Definition of aDOT

What does the term "aDOT" mean in the world of football? Why is the "aDOT" statistic important?

First off - aDOT stands for:

Average
Depth
Of
Target

To find a player's aDOT, take their air yards and divide it by their total number of targets. *air yards refers to how far downfield the player was targeted by the quarterback*

So, let's say that Tyreek Hill had a total of 90 air yards in a game and was targeted 6 times. This would give Tyreek a total aDOT of 15.0. This means that, on average, the ball was thrown to Tyreek when he was 15 yards PAST the line of scrimmage. *note: the number of receptions that Tyreek has is irrelevant in this case - only targets matter*

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Why does aDOT matter?

The higher the aDOT, the more likely that a player will be able to bust out big plays for touchdowns.

If a player has an aDOT of 5, this means that the quarterback is mainly targeting them on short passes, making it unlikely that they will have too many big plays.

A player like Tyreek Hill, on the other hand, will have a much higher aDOT, as he is being targeted for big plays downfield much more often.