I saw a thread earlier about our RedZone offense last season and thought I'd chime in on other less notable things that sometimes fans miss which in this case I wanted to discuss the importance of yards after catch.
Last season the Cowboys ranked 17th in yards after catch. Which was about middle of the pack. I personally feel that it was the play calling that prevented a lot of yards after the catch (a bunch of stop routes ect) and not to mention the first half of the season WR by committee did us no favors either.
http://stats.washingtonpost.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?range=NFL&type=Receiving&rank=231
This is a very important stat IMO. If you look at the top 10 offenses in 2018; most of those teams are ranked in top 10 in yards after the catch. You had exceptions like the Saints who surprisingly did not do well in yards after the catch (even with Kamara) but was a top 10 offense all season and then you have Tampa who was top 10 in yards after the catch but not a top 10 offense in yards.
http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/total/sort/netTotalYards
So yea I get it that this is not an exact science. With that said the 2 Superbowl teams last season were top 10 in both these stats. Of course defense at the end of the day decided the winner of the SB; its still an interesting point IMO because you have to get there at the end of the day to win it and positioning yourself for bye week's and home field advantage in the playoffs are key.
Now a lot depends on what our Moore Betta Offense will look like but IMO we have the talent to be a top 10 team in yards after the catch.
Amari Cooper - 4.3 forty
Zeke Elliott - 4.4 forty
Tavon Austin - 4.3 forty
Randall Cobb - 4.4 forty
Michael Gallup - 4.4 forty
Tony Pollard - 4.3 forty
All have the ability to extend plays after the catch.
While we often associate Zeke with yards after contact in the run game he is actually top 10 in the NFL in yards after the catch as well. Shockingly Amari is not even top 25; which IMO is a play calling problem.
https://www.footballdb.com/stats/stats.html?mode=C&sort=recyac
If Kellen just simply adds routes to the playbook that allow our receivers to be play makers after the catch and actually calls those plays in the game; that in itself should lead to more scoring opportunities.
Thoughts?