Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are half PPR scoring unless otherwise noted.

1,250 Receiving Yards

The leader in receiving yards this season currently sits at 1,250 yards and it’s not even a wide receiver. Travis Kelce is your league leader in receiving yards, and he’s currently sitting 70 yards above the next closest player, DK Metcalf, who leads all wide receivers with 1,180 yards. Kelce’s dominance is incredible at the TE position, where he truly has no equal this season. He has finished the week as the top TE 5 times this year. He has nearly 60 more points than the second highest scoring TE this year, Darren Waller, and could probably not play another snap this year and still easily finish as the TE1 for 2020. You can combine the TE6 and TE7’s points on the year and still not reach Kelce’s 222.16 total points. Kelce is the 6^th highest scoring non-QB on the season, ahead of all but 3 RBs and 2 WRs – all of whom have at least 5 more touchdowns than he does. Kelce has 6 games this year where he’s scored 20+ points, and another 5 of them where he has at least double digit points. This is shaping up to be a top 3 all-time fantasy season for a TE, with 3 full games left to play, he’s got a real shot at beating the 3^rd best season, his own 2018 season where he scored 245.1 points, and he’s on pace to pass Jimmy Graham’s 2^nd place season in 2013 where he scored 260.5. Rob Gronkowski’s top spot could fall if Kelce has a few good games, he has the all-time record of 285.9 points from the 2011 season.

6.3% Difference in Points

The top tier of quarterbacks is as crowded as it’s ever been. There are 5 quarterbacks at the top of the heap with only a 6.3% difference between the QB1, Kyler Murray (336.44) and QB5, Josh Allen (315.34). The other QBs filling out tier 1 are Patrick Mahomes (334.32), Russell Wilson (321.7) and Aaron Rodgers (317.3). This top play has made the season very enjoyable to watch and also means that the MVP race is wide open. Early in the season, it was Wilson’s to lose. Then Kyler took over, but has had a poor 4 game stretch recently where his team went only 1-3. Recently, the talk has been all about Mahomes, but he just threw 3 picks yesterday, leading us to bring Aaron Rodgers into the conversation. Both of those two, by the way, have won the award before. So, what will the rest of the season bring us? Will Josh Allen be able to lead his team to 3 more victories to close the season and enter the conversation? All I know is that it’s very likely to be one of these top QBs, because this is real life, not fantasy football, where a non-QB like Dalvin Cook (averaging 23 points per game) or Derrick Henry (who has just one game finishing in the 20’s and 3 games with 35+ points) is the real MVP.

1,035 Rushing Yards

While we’re talking about end of season awards, let me bring up a name I have not heard mentioned yet. James Robinson for offensive rookie of the year. This is probably a very hard award to win when you are on a 1-win team, but let’s look at the rest of the field. Traditionally a QB would win, but Joe Burrow was injured too soon and Tua Tagovailoa started too late in the year. Justin Herbert was leading the way for a while, but he is only 3-9 this season and has put together his last 3 games with only 3 TDs, 5 INTs and 7 sacks, including that ugly shutout to the Patriots in week 13. Chase Claypool has slowed his torrid TD pace after scoring 8 times between weeks 2 and 11. Jonathan Taylor is getting going too late, Antonio Gibson’s injury eliminated him before he could even reach 1,000 yards from scrimmage and Justin Jefferson is on a sub .500 team and is arguably not even the best WR on his own team. This leaves us with James Robinson, who is not the one left over, but truly the one leading the pack, he’s just been hiding away in Jacksonville. Robinson reached the 1,000 rush yards mark in only 13 games, the fastest that an undrafted free agent rookie has ever gotten there. He’s only the 4^th UDFA rookie to rush for 1,000 yards. He also has 46 receptions for 326 yards and has 9 total touchdowns. He is 4^th in the league in yards from scrimmage and a serious candidate to be the first ever UDFA to win offensive rookie of the year honors.

7 Rookie QBs with Starts in 2020

Continuing the rookie discussion, this season is the fifth in a row where at least 6 rookie QBs have found themselves starting a game. Jalen Hurts’ start, and win, in Philly over the Saints marks him as the 7^th rookie this year to start a game. Hurts’ win against New Orleans was very impressive for a few reasons, mainly because the lowly Eagles took down the top seed in the NFC, but also because both Hurts and Miles Sanders rushed for over 100 yards, something that nobody has done all season against the Saints (or even in their last 50 games). Overall, the 2020 QB class has been a mixed bag at best. With Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa only playing about half a season each, Jalen Hurts getting a start very late in the year and Justin Herbert standing out among the group, only to go 3-9, it’s no wonder we’ve forgotten some of the other rookie QBs. Want to guess? I’ll give you a moment…

0 Offensive Points from the 1^st Place Football Team

What some might describe as “truly 2020” I might just chalk up as being purely NFL Least this season. The Washington “Not Sure If We’re A” Football Team scored exactly zero points with their offense on the field on Sunday while assuming sole possession of first place in their division. Washington managed to kick 3 field goals and scored two defensive touchdowns in their 25-15 victory over the reigning NFC champs, the San Francisco 49ers. The Football Team (must I capitalize them both?) managed a pitiful 108 yards passing between Alex Smith and Dwayne Haskins combined, and only 98 rushing yards, thanks in part to Haskins’ 4 carries for -12 yards which brought them back below the century mark. In a game that set NFL football back 10 years, the fantasy scoring for Washington was led first by their D/ST, then by their kicker, Nick Mullens. At least the 49ers had a QB and WR in double digits to avoid further embarrassment in this column.