Noah Brown

172 yards & 153 yards in back-to-back weeks for Houston — his only two career 100-yard games.

In back-to-back weeks in 2023, Brown went off for 153 yards (TB) and 172 yards (CIN) with C.J. Stroud throwing him the ball in Houston. Those are the only two 100-yard games of his career — across 74 regular-season games.

That 172-yard performance on 7 catches is the high-water mark: 24.6 yards per reception, with several deep shots that turned into chunk plays. Then injuries took him out of the lineup for stretches the rest of that season.

Why it matters. Back-to-back 100-yard games are rare for any WR; for a career depth receiver with only 195 career targets at the time, it shows that Brown's ceiling is real — when he's given targets and running deep, he can put up elite single-game numbers.

In 2023, Brown joined Tyreek Hill, Justin Jefferson, and CeeDee Lamb as the only 4 WRs with 150+ yards in back-to-back regular-season weeks — but with 5x fewer career targets.

*Career targets through 2023 regular season (player_stats_weekly, weeks ≤ 18).

In weeks 9-10 of 2023, Brown (195 career targets) put up the same back-to-back 150+ yard feat as three of the most-targeted WRs of the era. Hill had 1,049 career targets by that point; Jefferson and Lamb each had 568-576. Brown had fewer than one-fifth of their career target volume, yet matched their peak two-week output.

Why it matters. The contrast quantifies how outlier those two weeks were: Brown briefly operated at the efficiency of elite pass-catchers despite almost never being the primary option in any offense.

When Brown left Dallas, his yards-per-target jumped 30% — not from catching more balls, but from running deeper routes.

Leaving Dallas didn't change how often Brown caught the ball — his catch rate barely moved (58.6% → 60.3%). What changed was the depth of his routes.

His average air yards per completed catch jumped from 8.5 yards in Dallas to 10.8 yards post-Dallas, a 27% increase. Combined with a steady catch rate, that drove a 30% increase in yards-per-target (7.0 → 9.1).

In Dallas, Brown ran shorter, complementary routes behind Cooper/Lamb. In Houston and Washington, he was deployed as an outside vertical threat — a different player despite the same catch rate.

Why it matters. This shows Brown's Dallas stats understated his upside: the ceiling was always about route depth, not volume. Scheming him shorter kept the yards-per-target low.

79 career games, 161 catches, 2,141 yards — and 6 TDs. A surprisingly low TD count for a 6'2", 225 WR.

For a possession-style outside WR with red-zone size (6'2", 225), the 6 career receiving TDs across 74 regular-season games is the strangest stat on his ledger. Among WRs who are 6'2"+ and 220+ lbs with at least 60 career games since 2017, Brown's 0.08 TDs per game is second-lowest — 74% below the group average of 0.32 TDs/game.

His 3-TD 2022 season is his career high — the only year he scored more than once. The Cowboys never used him in the red zone despite his size: in 6 Dallas seasons, he had exactly 1 receiving TD.

Why it matters. A big-bodied WR who rarely scores is either being mis-schemed or is a volume accumulator without end-zone usage — Brown's history suggests the former: he was rarely the primary option in Dallas's crowded WR room.

2 of Brown's 6 career TDs traveled 50+ yards — a rate (33%) that puts him in the top 16 of 465 WRs since 2017.

The league average for 50+-yard TD plays among WRs with 4+ career TDs since 2017 is 7.5%. Brown's rate is 33% — one of only 16 WRs out of 465 (with at least 4 TD catches since 2017) to have 30%+ of their scores go for 50+ yards.

The company: DeSean Jackson (67%), Rashid Shaheed (50%), Henry Ruggs (50%), and 12 others. Brown's low TD total (6) is partly explained by the type of TD he catches — he tends to score when he gets open deep, not in the red zone.

In 74 regular-season games, Brown had 36 red-zone targets but only 4 red-zone TDs (11% conversion) — yet somehow has 2 go-route touchdowns from his own half of the field.

Why it matters. Brown's TD profile is the inverse of most big WRs: he under-delivers in the red zone but occasionally turns a deep target into a 50-yard score, which is exactly the kind of stat that makes him a fantasy sleeper when healthy.