Lloyd isn't getting anywhere on his own.
Brandon Lloyd did something he hasn't done all season.
In the second quarter of the Patriots' blowout win over the New York Jets Thursday, he stayed on his feet, caught the ball over the middle of the field, made a move and forced someone to tackle him.
By the time he was taken down, Lloyd picked up at least four or five yards after the catch to cap the 12-yard completion. It was a stunning sight, because he almost never makes anything happen with his feet.
Lloyd has made 49 receptions for 551 yards this season. Only 107 of those have come after the catch. That's 2.33 additional yards per reception. Entering Sunday, only two receivers with 40 or more receptions have produced less with their feet.
Think about that. Lloyd is six feet tall. He'd probably be able to match that figure by simply falling forward after each catch. That's basically been Tom Brady's mode of operation throughout his career, and he managed to pick up 109 yards last year on 43 carries.
While completely unfair and a bit of a reach, it's never a good thing when you can compare something that involves Brady and any aspect of running to someone who is supposed to be an athlete.
All jokes aside, it's not exactly rare for outside receivers to have low YAC numbers. Players like Wes Welker, who is averaging more than five yards after each catch, are paid for their ability to create something out of nothing. Outside receivers, such as Lloyd, do a lot of work in tight spaces along sidelines.
Randy Moss, for instance, only averaged around three extra yards per reception during the 2007 season. Some of that was due to the amount of work Moss did in the red zone – he scored 14 touchdowns from that portion of the field, while Lloyd has just eight catches there – so a more fair comparison may be to Deion Branch, who averaged more than six yards after each catch last year.
And if we're being real, Branch had almost nothing left last season.
That's the overriding point here. Lloyd takes things to an extreme. His numbers aren't that different from his career averages, so New England knew what kind of player it was getting, but it's still jarring to see on a weekly basis.
We've talked before about how he likes to dive after passes – which immediately takes away his ability to run for extra yardage – but it also doesn't help that he seems to absolutely hate getting hit and will do almost anything to avoid contact.
While talking about this topic prior to the Jets game, Chris Price of WEEI raised a great point when he asked me how I thought fans would be receiving Lloyd right now if he had arrived here last season instead of Chad Johnson (and for the sake of credit, Price also opened my eyes to exactly how bad Lloyd's YAC numbers are).
There's no doubt it would be different. I think a lot of us look at Lloyd and say, "Well at least he's something." Sometimes that something borders on greatness, or acrobatic in a way you've never seen. Other times, it ends up as a needless dive or a quick slide under a tackle.
But at least it's always something.