The NFL's 10 Best Deep-Ball Wide Receivers in 2016
9. A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals
Deep Targets: 27 | Target NEP per Target: 1.09 | Success Rate: 55.56%
Let's just get this out of the way: A.J. Green is stupidly good, no matter what type of splits we're viewing. That Gucciness transferred to deep passes, too.
Before his season-ending injury in Week 11, Green had 100 targets, 27 of which were at least 16 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. He managed to catch 15 of those, and none of them wound up in the hands of the opposition. This is while drawing the secondary's best coverage, mind you. He good.
Not surprisingly, Green's injury had a major effect on Andy Dalton's deep-ball efficiency. Green essentially played nine games before going down, and here are Dalton's splits on long passes centered around having Green. The brown stuff hit the fan rull quick.
| Dalton on Deep Passes | Passing NEP per Attempt | Success Rate |
|---|---|---|
| With A.J. Green | 0.95 | 54.39% |
| Without A.J. Green | 0.25 | 34.48% |
With Green healthy, Dalton was one of the best deep-ball passers in the league with metrics better than those of Ben Roethlisberger's. Without Green, Dalton turned into Josh McCown. The Cincinnati Bengals' offense will be a new beast once Green is back healthy for next year.
