What is the definition of yard?

Answer 1

Receiving yards are the amount of yards past the line of scrimmage or behind the line of scrimmage a player gets after catching a pass before they are tackled or knocked out of bounds. Example1: Team A has possession of the ball at Team A's 20 yard line. A player from Team A catches a pass from the quarterback and is tackled/knocked out of bounds at Team A's 36 yard line. The player that caught the pass is credited with 16 receiving yards and the quarterback is credited with 16 passing yards.

Example 2: Team A has possession of the ball at Team A's 20 yard line. A player catches a pass and is tackled/knocked out of bounds at Team A's 17 yard line. The player that caught the pass is credited with -3 receiving yards and the quarterback is credited with -3 passing yards.