There aren't many (if any) categories where the Giants' Odell Beckham Jr. lags behind the league's other top wide receivers. But this may be one where he separates himself from the competition.

Football Outsiders has Beckham No. 1 overall by a pretty wide margin in their YAC+ category. It's essentially an adjusted yards after catch statistic.

Beckham was the only elite receiver in the Top 15 of YAC+. Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, Dez Bryant and others all finished well behind Beckham in this statistic.

Beckham finished with 96 catches for 1,450 yards and 13 touchdowns this past season. He had 516 yards after the catch, fifth best among wide receivers.

Adjusted, he ranked first with a +2.0 YAC+, ahead of Rishard Matthews and Martavis Bryant. They earned +1.7 marks.

Here's how YAC+ is described in Football Outsiders Almanac 2016:



YAC+ is similar to plus-minus; it estimates how much YAC a receiver gained compared to what we would have expected from an average receiver catching passes of similar length in similar down-and-distance situations. This is imperfect -- we don't specifically mark what route a player runs, and obviously a go route will have more YAC than a comeback -- but it does a fairly good job of telling you if this receiver gets more or less YAC than other receivers with similar usage patterns.

What it seems to indicate with Beckham at the top is that he can do a little bit of everything. He can get downfield. He can take a short pass and turn it into a big gain. He can make defenders miss.

Most of the other top receivers have some -- but not all -- of those skills. Hopkins doesn't make defenders miss all that often. Brown doesn't catch many passes deep downfield. Beckham does it all, and it's pretty rare.

Noticeably near the bottom of the YAC+ category are two veteran free agent wide receivers. Anquan Boldin and Roddy White were two of the worst in this area last year.

But even worse than either was Giants tight end Larry Donnell. He ranked 49th of 50 tight ends at -1.9. Only Tampa Bay's Cameron Brate (who?) rated lower than Donnell.

The reasons are apparent in Donnell's skillset. He has little ability to make defenders miss. He rarely gets deep downfield and produces few yards after the catch. Where Donnell catches the ball, he usually falls (sometimes head first). So his ranking near the bottom of his position is hardly a surprise.

What is somewhat shocking is where Rashad Jennings ranks among running backs. He was fifth last season with a +3.4 YAC+, likely buoyed by his 51-yard touchdown reception against the Buffalo Bills. Running backs need only 25 targets to qualify for Football Outsiders' YAC+, so one long reception could significantly alter their ranking.

Shane Vereen, the Giants' passing-down back, was somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Jordan Raanan may be reached at jraanan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JordanRaanan. Find NJ.com Giants on Facebook.