By the end of last season, Raiders rookie wide receiver Hunter Renfrow was no longer a secret. He had become Derek Carr’s go-to target on third downs and he surpassed 100 yards in each of the team’s last two games of the season while the Raiders were still clinging to a slim chance of sneaking into the playoffs.
Raiders fans were feeling pretty good about the prospects of the team’s fifth-round pick and new slot machine. Can he keep it going? One stat suggests there is a very good chance he can — Yards Per Route Run.
Yards per route run is one of @PFF's most predictive metrics year over year.
The 2019 rookie WR class ranked in order of YPRR: pic.twitter.com/0y3MBXFA8r
— Evan Silva (@evansilva) May 3, 2020
Renfrow had the second most Yards Per Route Run (YPRR) in the league per PFF stats. He was the only receiver in the top nine in YPRR who wasn’t drafted on Day 1 or Day 2.
This stat all by itself isn’t the be-all-end-all, because it can be misleading if the receiver didn’t play a lot.
Renfrow played a fair amount, averaging 33 snaps per game, though among the top ten rookie receivers in YPRR, only Andy Isabella (10) and Mecole Hardman (29) had fewer snaps per game.
Even still, averaging over two yards per route run as a rookie puts Renfrow in some elite company.
Only 18 NFL WRs have averaged over 2.0 yards per route run as rookies (min 40 targets) over the last 10 years. Pretty good group to be in.
The 18: pic.twitter.com/e6NZ9rbbKh
— Evan Silva (@evansilva) February 22, 2020
Averaging 2.09 yards per route run puts Renfrow in the range of the likes of JuJu Smith-Schuster (2.16), AJ Green (2.13), Julio Jones (2.10), Keenan Allen (2.06), Mike Evans (2.06), Cooper Kupp (2.05), and Michael Thomas (2.04).
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