2024 Wide Receivers<\/p>\n
A total of 91 wide receivers qualified last season, but we\u2019ll just show a dozen from the top and bottom of the rankings to save space here.<\/p>\n
Hey there, rook! In 2024, at least, YAC+ was where young wideouts shined. Keon Coleman<\/a>, Brian Thomas Jr.<\/a> and Xavier Worthy<\/a> were all rookies, with Marvin Mims Jr.<\/a> just in his second year. Got an athletic kid you don\u2019t trust to run a full route tree yet? Give \u2018em a couple screens and slants and let them run. Mims nearly laps the field, however, with his +4.0 mark being the highest we\u2019ve seen since Deebo Samuel<\/a> had a +4.2 mark in 2021.<\/p>\n Mims was not really used as a traditional wide receiver in 2024, of course. Over at ESPN, Bill Barnwell called him the best gadget player in the league<\/a>, being lined up in strange positions to get the ball in his hands and let him make plays with his legs. Mims has been a Pro Bowler in each of his first two seasons as a returner, so even if his route running isn\u2019t up to snuff with top wideouts, it\u2019s clear he\u2019s a weapon with the ball in his hands, and Denver found creative ways to get him involved.<\/p>\n Top Wide Receiver YAC+ Seasons, 2009-2024<\/p>\n Year 2019 2021 2024 2009 2023 2021 2012 2023 2009 2024 As good as Mims is with the ball in his hands, however, there\u2019s only so much you can do to make up for being used on swings and screens, two of the least valuable routes in football. More than half of Mims\u2019 targets \u2013 30 of 56 \u2013 came on those quick dump-off routes. Mims had 19 DYAR and a -4.3% DVOA on those routes, which is better than league average (-28.1%), but not exceptionally thrilling. There is certainly some value in taking these inefficient routes and making them average-ish, but his success rate was only 53% \u2013 he\u2019s getting the ball in a lot of third-and-long situations, and being asked to try to make some magic happen.<\/p>\n Interestingly \u2013 and now we\u2019re getting down into microsplits, so take it with a grain of salt \u2013 Mims had 10 swings\/screens lined up wide, 10 lined up in the slot, 10 lined up in the backfield. His DVOAs? -29.3% lined up out wide, -6.1% in the slot, 22.1% in the backfield. Mims was second to only Puka Nacua<\/a> in DYAR generated by a wide receiver in the backfield in 2024; someone with his speed and a wideout\u2019s hands coming from an unusual position like that is a matchup problem for the defense. Denver needs to keep finding creative ways to get the ball into Mims hands, and screens lined up wide do not count.<\/p>\n We need to highlight Ja\u2019Marr Chase<\/a>, who was still in the top 10 in YAC+ despite a massive workload. While Mims was producing extra YAC at a nigh-historic rate, he ended up being worth \u201conly\u201d 156 extra yards. Chase added an additional 206 yards with his YAC prowess. It\u2019s not quite his best season in YAC+ \u2013 his rookie year ended up on that top 10 list, after all. But he\u2019s maintained his high level with the ball in his hands even as he\u2019s graduated to a more advanced route tree and drawn more and more coverage his way. \u201cHe\u2019s good after the catch\u201d might not even be in his top three skills, but it\u2019s one more club in his bag and just one more reason he became the highest paid receiver in NFL history this offseason. Hey, if you\u2019re good enough that even the Bengals realize they\u2019ve got to pay you, you know you\u2019re doing something right.<\/p>\n You may note that Jameson Williams<\/a> is the only Raven or Lion on this list, so you may wonder how it is the Ravens managed to squeeze past the Lions in the overall YAC+ standings. The trouble is, Williams is the only solid Lions wideout in this stat. While Amon-Ra St. Brown<\/a> led the league in receiving plus-minus, he was only worth +0.2 in YAC+, while Tim Patrick<\/a> was at a flat +0.0. Baltimore didn\u2019t have any top wideouts, but Zay Flowers<\/a> (+1.4) and Rashod Bateman<\/a> (+0.4) were both very solid. It means the Ravens wide receivers, as a group, had a +1.0 YAC+, while the Lions were only at +0.7. Detroit closes the gap some at tight end, but Baltimore\u2019s gap with their wide receivers ends up being decisive.<\/p>\n We also should mention Deebo Samuel<\/a>. Samuel once again finished high in these rankings, and Washington adding the sixth-place finisher in YAC+ should open some interesting things in their offense. So why were 49ers fans so annoyed with Samuel\u2019s 2024? It\u2019s because Samuel isn\u2019t normally good in this stat. He\u2019s normally amazing. Since Samuel entered the league in 2019, his +3.2 YAC is easily the best for any qualified wideout. The next-highest mark for someone with at least 300 targets is A.J. Brown<\/a>\u2019s +1.6, so Samuel really does lap the league here. Since signing his contract extension in 2022, however, that number has fallen to +2.7, and now here is, down with the \u201cmere mortals\u201d. The YAC Bros have been such a major part of San Francisco\u2019s offensive identity that seeing them be mere mortals last season was downright uncanny. Take a look at what San Francisco normally gets out of their offense and what they got last season.<\/p>\n 49ers YAC Dynasty YAC+ Numbers<\/p>\n Player George Kittle<\/a> Deebo Samuel<\/a> Brandon Aiyuk<\/a> Bourne\/Jennings\/Pearsall Running Backs George Kittle<\/a> remains George Kittle<\/a> and the running back situation will be helped if Christian McCaffrey<\/a> is healthy. (Editor: can we make that \u201cif\u201d size 832 font and flashing bright red? Maybe making a loud siren sound of some sort? Thanks.) It\u2019s the collapse of the wide receiver room that ended up ending the 49ers\u2019 YAC+ winning streak, and nowhere was that collapse larger than with Deebo. And with him gone, the question is who will replace him, and the answer is \u2026 no one. There\u2019s no one in the league quite like prime Deebo Samuel<\/a>. The other great single-season YAC guys either developed into more well-rounded receivers or fizzled out as one-year wonders. There\u2019s not really a precedent for the uber-gadget guy remaining extremely valuable for year after year. And because Samuel gets a diet of the shortest routes in the game, and because his hands are well below par for a wideout, he lives and dies with his YAC+. If he\u2019s just good at it, it doesn\u2019t overcome the other holes in his game. He needs to be otherworldly. And he often is. Maybe he will be again, healthier and in a new environment. We\u2019ll wait and see.<\/p>\n Below, you\u2019ll find the bottom wide receivers as well as the numbers for the best and worst tight ends and running backs plus all quarterbacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Kyle Shanahan dynasty has been dethroned! Our annual look at YAC+ \u2013 yards after catch above…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,6170,6,1161,252,2624,2623],"class_list":{"0":"post-152670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-football-outsiders","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114733748646140941","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPlayer
\nTeam
\nTargets
\nALEX
\naDOT
\nYAC+<\/p>\n
\nA.J. Brown<\/a>
\nTEN
\n83
\n4.1
\n13.2
\n4.4<\/p>\n
\nDeebo Samuel<\/a>
\nSF
\n117
\n-0.8
\n8.7
\n4.2<\/p>\n
\nMarvin Mims Jr.
\nDEN
\n51
\n-1.9
\n7.6
\n4.0<\/p>\n
\nHakeem Nicks
\nNYG
\n69
\n2.0
\n10.8
\n3.4<\/p>\n
\nDeebo Samuel<\/a>
\nSF
\n85
\n-2.9
\n6.8
\n3.2<\/p>\n
\nJa\u2019Marr Chase<\/a>
\nCIN
\n124
\n4.3
\n13.0
\n3.2<\/p>\n
\nDanario Alexander
\nSTL
\n56
\n3.4
\n12.0
\n3.1<\/p>\n
\nRashee Rice<\/a>
\nKC
\n100
\n-4.2
\n4.8
\n3.0<\/p>\n
\nPatrick Crayton
\nDAL
\n61
\n0.8
\n9.5
\n3.0<\/p>\n
\nKeon Coleman<\/a>
\nBUF
\n55
\n6.2
\n15.1
\n2.9<\/p>\n![\"CINCINNATI,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/JaMarr-Chase-1-1.jpg\")
CINCINNATI, OH \u2013 SEPTEMBER 30: Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja\u2019Marr Chase (1) reacts after getting a first down during the game against the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Cincinnati Bengals on September 30, 2021, at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, OH. (Photo by Ian Johnson\/Icon Sportswire)<\/p>\n
\n2018-23
\n2024
\nDiff<\/p>\n
\n2.4
\n2.4
\n0.0<\/p>\n
\n3.4
\n1.9
\n-1.5<\/p>\n
\n0.9
\n0.1
\n-0.8<\/p>\n
\n0.3
\n-0.8
\n-1.1<\/p>\n
\n0.9
\n0.4
\n-0.5<\/p>\n