What do the following 17 players have in common?

Chris Sanders

Devery Henderson

DeSean Jackson

Malcom Floyd

Kenny Stills

Michael Irvin

Julio Jones

Rob Gronkowski

Brandin Cooks

Jordy Nelson

Doug Baldwin

Adam Thielen

Travis Kelce

Michael Thomas

Terry Kirby

Priest Holmes

Pierre Thomas

They are all, as the title of today’s post implies, Pareto Efficient, at least when it comes to two variables: catch rate and yards per carry.

In general, there is an inverse relationship between catch rate (receptions divided by targets) and yards per catch (yards divided by receptions). This is more clearly true in broad strokes at the position level: running backs have high catch rates and low YPC averages, wide receivers (particularly outside wide receivers) have low catch rates and high YPC averages, and tight ends and slot receivers tend to be in the middle on both categories. The graph below shows the catch rate (on the X-Axis) and yards per reception averages (on the Y-Axis) for all players with at least 400 targets since 1992. As you can see, there is a very clear inverse (i.e., negative) relationship between the two variables. Players with high catch rates tend to have low YPC averages, and players with high YPC averages tend to have low catch rates.

So what do I mean by Pareto Efficient? In this graph, you will no doubt see that a number of the data points are in red. Those points represent the Pareto Efficient players: there is not even running back, tight end, or wide receiver since 1992 who has both a better catch rate and a better yards per reception average than those players.

Chris Sanders averaged 18.6 yards per catch for his career, the highest career average of any player from 1992 to 2018. So obviously he’s Pareto Efficient even with a poor catch rate of 44%. On the other far end you have Pierre Thomas, who caught a remarkable 84% of his passes, the highest rate in the study. So he’s clearly Pareto Efficient, too. Another Saint, Michael Thomas, stands out as perhaps the most impressive player on the chart (of course, Thomas has played just three seasons): he has a 77.0% catch rate and still has averaged 11.8 yards per catch. Nobody is all that close to him on the chart: no other player who averaged over 10.0 YPC has a catch rate over 75%.

You can follow who each player in red is by going down the chart and looking at the top of this post. Julio Jones and Rob Gronkowski stand out with their remarkable catch rates for players who averaged over 15.0 yards per catch. Target data only goes back to 1992 on PFR, which is why that cut-off was chosen. You can view all the raw data here.

What stands out to you?