NFL Yards Per Completion Through Week 6

In this week's Breakfast Table (see link on left because blogger.com doesn't make linking easy), Scott Pianowski speculated that Steve McNair and the Titans were dumping it off too much in light of Erron Kinney's catches. Turns out he was right (as usual), as the Titans are 25th in Yards Per Completion, which rarely gets mentioned anywhere. That Steelers number is incredible and if memory serves Eli's current number is better than Peyton's last year. Want more perspective? The single-season leader in the modern era is Cincy's Greg Cook, whose career lasted only a year due to injury, at 17.8 in 1969. Joe Namath registered a 17.5 in 1972. After that, you have a bunch of 14s and 15s.

On the defensive side of the ball, look who's last in the NFL: the world champion Patriots. There is less variation on the defensive numbers, which suggests to me that Yards Per Completion is more a function of the offense, maybe similar to how batting average on balls put in play is more a function of the batter and not the pitcher. The NFL average is 10.79. Current season rankings follow.

Offensive YPC:

Steelers 16.08
Giants 14.10
Raiders 13.20
Cowboys 12.66
Panthers 12.45
Patriots 12.23
Saints 11.96
Jaguars 11.41
Chiefs 11.31
Eagles 11.29
Redskins 11.29
Seahawks 11.22
Falcons 11.12
Colts 11.02
Cardinals 10.87
Chargers 10.80
Bengals 10.79
Rams 10.79
Dolphins 10.68
Browns 10.37
Broncos 10.35
Jets 10.26
Packers 9.92
Vikings 9.88
Titans 9.71
Lions 9.56
Niners 9.51
Bucs 9.36
Ravens 9.10
Bears 7.72
Bills 7.59
Texans 6.54

Defensive YPC

Colts 8.91
Bears 9.30
Bills 9.33
Jets 9.35
Jaguars 9.49
Dolphins 9.71
Browns 9.72
Ravens 9.80
Steelers 9.87
Redskins 10.24
Bengals 10.27
Bucs 10.49
Lions 10.52
Titans 10.61
Vikings 10.69
Seahawks 10.78
Broncos 10.81
Giants 10.90
Saints 11.02
Falcons 11.04
Rams 11.24
Panthers 11.29
Eagles 11.36
Texans 11.40
Chargers 11.59
Packers 11.61
Cowboys 11.66
Chiefs 11.68
Cardinals 11.75
Niners 11.77
Raiders 12.68
Patriots 14.40
And here is the rest of it.