DeSean Jackson and Deep Ball Specialists

NFL Week 12 – Our top wide receiver this week was not the top wideout in fantasy scoring, particularly not in PPR leagues. DeSean Jackson only caught three passes against Dallas, but each was a big gain: a 56-yard touchdown in the first quarter, plus 16- and 30-yard catches in the fourth. He also had a pair of chunk plays on defensive pass interference penalties—a 30-yard gain on third-and-6 in the first quarter, a 17-yarder on third-and-8 in the third—but today we’re going to focus on Jackson’s receptions. Because in just three plays, Jackson once again showed something we already knew: catch for catch, he’s one of the best big-play receivers the NFL has ever seen.

Jackson’s trio of receptions produced a total of 102 yards, an average of 34.0 yards apiece. It’s the 12th time in his career he has gained at least 100 yards and a touchdown as a receiver while averaging at least 30.0 yards per catch. That’s third-most all time behind the 13 of Hall of Famer Lance Alworth, the Chargers star from the original AFL, and the 14 of Stanley Morgan, the Patriots Pro Bowler who led the NFL in yards per catch in 1979, 1980, and 1981. No other active player has more than three such games (A.J. Brown, T.Y. Hilton, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling). If you drop that average to 25.0 yards per catch, Jackson has 17 such games, tied with Jerry Rice for second place behind Alworth’s 18; no other active player has more than Hilton, who has seven.

There are simpler ways to point out Jackson’s big-play ability. Since the Eagles drafted him in 2008, he has led the NFL in yards per catch four times: in 2010 with Philadelphia, in 2014 and 2016 with Washington, and in 2018 with Tampa Bay. He’s the active career leader with 17.7 yards per catch (minimum 200 catches). That barely puts him in the top 40 in the career leaderboards, but that’s partly a reflection of the era in which Jackson has played. Only five other players have averaged at least 17.0 yards per catch while playing part of their careers in this century: Devery Henderson, Malcom Floyd, Ashley Lelie, James Jett, and Josh Gordon. (Henderson’s career average of 17.9 is a wee bit higher than even Jackson’s.) Whether it’s due to conservative offensive schemes or defensive game plans focused on taking away the big play—or, most likely, a combination of both—it’s difficult for today’s wide receivers to reel off long catches the way their predecessors did.

We can somewhat account for this by comparing Jackson’s yardage production based on what the average player would have done on the same number of catches. NFL teams this year have a combined 8,117 receptions for a total of 90,052 yards, an average of 11.1 yards per catch. (This includes all players, not just wide receivers.) At that rate, we would expect a player with 12 catches, such as Jackson, to have 133 receiving yards. But Jackson has more than that—a lot more, in fact, with 361. That difference of 228 yards is one of the biggest in the league this year; only Deebo Samuel (+384), Ja’Marr Chase (+351), and Justin Jefferson (+283) have gained more yards than expected based on their total receptions. Run these numbers for every year of Jackson’s career, using the average yards per reception of each season, and you find that he has gained 3,837 yards more than the average player. That noses him ahead of Henry Ellard for fourth place in the all-time rankings.

Remember, this is based on the average numbers for all players, not just wide receivers. That lets a handful of wideouts with underwhelming averages but massive volume (Rice, Terrell Owens, Isaac Bruce) sneak into the table. Calculating averages based only on wide receivers would knock those guys down the list and elevate players such as Jackson, as well as Don Maynard (18.7 yards per catch, 3,016 yards over average), Harold Jackson (17.9, +2,918), and Paul Warfield (20.1, 2,911).

Regardless, it’s not just Jackson’s long catches that make him special, it’s his long touchdowns. He has now scored 34 touchdowns of 50 or more yards in his career, second only to Rice’s 36. That total includes four punt return touchdowns and one rushing play, but even if we look at receptions only, Jackson is still in second place, though the gap between him and Rice has grown.

Jackson has scored 66 touchdowns in his career, and the average length of those plays is 46.0 yards. That’s the longest of any player with 50-plus touchdowns; 1970s Oilers star Ken Burrough (42.3) and Olympic gold medalist “Bullet” Bob Hayes (41.5) are the only other players over the 40-yard threshold. Jackson’s 58 touchdown catches have averaged 45.2 yards each; Mel Gray (44.6), Burrough (42.8), and Hayes (40.9) are the only other players to top 40 yards in that department. (For the record, Jackson also has four rushing touchdowns in his career, and the average gain on those plays was 30.3 yards.)

What’s most interesting about Jackson is that while his touchdowns are very long, his other catches are not. In baseball terms, he hits a lot of home runs, but not so many doubles or triples. His average gain on non-touchdown catches is 14.8 yards. That ranks 41st among the 141 players with at least 50 touchdown catches in history. When you compare that rate to his 45.2-yard gain on his scoring receptions, Jackson lands almost literally off the charts (click to open a larger image in a new window).

That’s Jackson all by his lonesome up at the top there. Many of the players above the line are, like Jackson, small and fast. Jackson is 5-foot-10, as is Tyreek Hill; Hayes was 6 feet even. Meanwhile, many of the players below the line—those whose touchdown catches are relatively short—are either tight ends (Dave Casper, Rob Gronkowski) or big wide receivers who stood at least 6-foot-5 (Gary Collins, Vincent Jackson). There are exceptions to that rule—Elroy Hirsch and Haven Moses were both 6-foot-2—but this chart does separate Jackson and the deep ball specialists from the goal-line threats.

That dangerous but one-dimensional style has made Jackson quite a journeyman in his career. He bounced from Philadelphia to Washington to Tampa Bay and back to Philly in his first 13 seasons. The Rams signed him in the offseason but he asked for his release after seven games due to a lack of playing time. The Raiders signed him just a few weeks ago to replace Henry Ruggs and gave him that playing time—he had 42 offensive snaps on Thanksgiving after never getting more than 22 with the Rams. With Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow as possession receivers, Jackson should get plenty more chances to go long in December as Las Vegas fights for a playoff berth.