Kendrick Bourne leads the NFL in Catch Score since 2021
Bourne technically just missed our qualifying cutoff, but his 91 Catch Score over the past two seasons was too strong a result to ignore. It's surprising, not only because Bourne isn't a big name but because he has had a hard time getting on the field for New England in 2022. In fact, if we lowered the qualifying threshold to include Bourne, he would have ranked third overall in 2021 and would be first from the start of 2021 to now.
Introducing Receiver Tracking Metrics: How our new NFL stats can better rate pass-catchers
Top 10 WRs and TEs In Catch Score:
(for 2021-2022, including postseason, with minimum 70 targets)
- Kendrick Bourne: 91
- Tyler Lockett: 85
- Adam Thielen: 83
- Amari Cooper: 81
- Christian Kirk: 79
- Marvin Jones Jr.: 78
- Michael Pittman Jr.: 76
- Cooper Kupp: 75
- . Mark Andrews: 74
- Terry McLaurin: 74
You can see some of the evidence of Bourne's Catch Score prowess in his box score stats. Since the 2021 season, he has caught 79% of his targets. While his 9.2 air yards per target is not exceptionally deep, it's slightly longer than stars such as Kupp or Keenan Allen (Chargers), and yet Bourne has a higher catch rate than either.
Bourne's ranking doesn't necessarily mean he's one of the top three wideouts in the NFL. The RTMs are descriptive and not predictive, and Open Score -- his worst attribute -- is far more stable than the other two categories. Plus, Catch Score and YAC Score are reliant on openness; if a receiver isn't open, he'll have fewer opportunities to make catches and accrue YAC. While Bourne has been an extremely efficient (and underrated), he likely isn't quite that strong predictively.
For what it is worth, Bourne's 3.4 yards per route run this season ranks fourth among receivers and tight ends who have run at least 30 routes, behind Jaylen Waddle (Dolphins), Tyreek Hill (Dolphins) and A.J. Brown (Eagles). He has just seven catches for 115 yards, but perhaps he should play more snaps for the Patriots.