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Aug 22, 2025 3:55 AM EDT
While deep passes in which receivers just beat up on opposing defenders are among the most thrilling plays at any level of football, those plays are generally few and far between. The receivers who mean the most to their teams are the ones who have learned over their careers to become true route technicians, and who use their specific physical attributes to own the route concepts that are best for their skill sets.
Which brings us to today’s question in our series highlighting the NFL’s best players in multiple situations. We’ve already detailed the league’s best quarterbacks in all kinds of situations (which turned into the Lamar Jackson show), and the league’s best running backs in every common blocking scheme, and it’s time to give some love to the pass-catchers who are the best at all the routes that the NFL uses to slice and dice defenses.
More than you might expect, it’s not the league’s most prominent receivers who are the most prolific in specific routes; those guys are generally really good at just about everything, so they get more opportunities across the board. While there are several of those top-tier guys in the “Runners-Up” categories, here are the receivers who have the most distinct ownership of the league’s most prevalent routes.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions. Whenever applicable, all metrics include postseason performances).
Go Route: Quentin Johnston, Los Angeles Chargers
Nov 10, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston (1) celebrates in the end zone after a touchdown in the second half against the Tennessee Titans at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Source: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Since the Chargers selected him with the 22nd overall pick in the 2023 draft out of TCU, Quentin Johnston has alternated between (occasionally) thrilling people with his big-play abilities, and (mostly) frustrating those same people with a rabid inconsistency that doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon. Johnston has tools to the extreme, but when you create unnecessary route confusion and you can’t hold onto the ball (nine drops in his NFL career), people will tend to remember such things.
However, Johnson did lap the field in one category — the ability to make the most out of straight up vertical go routes. Running in a straight line is not a problem for Johnston, and though he wasn’t always on time and on target with it, when he was, he dominated. Johnston caught five go balls on a league-high 14 targets last season for 198 yards, 145 air yards, and three touchdowns.
2025 marks Johnston’s third NFL season, and this is the one in which we’d all like to see him start to get a grip on the nuances of the position. The go routes are a nice way to get started.
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Runners-up: Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings/Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals
Slant Route: Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals
Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins catches a touchdown pass against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Nov. 17, 2024.
Source: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
The slant route has been a part of football since Moses wore short pants, and it’s still an important part of modern offenses — especially in the red zone, when the openings are compressed and you need a big target to release into any coverage voids. Last season, Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals was as automatic with slants as any receiver was with any route, specifically when it was Touchdown Time.
In 2024, Higgins caught 16 slants on 19 targets for 169 yards. Not huge numbers, but the point here is the league-leading four touchdowns Higgins caught on those slants.
Higgins was targeted six times on slants inside the opposing 20-yard line last season, and given the current state of the Bengals’ defense, they might want to triple or quadruple that number in 2025, because this team is going to have to score touchdowns on every drive if they want to win anything.
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Runners-up:Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Terry McLaurin, Washington Commanders
Dig Route: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown
Source: Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
There were very few NFL passing games that worked the middle of the field and more frequently than the Detroit Lions in the 2024 season. When making throws charted to the middle of the field last season, Jared Goff completed 79 of 101 passes for 960 yards, five touchdowns, six interceptions, and a passer rating of 98.0.
So, that middle of the field passing game was frequent, albeit not always efficient. One way in which it was frequently efficient was when Goff was throwing dig routes, in which his receiver was tasked to break in sharply at about 15 yards. The primary reason for that was receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who used his speed, route acumen, and toughness to become the NFL’s finest purveyor of dig routes in the 2024 season. It takes a lot of guts to break over the middle knowing full well that your chances of getting lit up are increasing, but toughness has never been a St. Brown issue. Last season, St. Brown led the league with 25 catches on dig routes on 29 targets for 389 yards, 300 air yards, and one touchdown.
It’s yet another example of the fact that the Lions’ passing game doesn’t work if Amon-Ra St. Brown isn’t in the middle of it, figuratively and literally.
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Runners-up: Terry McLaurin, Washington Commanders/Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals
Post Route: Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins
Tyreek Hill of the Miami Dolphins
Source: © Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
Everybody knows that Tyreek Hill is probably the fastest receiver in the NFL, and he has been for a good long time. But what gets undersold in Hill’s oeuvre is how well he uses that speed to leverage cornerbacks, force them into coverage situations they don’t want to be in, and then, Hill’s off to the races after the route bend. It’s why Hill was the NFL’s most prolific receiver in 2024 on post patterns, when he was tasked to go vertical at the snap, and then bend that into the intermediate or deep post over the middle.
Hill caught 14 post pattern passes on 21 targets for 277 yards, 228 air yards, and no touchdowns. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was pretty prolific with post patterns himself, attempting post throws on 27 attempts last season — second-most in the NFL behind C.J. Stroud of the Houston Texans, and completing 16 for 366 yards.
So, when the Dolphins wanted a deep post, they turned to their best deep receiver. Makes sense.
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Runners-up: Nico Collins, Houston Texans/Justin Jefferson, Minnesota Vikings
Fade Route: Davante Adams, Los Angeles Rams
New York Jets WR Davante Adams celebrates a touchdown.
Source: Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The goal-line fade ball is one of the most difficult plays in sports to execute consistently. First, your quarterback has to have the touch, timing, and arc on the ball to throw the fade correctly — it’s more of a perfect pitching wedge onto the green than breaking out the driver for “grip it and rip it” action. Then, your receiver has to be able to time his route up with the quarterback’s velocity and timing, knowing just when to separate from the defender without drawing a penalty.
Receivers who are great on fade routes, especially on back-shoulder fades when there’s a “no-look” element to the play, tend to be technicians of the highest order. So, it should come as no surprise that in 2024, Davante Adams of the New York Jets was the NFL’s best at it. Last season, in an offense that generally couldn’t bust a grape, Adams teamed up with Aaron Rodgers for nine fade receptions on 15 targets for 154 yards, 128 air yards, and a league-high four touchdowns. That last metric is crucial, because touchdowns are more the point of fade balls than anything else.
Now, Adams finds himself with the Los Angeles Rams, which could bode well for his fade future, as Matthew Stafford (if healthy) has all the arm talent required to make such passes sing.
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Runners-up: Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos/Malik Nabers, New York Giants
Out Route: Drake London, Atlanta Falcons
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Drake London (5) catches a touchdown pass in front of Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Darius Slay Jr. (2) during the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field - Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Source: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
The 2024 Falcons didn’t lead the NFL in much when it came to the passing game; that was the negative outcome of waiting too long for Kirk Cousins to prove himself as past his prime as opposed to getting rookie Michael Penix Jr. out there earlier than they did. But one way in which no other NFL team could touch the Falcons, no matter who was the quarterback, was in the design and implementation of the quick out route, in which the receiver breaks sharply to the sideline after setting the defender up to think it’s going vertical at first.
When either Cousins or Penix threw out routes to receiver Drake London (who had a sneaky-good 100-catch, 1,271-yard, nine-touchdown season that everybody overlooked while arguing about whether Kyle Pitts will ever be elite), they lapped the field. London caught a league-high 29 out routes on a league-high 38 targets for a league-high 299 yards, and two touchdowns.
Only rookie Xavier Worthy of the Kansas City Chiefs had more touchdowns on out routes than London, and given the fact that there was more juice on the out route passes from Penix than there was from Cousins, who’s to say the numbers won’t be even better this season?
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Runners-up: Xavier Worthy, Kansas City Chiefs/Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals
Drag Route: Khalil Shakir, Buffalo Bills
Baltimore Ravens Marlon Humphrey talks referees
Source: © Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Drag routes are hardly sexy, but they’re important. When you have a third-and-short play, and you’re either looking to convert to a first down, or (in today’s NFL) set yourself up for a favorable fourth-down situation, there are few better ways to get a handful of yards consistently than the route which has the receiver going over or under short coverage, across the field, and finding an opening.
Last season, the king of the drag route was also one of the best slot receivers overall — Khalil Shakir of the Buffalo Bills. One of the primary ways Shakir beat up defenses as an inside receiver, especially with the use of pre-snap motion to set up leverage advantages, was to run to a spot, wait for the snap, and drag his way to the other side of the field for positive gains. In the 2024 season, Shakir did that a league-high 17 times on 19 targets for 169 yards, and a touchdown.
Shakir was a mainstay when it came to extending drives last season, and his work on drag routes was a key part of the equation.
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Runners-up: Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders/D.K. Metcalf, Pittsburgh Steelers
Seam Route: Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens
Source: © Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images
Mark Andrews has become one of the NFL’s most prolific tight ends since the Ravens selected him in the third round of the 2018 draft out of Oklahoma, so it’s a shame that what most people will remember about him are the multipole miscues he put forth in Baltimore’s 27-25 divisional round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Andrews couldn’t hold onto the ball at some really crucial times, and that took the discussion back to why Lamar Jackson’s stuff doesn’t work in the playoffs.
It’s not entirely fair to make Andrews or Lamar the goat; the Ravens might not have made it as far as they did without Andrews’ 62 catches for 761 yards and 11 touchdowns last season. And through he wasn’t exactly a virtuoso with seam routes in the Chiefs game, few were better at rolling up either seam on vertical routes, especially in the red zone.
That’s where Andrews set himself apart, with six catches on seven targets for 64 yards and four touchdowns. When Andrews got in position to beat defenders vertically in short spaces, he was the best tight end in the game… which should be remembered as much as what he didn’t do in one postseason game.
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Runners-up: Cooper Kupp, Seattle Seahawks/Mack Hollins, New England Patriots
Over Route: Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos
Source: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
The Denver Broncos selected Courtland Sutton in the second round of the 2018 draft out of SMU, and even with a quarterback carousel that had alternated between league-average and pitiful ever since, Sutton has flashed the tools to be a No. 1 receiver all along. With Sean Payton as his offensive shot-caller and Bo Nix as his quarterback in 2024, Sutton put forth his best season to date, with 86 catches on 146 targets for 1,156 yards, and eight touchdowns.
Sutton was especially devastating on intermediate and deep over routes, where the receiver drifts over the seams to find openings on the other side of the field. In 2024, Sutton used his size and speed to bag 14 over and deep cross catches in 22 targets for 240 yards, 166 air yards, and two touchdowns.
Nix has been a great deep over thrower since his college days, so we should expect as much or more of this in 2025 and beyond.
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Runners-Up: Ladd McConkey, Los Angeles Chargers/Amon-Ra St. Brown, Detroit Lions
About the Author
Doug Farrar
NFL writer, analyst