Dwanye Bowe has always impressed me as a decent second receiver, but not a true No. 1.
The positive: Bowe has had four seasons with at least 70 catches, and three with 1,000 or more yards and one with 995 yards. In 2010, he led the NFL with 15 touchdowns.
The down side: Since 2012, Bowe has not topped 801 yards and has totaled eight touchdowns — zero last season. As the analytics folks would say, that does not trend well.
Pro Football Focus and ESPN Stats and Information use different metrics on players. Their analysis and numbers show that Bowe is a good receiver who does not miss games, which is important. They show a receiver who drops too many passes. Take all the positives and negatives and Bowe probably would have been the team's No. 1 wideout when the 2014 season began.
Going by the numbers:
Bowe has been in the league eight seasons. He has started 118-of-122 games. Pro Football Focus has its own way to rank receivers, and beginning with this season and going back the site ranked Bowe 45, 48, 30, 12, 19, 83, 76 and 15 at his position. His two best seasons were 2010 and ’11, but the trend since has been down.
The average of those rankings: 41. Which would put Bowe as ninth among the second group of starting receivers.
In his eight seasons, Bowe averaged 12.57 yards per reception, which ranks 30th overall in that time, 25th in yards after catch (2,247) and 21st with 44 touchdowns. He ranks 13th in receptions of 20 yards or more since his career started with 100, and 32nd in receptions of 30 yards or more.
Bowe drops passes. PFF has him at 69 in his career, including 31 the past four. ESPN Stats credits him with 64 drops. The only player with more in that time is Brandon Marshall; he has four more drops and 231 more receptions.
Since Bowe has been in the league, he has dropped 6.9 percent of the passes thrown to him, fourth highest overall and first among receivers (Stats and Info).
The last five years, he has dropped 5.8 percent, with ranks eighth in the league and fourth among receivers. The last three seasons, he had 18 drops, which ranks 11th.
Go back five years in his career, which includes two of Bowe’s best seasons, and these are the numbers:
Bowe was targeted 580 times (eighth in the league).
He had 329 receptions (20th).
He had 33 drops (fourth). Marshall and Wes Welker were ahead of him, but both had 100 more receptions than Bowe.
In the last three seasons:
Bowe was targeted 303 times (33rd).
He had 176 catches (43rd).
His reception percentage of 58.1 percent ranked 90th, between Alshon Jeffery and A.J. Green.
