The Jets newest offensive weapon will need to broaden his route tree in the NFL
After trading up to pick 65, the New York Jets selected wide receiver Malachi Corley from Western Kentucky.
Corley’s overall statistics at face value are rather exciting, as he totaled 1282 yards in 2022 and 985 yards in 2023. Beyond that, he accumulated 11 touchdowns in each of those seasons.
What’s more interesting though is how Corley accomplished that, which was by being a target monster largely on the back of screen routes, as highlighted by Jared Smola of DraftSharks.
Malachi Corley had 133 screen receptions over his 4 years at Western Kentucky.
133!
51.4% of his total receptions came on screens.
— Jared Smola (@SmolaDS) April 19, 2024
Beyond that, we can also look at Corley’s PFF stats, which provide some similarly crazy statistics around Corley’s target profile.
- Screen yards: 330 (1st in NCAA)
- Yards after catch: 8.6 (18th in NCAA)
- Average depth of target: 5.5 (tied 496th in NCAA)
With all that said, catching screens isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The route is becoming more and more common in the modern NFL because it can be very effective. Given this, these statistics are really more an interesting (and funny as far as I’m concerned) factoid that reflects how the Jets drafted a player with an outlier profile that we fans will have to hope pans out.
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