Earlier this month, we revisited the two dominant seasons by former Green Bay Packers receiver Jordy Nelson, who was excellent during both the 2011 and 2014 seasons. We framed the two seasons – both in the top 10 among receivers in DYAR (defensive-adjusted yards above replacement) for the decade spanning 2010 to 2019 – as evidence for the underappreciation of Nelson’s overall body of work over the last 10 years.
Now there is more evidence to add to the pile.
Football Outsiders, the developers of the DYAR metric, tallied total DYAR and DVOA for all receivers during the decade. Nelson, who only made one Pro Bowl before retiring before the 2019 season, finished third in DYAR – trailing only Julio Jones and Antonio Brown – and fourth in DVOA between 2010 and 2019, cementing his place as one of the top pass-catchers of the last decade, at least from an analytics viewpoint.
Despite missing the entire 2015 season and not playing at all in 2019, Nelson still finished the decade ranked 11th in the NFL in receiving yards and fifth in receiving touchdowns.
Playing eight of the 10 years between 2010 and 2019 wasn’t the biggest driving factor for Nelson, who still finished fifth in total DYAR per game, trailing only Michael Thomas, Calvin Johnson, Jones and Brown.
He was buoyed by a few elite seasons. According to Football Outsiders, Nelson finished in the top three of DYAR three times during the decade. His 2011 season was the fifth-best season by a receiver between 2010 and 2019 according to DYAR.
Had Nelson remained with the Packers over the final two years of the decade – he was released before the 2018 season and retired in 2019 – it’s possible he could have threatened Jones and Brown for a top-two spot in DYAR.
This offseason, the NFL released its 2010s All-Decade Team. Four receivers made the team: Jones, Brown, Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald. All were worthy of selection, but Nelson has a strong argument for being in that very next tier. He was underappreciated throughout the decade, likely due to Aaron Rodgers being his quarterback. Nelson was terrific as a standalone player.
Note, teammate and former Packers receiver Randall Cobb finished 12th overall in DYAR during the decade.
