As we read fantasy articles or listen to our favorite podcasts, often analysts will reference advanced statistics to strengthen an argument. While context can generally help us decipher whether the statistic is good or bad in relation to other players, there are many times that we can be left to wonder how good or bad the referenced statistic really is.

In preparation for this season’s weekly dive into the advanced stats at the wide receiver position, we are going to look back at how players at the position fared from 2019 through 2023 using the Advanced Stats Explorer. After analyzing five separate seasons and 1,144 individual performances, we should have a pretty good idea of how our favorite players stack up as we make our way through the 2024 season.

As a general rule, we should pay the most attention to players who exceed the 75th percentile in each of these metrics, as this cohort represents the entirety of the top-60 WR performances in each statistic during any given season. The 90th percentile and above encompasses most of the top-24 WR performances. Something we need to stay cognizant of is how small samples from individual players have the tendency to skew the highest and lowest ranges of composite metrics; something that will become very evident as we work through the exercise. Similarly, injuries can derail a player’s counting stats and making them not truly representative of their actual performance across the entire season. As always, we should be mindful of the context in which each metric is presented.

In Part 1, we will look at some counting and efficiency metrics regarding routes and targets. By the end of the article, we will know which WRs were able to make the most out of their opportunities over the past five seasons, and maybe even pick up some targets for 2024 along the way.