Smashing the lies being told about Noah Fant through analytics

Contested catch/usage at Iowa

How does one come away from a college career with 78 catches and only four contested catches?

There’s really no contest.

I think it’s funny that we’re caught up about the fact that Fant had only four contested catches and completely blowing by the 19 touchdowns he caught among his 78 receptions.

Roughly 25 percent of the time, if Fant caught the ball it was for a touchdown.

I want you to watch this video of all of Fant’s touchdown catches — just touchdown catches — while he was at Iowa, and see if you can find something in common with many of them.

Finished?

What’s the one thing many of those touchdown grabs have in common? Fant is wide-freaking-open.

How does that happen? This is a guy who is much savvier than he’s given credit as a route runner. His release off the line of scrimmage is superb, and when he gets a full head of steam it seems like defensive backs constantly forget this is a player with elite speed.

I charted three plays in one game against Iowa State in 2017 that would have been touchdowns additionally for Fant if the pass was on target.

Think about that. That’s just from one game.

Iowa utilized Fant well, but as much as I love Nate Stanley, he didn’t allow us to consistently see the best of Fant.

Contested catch situations only arise if guys are constantly blanketed in coverage. Fant was routinely wide open, especially on longer developing routes. His speed is just too much for receivers.

I’m not necessarily fighting data with data here in this post. I’m not trying to re-write PFF’s stats but I wanted to show you all what Fant is doing on tape, and you can see for yourself that some of these ‘issues’ are being vastly overblown.