Yards per Catch and Yards per Rush are NOT the Same Thing, Travis

Travis Hunter's on field performance has been turning heads all season, and he's likely a top 10 pick in the 2025 NFL draft as a result. But this week it was his stats interpretation that was turning heads... back and forth. Here's the clip where Travis says he would have just as many yards as Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty if he had 95 catches (about the same number of carries as Jeanty).

Unfortunately, Travis is comparing apples to orange. The average yards per catch in FBS so far this season is just under 15. At first glance, one could say that Hunters YPC is below average, but you must consider the fact that YPC goes down as catchs per game increases. According to the chart below, Hunter's yards per catch is slightly above average.

Now let's consider Jeanty's performance. On average, running backs are toting the ball 6 yards per rush this season. So right away we see that it's harder to pick up yards on the ground, than through the air. So let's look at the same chart for Ashton Jeanty.

Jeanty's stellar production is not simply do to a higher workload. He is averaging 208 yards per game, which is 52 yards higher than Iowa's Kaleb Johnson - who currently sits at second in yards per game.

So how good is Ashton Jeanty's season? Let's translate this statistically to what a wide receiver would have to do to have a similar season to Jeanty. Let's start with catches per game. Jeanty's 21 rushing attempts per game is 96th percentile in FBS, which would translate to 7.9 catches per game when you look at the wide receiver population this season. Now let's do the same thing for yards per catch. Jeanty's 9.9 yards per carry represents 99th percentile among running backs. That would translate to 25.3 yards per catch, which means a WR would have to average almost 8 catches and 200 yards per game to be having a season that is statistically comparable to Ashton Jeanty's rushing season.