Stats Say: Chiefs' Dwayne Bowe Is The Man

When I think of Dwayne Bowe on the field for the Kansas City Chiefs, I think of him running that crossing route against the Seattle Seahawks in 2010 and other in routes that he seems to be so good at it. Looking at the stats confirms this: Bowe is really good at those plays.

Pro Football Focus ran the numbers on receivers running in routes and Bowe was atop the list.

By any measure, the top receiver last season on in routes was Dwayne Bowe of the Kansas City Chiefs who collected all nine targeted passes on in routes for 179 yards. While Bowe may be guilty of inconsistent hands at times (27 drops across the last three seasons), it's not due to him being being intimidated about going across the middle. Had he gained one more yard on an in route last season he would have averaged exactly 20 yards per reception, nearly a full five yards per target clear of the man in second place Antonio Brown.

So that's his sweet spot. Tyler Palko actually completed the highest percentage of these passes for the Chiefs last season -- 5-of-6. Matt Cassel completed 5-of-9 of these.

Here's the takeaway from all this:

Bowe very much carried the load for the Kansas City passing game last season; the Chiefs need far more from their quarterbacks and returning receivers in 2012.

That pretty much says it all right there.