New England Patriots WR Chris Hogan reeled in 4 receptions for 70 yards against the New York Jets and, in doing so, set a new career-high in receiving yards with 461. Hogan recorded 450 yards in 2015, up from 426 receiving yards in 2014. Hogan has five more games to extend his career-best season.
Hogan is on pace to be just shy of 700 yards this season, but it also feels like he hasn’t truly had his breakout game in a Patriots uniform. QB Tom Brady has a great rapport with Hogan, but both quarterback and receiver are battling injuries that greatly affects the deep ball production.
Hogan isn’t the only player with eyes on a new career high.
RB James White also set a new career high in yards from scrimmage against the Jets. White picked up 22 yards and now has 487 yards from scrimmage in 2016, surpassing his 466 yard production in 2015.
RB LeGarrette Blount has 869 rushing yards and 900 yards from scrimmage this season. Blount is on pace for 1,264 rushing yards, far beyond his career-best 1,007 rushing yards as a rookie with the Buccaneers in 2010. Blount is also on pace for 1,309 yards from scrimmage, well beyond Blount’s 1,021 yards from scrimmage in 2010.
Blount’s 2nd best season was his sophomore year when he produced 929 yards from scrimmage. It’s pretty obvious that Blount is in the middle of the most productive season in his career. He needs just 139 rushing yards and 122 yards from scrimmage to set new career highs.
WR Julian Edelman is trailing the production from his excellent stretch from 2013-15, but he finally seems to have shaken off the rust with his foot injury and is back to producing at a high level. He has averaged 11.3 yards per reception over the past three games after the bye week, which is identical to his production in 2015. He was averaging just 8.7 yards per reception before the bye week.
Edelman has averaged 90 yards per game since the bye week; if Edelman can keep up that pace, he will have 1,118 yards from scrimmage in 2016 and will set a new career high.
TE Martellus Bennett needs to average 75.2 yards per game over the rest of the season to set a new career high in receiving yards, which seems unlikely. He only needs 43.8 yards per game to produce his 2nd best season, though, and that seems very attainable, especially if TE Rob Gronkowski misses any time with his back injury.
Bennett just needs three more receiving touchdowns to set a new career high.