From 2002 to 2017, DeSean Jackson and Malcom Floyd are the two leaders in yards per reception (minimum 250 receptions). Jackson has 548 receptions for 9,487 yards, a 17.31 yards per catch average, while Floyd is at 321/5,550/17.29. We’ll skip who is #3 in yards per catch for a minute, but the next three are Torrey Smith, Eddie Kennison, and T.Y. Hilton.

Those are all pretty light players. Jackson’s weight, according to PFR (where all weights for this post were obtained), is 178 pounds. Floyd played at 201 pounds, while Smith, Kennison, and Hilton weighed in at 205, 201, and 183 pounds, respectively.

There are five players, all tight ends, who weigh over 260 pounds and had 250+ receptions since 2002: Rob Gronkowski, Kyle Rudolph, Alge Crumpler, Brent Celek, and Jermaine Gresham. Rudolph and Gresham averaged under 10 YPC for their careers, while Celek was at 12.6 and Crumpler at 12.7 (this excludes Crumpler’s 2001 season, although that doesn’t move the needle on his career YPC). Oh, and then there’s Gronk, who has a career YPC average of 15.15.

That’s… really high for a heavy man. And, make no mistake, at a listed 265 pounds, Rob Gronkowski is a heavy man. The graph below shows each player since 2002 with at least 250 receptions. On the X-Axis is each player’s yards per catch average; on the Y-Axis, their weight. Gronk is the red dot.

There are just 24 players in this dataset who averaged at least 15 yards per catch; 15 of them are 205 pounds or lighter, and just four are over 220 pounds. Those four are Plaxico Burress (226, 15.52), Calvin Johnson (239, 15.89), and the two biggest outliers in the group: Vincent Jackson (a whopping 16.81, the third highest average of any player, at 241 pounds) and Gronk (15.15, 265).

Gronkowksi is the biggest outlier in the chart, but Jackson (16.8, 241) isn’t far behind. And Floyd and DeSean Jackson, the two dots at 17.3, stand out as well. Megatron (15.9, 239) is another one, too. But if you look at the top of the chart you will find the heaviest players, and while there are a few big tight ends clumped in the 12.2 to 12.8 YPC range and 255-265 weight range (Alge Crumpler, Brent Celek, Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham, and Travis Kelce), that clumping almost makes Gronkowski’s performance all the more remarkable. If not for Gronk, we would think there was a much lower ceiling on how many yards per catch a big man could average.