Posted by Darren Urban on December 3, 2013 – 10:17 am

Michael Floyd has turned into the player the Cardinals hoped he would be when they selected him in the first round. That’s been easy to see of late.

“He’s emerged, and three weeks in a row at that level is kind of a breakout,” coach Bruce Arians said of his second-year receiver. “That’s consistency you’re looking at, and he’s playing hurt.”

(Arians said the only Floyd downside right now is that Floyd’s run blocking — which is usually among the best in the league for a wide receiver — is subpar right now because of his shoulder injury.)

The last three games, Floyd has averaged six receptions for 132 yards and he has a pair of touchdowns in that time. But Floyd’s receptions go even deeper as a Cardinals’ advantage with this statistic: Every one of his last 20 catches has produced a first down. That’s an amazing streak. The last time he had a catch that didn’t get a first down was in the third quarter of the Atlanta game — Oct. 27, before the bye — when he made a five-yard catch on first-and-10.

Looking further, Floyd has 54 catches this season, and 40 of them have produced first downs. That’s a conversion rate of 74.1 when Floyd snares a pass, which puts him among the league leaders. He is tied for 12th when it comes to players who have averaged two receptions a game, but climbs to a tie for fourth when talking about players with at least 50 receptions with Baltimore’s Torrey Smith for fourth in the league, behind the dominant Calvin Johnson (83.3 percent on his 72 receptions), San Diego’s Keenan Allen (77.6 on 58 catches) and Denver’s Demaryius Thomas (74.6 on 67 catches).

Obviously, Floyd’s routes often take him past the sticks, but not always. Floyd has learned a lot about getting to the line to gain on his route, and he is good at breaking tackles, which has served him well in this current 20-catch streak.

Tags: Michael Floyd Posted in Blog