who likely would have led in DYAR here had Palmer not been injured last season. It's a pretty good idea for Nelson to run those routes as a change-up when he's known for going deep with his speed.

A lot of the players listed here are more possession receivers, and no one had more comebacks than DeAndre Hopkins (14), another explanation for why his YAC is limited through usage. However, his YAC (2.6) is the highest listed in this particular table, though we are only talking about 14 plays here.

Eric Decker caught all five of his comeback routes in Tennessee for the best DYAR and DVOA last year. He could certainly fill a role in New England this year as Tom Brady loves those throws that have very little chance of being intercepted. Decker is also … well, you know.

"Who is left out there in free agency, Bill?" pic.twitter.com/YHzfkNrjNJ

— Scott Kacsmar (@FO_ScottKacsmar) April 3, 2018

The biggest DYAR gain (30) on a comeback in 2017 easily belonged to Golden Tate when he picked up 37 YAC for a 45-yard touchdown against the Saints. No other comeback gained more than 17 DYAR. It wasn't the most demoralizing touchdown the Saints allowed last season.

Broken Play

These are always fun and unpredictable. These are not broken plays like aborted snaps, but plays where the quarterback scrambles and the receivers break their original routes. This is backyard/sandlot football in number format. There were 593 broken-play targets in 2017 after 567 in 2016, making this one of the most consistent in terms of totals from the last two years. We looked at 25 players with at least five broken-play targets.

Broken Play Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Marvin Jones	DET	59	110.2%	8	145	50.0%	27.0	1.8
Rob Gronkowski	NE	44	183.6%	5	115	75.0%	19.6	18.3
Paul Richardson	SEA	34	51.3%	7	63	71.4%	12.9	0.0
Alshon Jeffery	PHI	33	33.3%	9	84	50.0%	22.1	0.8
Nelson Agholor	PHI	33	72.7%	5	109	40.0%	23.2	15.0
Antonio Brown	PIT	30	46.3%	7	125	71.4%	17.3	8.4
Tyler Lockett	SEA	26	17.9%	11	99	81.8%	9.7	1.0
LeSean McCoy	BUF	24	37.9%	9	73	77.8%	8.7	3.1
Doug Baldwin	SEA	17	23.5%	7	88	42.9%	11.9	16.3
Trent Taylor	SF	15	12.6%	7	29	50.0%	11.3	0.0
Bennie Fowler	DEN	13	24.8%	5	23	40.0%	17.6	0.0
Julio Jones	ATL	11	11.7%	6	53	40.0%	15.2	4.0
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Jarvis Landry	MIA	8	4.1%	6	29	50.0%	4.3	3.0
Golden Tate	DET	5	3.5%	5	36	40.0%	18.8	10.0
Jordy Nelson	GB	5	-3.7%	7	33	42.9%	13.6	0.0
Adam Thielen	MIN	2	-10.6%	13	104	33.3%	12.5	2.5
Robby Anderson	NYJ	0	-13.4%	7	72	57.1%	13.6	2.8
Emmanuel Sanders	DEN	-9	-30.6%	6	31	33.3%	12.5	3.0
Davante Adams	GB	-9	-33.5%	5	19	20.0%	14.4	0.0
Stefon Diggs	MIN	-10	-38.1%	5	22	40.0%	13.0	2.0
J.D. McKissic	SEA	-13	-57.0%	5	14	40.0%	5.8	1.5
Eric Ebron	DET	-17	-65.2%	5	9	20.0%	6.0	4.0
DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	-21	-45.7%	8	36	25.0%	14.5	0.0
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	-25	-86.9%	5	3	20.0%	14.2	0.0
Torrey Smith	PHI	-37	-112.6%	5	0	0.0%	20.0	-
NFL Broken Plays	TOT	-23	-12.6%	593	3,814	42.5%	12.1	3.1

We can have some more fun with this one in the quarterback study, but Adam Thielen led the way with 13 targets on broken plays. This did not surprise me since I wrote in January how Case Keenum relied heavily on Thielen when he was under pressure. Going from that article, it's also not a surprise to see that Rob Gronkowski (best DVOA) made some great plays with Tom Brady, but Thielen's numbers here were not that special with just 2 DYAR thanks to eight incompletions (no drops).

Detroit's Marvin Jones' ability to make contested catches certainly helped him here with a league-high 59 DYAR. The Eagles had two wideouts in the top five (Alshon Jeffery and Nelson Agholor) with Carson Wentz making a lot of plays after scrambling last season, but Torrey Smith failed to catch any of his five targets.

For the second year in a row, the Eagles had the top DYAR gain (34) on a broken play. It was way back in Week 1 when Wentz extended the play on a third-and-12 to find Agholor open for a 58-yard touchdown. Unlike in 2016 when the Eagles faded after their September success, this was a precursor of what was to come throughout the season in Philadelphia with breakout years by Wentz and Agholor, and a dominant year on third-and-long.

With Aaron Rodgers out for much of the season, this very much became the Russell Wilson show with Paul Richardson (34 DYAR), Tyler Lockett (26 DYAR), and Doug Baldwin (17 DYAR) all ranking in the top nine in DYAR. He's not listed, but Jaron Brown had 32 DYAR on three broken plays for Arizona last year. He's in Seattle now and should be scrambling along with Wilson this year.

Fade

We move onto everyone's most hated red-zone strategy: the fade pass. There were 427 of these in 2017, and yes, 149 of them came in the red zone. We looked at the 23 players with at least six fade routes.

Fade Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Rob Gronkowski	NE	40	67.1%	7	124	60.0%	19.0	2.7
DeAndre Hopkins	HOU	37	24.1%	12	103	45.5%	17.3	3.6
Devin Funchess	CAR	35	57.6%	6	82	40.0%	22.8	2.0
Marvin Jones	DET	31	50.6%	6	68	40.0%	20.8	0.0
Keenan Allen	LAC	20	28.1%	6	64	50.0%	13.7	2.7
Davante Adams	GB	14	16.7%	6	46	40.0%	12.3	1.0
Michael Thomas	NO	13	13.1%	6	55	40.0%	22.5	1.5
Nelson Agholor	PHI	9	7.5%	6	45	33.3%	22.7	3.5
DeVante Parker	MIA	5	-0.9%	6	60	33.3%	23.3	0.0
Alshon Jeffery	PHI	-7	-20.3%	11	87	20.0%	19.5	14.0
Amari Cooper	OAK	-7	-25.8%	7	26	16.7%	20.6	0.0
Josh Doctson	WAS	-9	-29.7%	6	39	20.0%	17.0	1.0
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Demaryius Thomas	DEN	-12	-38.2%	6	20	16.7%	18.8	0.0
Mike Wallace	BAL	-14	-43.1%	6	21	16.7%	15.5	3.0
Dez Bryant	DAL	-17	-25.2%	16	74	21.4%	16.4	0.7
Paul Richardson	SEA	-19	-56.4%	6	24	0.0%	22.0	-
Michael Crabtree	OAK	-23	-38.1%	10	21	30.0%	9.3	0.0
David Njoku	CLE	-30	-83.4%	6	13	16.7%	10.2	0.0
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	-31	-73.7%	6	14	16.7%	16.5	2.0
Marqise Lee	JAX	-37	-95.3%	6	0	0.0%	17.5	-
Mike Evans	TB	-41	-51.9%	13	44	16.7%	16.2	1.5
A.J. Green	CIN	-45	-76.0%	8	15	0.0%	20.6	-
Kelvin Benjamin	2TM	-55	-104.8%	7	0	0.0%	16.3	-
NFL Fades	TOT	-18	-12.5%	427	3,115	26.8%	19.3	3.7

You know a play might be a bad idea if it goes 0-for-8 to A.J. Green. Then again, he dropped two of those passes from Andy Dalton. Kelvin Benjamin was 0-for-7, but had worse DYAR than Green since he didn't draw a pass interference flag like Green did. Benjamin dropped one of his fades, but had three more defensed and the other three were overthrown.

Antonio Brown isn't listed, but he had 43 DYAR on four fades (three catches). That was one of the few highlights in 2017 for the fade, which is something often reserved for the stars. Dez Bryant led the way with 16 fades, which just supports the idea that Dallas had bad play-calling last season. Bryant caught 18.2 percent of his fades in 2016 and was only at 21.4 percent last year. Rob Gronkowski was the only listed player to catch more than half of his fades, but that was just seven plays. This is another route that the Texans love with Hopkins, but at least he was second in DYAR instead of last like he was in 2016.

We hinted at this a year ago, and in 2017 the charting by Sports Info Solutions actually broke down fades into back-shoulder throws, which are a more effective type of fade. We compared in the following table the numbers for all 2016 fades to the regular 2017 fades and the 2017 back-shoulder fades.

Comparisons of Fades, 2016-2017
Route	Year	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Fade	2016	-8	-12.3%	478	3203	33.0%	16.2	3.2
Fade	2017	-18	-12.5%	427	3115	26.8%	19.3	3.7
Fade - Back Shoulder	2017	400	12.3%	202	1570	45.3%	14.3	2.4

The regular fade numbers are eerily similar between the two seasons with just under zero DYAR and a DVOA around -12.5%. However, those back-shoulder fades in 2017 were actually productive with 400 DYAR and 12.5% DVOA. That's a pretty good argument for using the fade more, but only if the quarterback can be on the same page with his receiver for a back-shoulder throw. The lazy lobs into the end zone are what we don't want to see more of in the NFL.

Seam

Finally, how about more seam routes? These had a great 27.0% DVOA last year, but there were only 443 of them. We looked at 19 players with at least five seam routes.

Seam Route Leaders, 2017
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Rob Gronkowski	NE	81	75.4%	16	262	64.3%	17.8	7.9
Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	64	58.9%	12	143	58.3%	15.1	4.6
Doug Baldwin	SEA	48	149.9%	6	87	60.0%	28.2	2.7
Tyler Kroft	CIN	40	90.3%	7	115	57.1%	16.6	12.8
Evan Engram	NYG	33	60.2%	7	94	57.1%	18.0	5.0
Jimmy Graham	SEA	31	36.4%	10	92	50.0%	15.1	5.4
Kyle Rudolph	MIN	23	50.4%	6	65	50.0%	18.7	4.0
O.J. Howard	TB	17	22.3%	9	128	66.7%	18.7	4.7
Jermaine Gresham	ARI	15	21.4%	8	83	62.5%	14.6	2.8
Player	Team	DYAR	DVOA	Passes	Yards	Catch%	aDOT	YAC
Julius Thomas	MIA	12	26.3%	5	52	60.0%	15.8	1.3
Benjamin Watson	BAL	10	24.9%	5	50	60.0%	14.6	3.3
Travis Kelce	KC	8	17.4%	5	58	40.0%	24.2	5.0
Keenan Allen	LAC	5	-1.0%	5	29	40.0%	16.0	2.5
Delanie Walker	TEN	4	6.3%	6	70	66.7%	18.0	1.0
Mike Evans	TB	0	-12.8%	9	76	33.3%	22.7	1.0
Antonio Brown	PIT	-4	-22.2%	6	40	16.7%	23.0	2.0
Troy Niklas	ARI	-9	-30.9%	6	29	20.0%	13.8	8.0
Jack Doyle	IND	-11	-36.2%	6	37	33.3%	14.8	4.5
Jaron Brown	ARI	-36	-103.5%	5	0	0.0%	20.8	-
NFL Seams	TOT	1,113	27.0%	443	4,894	45.8%	18.9	6.5

Gronkowski is hard to stop here, but he was actually even more dominant down the seam in 2016 when he had 93 DYAR on six passes. He's still the seam DYAR leader for 2017, but on a league-high 16 attempts. Other slot-heavy players such as Doug Baldwin and Larry Fitzgerald also shined on seam routes last year.

He's not listed, but JuJu Smith-Schuster had 59 DYAR on four seam routes, his top route by DYAR in 2017. That's of course boosted by his 97-yard touchdown right down the seam in Detroit, the largest DYAR gain (36) in 2017.

In Part II next week, we'll focus our route analysis on quarterbacks. You can refresh yourselves with last year's study here.