Niles Paul leads TEs in yards per target
Washington Redskins star tight end Niles Paul has been an absolute revelation this season, and it’s clear that he is one of the most surprising storylines of the season thus far. Paul is eighth among tight ends with 30 targets, and, more impressively, the budding star leads all qualifying tight ends in yards per target with 10.6 yards per pop, meaning that Kirk Cousins and RG3 have averaged 10.6 yards per attempt when throwing it in his direction.
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With Jordan Reed healthy again and likely to play against the Arizona Cardinals tomorrow, Paul’s targets could go down, but his production sure as heck shouldn’t drop-off. Not only is he facing a pass defense that notoriously struggles with defending tight ends, but Paul is also an athletic specimen who is producing at an incredibly high level. The Redskins are filled with talent on offense, and Paul’s emergence as, perhaps, an even more potent threat than Reed gives the a team an envious arsenal of weapons.
The Cardinals will have to try and cope with a 6’1″, 241-pound monster who never had less than 60 receiving yards in a game when fully healthy, and he is now back at full strength. Paul played against the dominant Seattle Seahawks defense (well-known for shutting down tight ends, as the Antonio Gates performance was a clear anomaly, largely born out of Kam Chancellor’s injury), but he caught just one pass due to the difficulty of the opposition, and he wasn’t fully healthy either due to a concussion.
So far this season, Paul has 22 receptions for 319 yards, averaging a healthy 14.5 yards per reception to go with a superb 73.3% catch rate. That sort of a catch rate would be a quality total for a dinking-and-dunking safety valve at the tight end position, but Paul’s robust YPR shows that his athletic tools are being used in a much more advanced capacity, and he’s stretched the field frequently. An emerging star, Paul is currently the league’s most efficient tight end, and the Redskins could receive a monster game from him tomorrow against a Cardinals defense that probably won’t be able to cope with his skill-set.