It’s been a long-running joke that Detroit Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson constantly falls down once he catches a pass. Like most jokes, it grounded in a bit of truth and a bit of exaggeration.
However, on Tuesday, advanced metrics site Football Outsiders dropped a statistic that suggests there’s perhaps more truth than exaggeration in that reputation for Hockenson. Writer Bryan Knowles explained the statistic they call “YAC+.”
“YAC+ estimates how much YAC a receiver gained compared to what we would have expected from an average receiver catching passes of similar length in similar down-and-distance situations,” the description wrote, via the Football Outsiders Almanac 2022.