The Curious Case of Tyler Boyd in 2017

Tyler Boyd’s statistics seemed to take a big hit in his second season as a pro. Did he actually get worse, or were there other factors in play?

Tyler Boyd, the Bengals’ second round pick from 2016, actually took a major step back last season. After a pretty prolific rookie year, he saw a significant reduction in targets and production. In 2016, he put up a solid 54/603/1 slash line while catching two-thirds of his targets. His yards per catch of 11.2 was pretty low, but his role opposite AJ Green was to soak up short and intermediate targets. After one year, it seemed like Boyd had established himself in the offense.

Unfortunately for Boyd, the Bengals didn’t seem think so. The team drafted John Ross with the ninth overall pick and resigned veteran Brandon LaFell. He only played 10 games last year, but his 16 game pace lagged far behind his rookie year stats. That stat line would look like 35/350/3 on 30 fewer targets, which is some major regression. The only things he improved upon were his touchdowns and his catch rate, both of which were marginal improvements. Overall, 2017 looked like a disappointing sophomore campaign.

Looking a bit deeper into his season, Boyd actually wasn’t all that bad. For starters, I keep mentioning his “16 game pace”. He only played 10 games last year after sustaining an injury during Week 5. He missed five games before coming back for Week 11 and finishing out the season. Boyd didn’t really flash much during those games back until the last game of the year. On a critical 4th and 17 at the end of the 4th quarter, he caught a miraculous pass from Dalton and took it to the end zone to secure a Bengals’ win. While that play may have allowed Marvin Lewis to stay on staff, it also reaffirmed why Boyd is a useful receiver on this roster.

For Boyd’s lack of targets, he actually saw the field a decent amount. In reviewing his snap counts, he played over 50% in more than half his full games. Before he got hurt in Week 5, he was playing almost 60% of the offensive snaps. Once he returned from his injury, the Bengals phased Boyd back into the offense. During the last six weeks of the season, Boyd only averaged 49.2% of the snaps. He did up that average to 63.2% over the last three weeks of the season once he was fully healthy.

Although it was odd that Boyd played fewer snaps later in the season, there were encouraging signs from his late season performance. He had similar statistical outputs from before his injury and after his injury, even though he got fewer snaps after. The bets sign of all is what Boyd did to round out the year. In his last two games, he had 10 catches for 140 yards and a TD. Those stats won’t blow anyone away, but that’s very solid production for a guy like Boyd.

Next: Tough Schedule for the Bengals

Looking to next year, if Boyd can continue his role in the offense from the end of last season, he should be involved. He likely won’t be a primary option for Andy Dalton – AJ Green, John Ross, Tyler Eifert and the running backs are all vying for targets. However, Boyd occupies a role that nobody else on the Bengals’ roster does as a slot receiver. If he can return to his rookie season production levels and improve his efficiency, he should be an excellent secondary weapon for the Bengals this year.