Much has been made about Mike Wallace being a one trick pony, but many of his receptions are of the short or intermediate variety.

Wallace's numbers diminished from 2011 to 2012. This is mostly attributed to Todd Haley's system forcing Wallace to run shorter, quicker routes so Ben Roethlisberger could get rid of the ball quicker to avoid being hit.

In 2011, he had 75 receptions for 1219 yards, 16.3 yards per reception and 8 touchdowns.

In 2012, he had 64 receptions for 838 yards, 13.1 yards per reception and 8 touchdowns.

First, let's look at Wallace's receptions by direction for 2011 courtesy of Pro Football Focus.



Wallace actually did a good bit of damage on short throws, catching 49 of his 75 receptions on throws of 9 yards or shorter. Two of his eight touchdowns were on short throws and he gained 514 yards on short passes. Wallace was targetted 65 times on short throws, catching 75.4% of short passes he was targetted on. He only dropped one short pass.

On throws of 10-19 yards, what we would call intermediate throws, Wallace had 16 receptions for 227 yards and 1 TD. He dropped 2 passes. He was targetted 30 times, catching only 53% of the intermediate passes he was targetted on.

On deep throws, Wallace had 10 catches for 478 yards and 5 TDs, dropping two deep passes down the middle. He was targetted 27 times and caught 37% of deep passes.

Fast forward to 2012.



On short throws, Wallace caught 43 passes for 367 yards and 2 TDs. Wallace was targetted 54 times on short throws. He caught 80% if them, actually appearing to improve in the short game.

On intermediate throws, Wallace caught 15 passes for 208 yards and 2 TDs. He was targetted 31 times, catching 48.4% of intermediate passes.

On deep throws, he had 6 catches for 263 yards and 4 TDs. He was targetted 31 times on deep throws, more than 2012, but only caught 19.4% of these.

One thing to note here is that Wallace did not catch any of the 8 deep targets he got down the left sideline.

Based on these numbers, it actually appears as if the Steelers targetted Wallace just as much on deep and intermediate throws in 2012, he simply just caught less of them. It also appears as if Wallace did more of his damage down the middle of the field than one would think. Wallace had 34 catches for 420 yards and 3 touchdowns down the middle of the field.

It will be interesting to see how the Dolphins use Wallace. Certainly he'll run some go routes and double moves, as well as posts to attack the deep secondary. But don't be surprised if they also try to hit him on some quick passes when the corner is playing off and ask him to use his speed and quickness to gain some yards after the catch.

Speaking of YAC, in 2011 Wallace had 505 yards after the catch. In 2012, he only had 279.

It may have still been the system that caused Wallace's diminished production, but they seemed to target him just as much as go deep to him just as much in 2012 as they did in 2011.

He simply didn't produce as much.

Let's hope we got the Mike Wallace of 2011.

They do the wr. screen alot.....Also he missed training camp with a contract dispute. going into a new system and a disgruntled coaching staff.

Time to throw all the stats out the window. There is no more bidding on him. We paid a ton and signed him. One trick pony , fastest guy in the league , contract dispute , over paid or a super star it does not matter now. What matters is that he lives up to the hype on Sundays and does not start to pout when things go badly.

Exactly how I feel... They went after him for a reason, and you dont get that type of contract in the NFL for only running fast. The guy was able to put together back to back 1100+...

I look at rec / trgts and yards.. Only down number for him is yards, he still had as many balls thrown to him and maintained the reception %, he simply was not running as many deep routes.

He had more deep balls thrown to him this past season.

lol yeah Rich why put up stats on a Miami player? What do you think this is a fan site where you discuss players or something?

The information I posted is uselass and flawed. Sorry guys.

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Hopefully Wallace's best days are ahead of him. We gave this guy a huge contract. While I still maintain that Wallace is a bit of a one trick pony, I think he has the potential to expand his arsenal. I think he showed a bit of that this season despite sitting out during training camp. But at the end of the day all we really need this guy to do is spread out the defense and once or twice a game blow the top off of it for a big play.

First of all hello rich, this is your buddy Greg, how are things going, now second of all Wallace may be a one trick pony, but he has more TDs than any Wr on the dolphin team, this would be a dream to me if the dolphind drafted wheaton, swope and rogers, then you can say bye bye to hartline and bess.

It looks like we've got receivers for every situation now. Only time will tell how it translates to the field but Wallace is a guy that seems to know how to do what we lacked, get open in the endzone. From what I have seen from Wallace he will beat u deep but he also isn't afraid to run routes.

Are you saying with a draft like that you think Hartline and Bess will be cut before this season?

Hartline stands no chance of being cut for 2 yrs, since it will cost more to cut him than to keep him. Bess is on the bubble, especially if Mathews steps it up..

I highly doubt Miami drafts a Wr this year. If they do it will be late once again. They did their WR shopping in FA.

Where is all of this speculation about Bess being cut coming from???

I understand Gibson could work the slot, but is that really why we got him?

I think Bess is still arguably the 2nd or 3rd best receiver on our team. The numbers he's put up over the past several years would show that.

But in my opinion I wouldn't even consider moving Bess unless we were able to snag someone better in the draft, something that won't be easy to do.

Yeah best is the second slowest we on the team with zero TDs, I like Bess just as much as the next fan, but its time to get faster, if not Austin in the 1st, Wheaton or Swope will do just as good