Doug Baldwin was released by the Seahawks yesterday due to multiple injuries that leaves his career in doubt. It is not expected that he will ever play in the NFL again, and if this truly is the end, it was a special run for a unique player.

Baldwin will be remembered as a Seahawks great, one of the engines of the best era in Seattle’s history.  He was an undrafted free agent out of Stanford, and while he wasn’t quite Rod Smith, Wes Welker, or Drew Pearson, he can make a reasonable case as being one of the top 10 or so wide receivers to get overlooked in the draft.

But when we look back on his career, his statistics won’t tell much of a story.  With just 6,563 career receiving yards, he will get lost with the many of talented wide receivers in pro football history.  Even in the postseason, Baldwin’s 734 yards and 6 touchdowns in 13 games won’t quite stand out.

He was not a Hall of Fame caliber receiver, and he’s probably short of the Hall of Very Good, too.  But it’s worth noting that while he did get to spend most of his career with a great quarterback, he also was on a run-first team for all of his career.  Baldwin’s Seahawks passed just 88% as often as the rest of the league over the course of his career.  Among the top 200 players in receiving yards in league history, he played on the 4th-most run-heavy teams.

I looked at each of the top 200 leaders in receiving yards in pro football history. For each player, I noted how often his team passed in each season of his career relative to league average (so if your team passed 450 times when league average was 500 times, you get a pass ratio of 90%). Then, I calculated career grades for each receiver, weighted by his number of receiving yards in each year (so his best seasons get higher weights).

By this methodology, Balwin’s teams had a pass ratio of just 87.9%. The full list below.

What stands out to you?