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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.

37+ Fantasy Points

A trio of quarterbacks leads the NFL in fantasy points for week 15. At the top of the group is Eagles rookie Jalen Hurts, who had his first start last week after seeing a handful of snaps in almost every game this season. Hurts’ debut was not bad, he had over 100 yards passing and the Eagles upset the Saints, but this week showed that he’s a legit QB. Hurts threw for 338 yards with 3 TDs, adding 63 yards and another TD on the ground for a total of 37.82 fantasy points. Zero turnovers, despite the loss, is probably the most important stat to the coach, and it’s clear that this job is about to be his to lose, and Wentz might be looking for a new home next year. Meanwhile, Josh Allen and Ryan Tannehill both eclipsed 37 fantasy points while leading their teams to 48 and 46 points respectively. Between them, they threw for 632 yards, 5 TDs, and ran for 4 touchdowns – two apiece. Both Tannehill and Allen are probably on lots of teams that are going to the finals, but if you managed to start Hurts and are going to the finals, well, just exactly how do you get around with those giant brass balls of yours?

1106 Days

There were three wide receivers of note that scored their first touchdown in a year or more on Sunday, but none of them had a gap like Dez Bryant, who scored for the Ravens. It was his first touchdown in 1,106 days, more than 3 years ago on December 10^th, 2017 – which was a 50-yard strike from Dak Prescott. Bryant was joined by fellow veteran WRs Antonio Brown (462 days) and Larry Fitzgerald (364 days – ok ok not technically a year). Both of whom caught touchdowns last year and today from the same QB, though Brown (and Brady) have the distinction of both moving to a new team. Honorable mentions go to Jake Kumerow (426 days) and Marcus Mariota – 445 days since his last passing TD and 772 days since his last rushing score. While we’re at it, might as well congratulate those who have never scored before - Lil’Jordan Humphrey (NO), Quez Watkins (PHI), Darrynton Evans (TEN), and Jalen Hurts (PHI) getting his first rushing TD, the only way the bookies count a real TD scored.

1,679 Rushing Yards

Derrick Henry, or El Tractorcito if you’ll help me propagate his fantastic nickname a little bit, is absolutely crushing everyone in rushing yards this year. He’s averaging 120 yards per game (ok, 119.9, but this is about gushing here…) and only needs to average a bit over 160 yards the last 2 games in order to reach the fabled 2,000-yard season. Through 14 games this year, he’s already passed his total from last year where he led the league with 1,540 yards in 15 games. Henry has nearly doubled up the 10^th highest rushing total on the year, Jonathan Taylor’s 842 yards. Henry’s only real competition at this point is Dalvin Cook, with 1,484 rushing yards. Cook actually leads the league in yards from scrimmage with 1,833, on pace for 2,256 total yards on the season. Cook has now cracked 300 points on the season, Henry is third with 278 and there’s a huge gap between him and 4^th place. Both Cook and Henry have gone over 300 touches for two years in a row, so be careful drafting next year

27 Passing Touchdowns

Justin Herbert tied the rookie passing touchdowns record this past Thursday, adding two more to his season total and tying Baker Mayfield’s record of 27 he set in 2018, and hasn’t yet matched in his career. Herbert still has two games left in the season in order to assume the mantle all on his own, though it should be noted that Mayfield started only 13 games in 2018, matching Herbert’s total so far this year. Herbert’s OT win over the Raiders probably put him back firmly in the lead for offensive rookie of the year, especially with the one-yard rushing touchdown to seal the game at the end of overtime, and despite Anthony Lynn’s apparent attempts to get his quarterback killed. Herbert is truly putting together an impressive rookie year, especially when one takes into account that the plan was not for him to start much, if at all this year. He has a 27:10 TD to INT ratio, something that QBs like Kyler Murray, Jared Goff, and Matt Ryan cannot boast. His 4 rushing TDs is also something that Mayfield could not match in his rookie year – he did not find the end zone on his own until his second season.

88 Total Rushing Yards

Who says you need a running game to be balanced or have success in this league? On Sunday, the Buccaneers and Falcons combined for a whopping 88 rushing yards between the two teams. Leonard Fournette led the way with a blistering 49 yards (and 2 scores, giving him a new fantasy day in the end), and 3 players wound up with negative rushing totals on the game, keeping us below 90. Brian Hill really helped that along, with 5 attempts for -2 yards. He added 2 catches for 9 yards, meaning he averaged exactly 1 yard per touch on the day. So, what did this lack of a rushing attack mean for the game as a whole? Well, the game blew the Vegas total out of the water, with 58 total points – under bettors were counting their winnings after a whopping 17 points in the first half. 22 teams passed the 88-yard mark and 5 players did it all on their own. In fact, those 5 all went over 120 rushing yards, leaving this game in the dust.

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.

6 Receptions

Sunday in Seattle, Derrick Henry had a career-high 6 receptions, his previous high-water mark was only 4 receptions. He now has 9 catches in two games this year – his career-high in a season are 19 catches in 2020.  Perhaps, however, I am burying the lead, much like Henry buried the Seahawks defense in the second half of the game. Henry finished yesterday’s game with an absolutely gaudy (albeit overtime aided) stat line. 35 carries for 182 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns, 6 receptions on 6 targets for 55 receiving yards. This gave Henry a final fantasy total of 44.7 points, a single-game total that’s nearly 10 points higher than any other player in the NFL this season. Congrats on the win, everybody who has Derrick Henry on their team. Henry holds the lead in fantasy points among all non-QB players, and also leads the league in rushing yards, carries, rushing TDs, and touches. He’s picked right up on the pace he had last season and even has expanded on his receiving game, making it possible for him to be the #1 RB in all of fantasy football this year, even with a healthy Christian McCaffrey around.

2.01 Christian McCaffreys

Or would it be McCafferies? It’s not important. Just geeking out on Henry’s amazing 44.7-point performance, which just more than twice as many points as the second-best RB of the week, Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey does lead the league in yards from scrimmage with 324 already (170 rushing, 154 receiving) – only one other RB, Kenyan Drake, has over 100 receiving yards through two games. Among other players who scored nearly half as many points as Derrick Henry were Tony Pollard, Cordarrelle Patterson, and J.D. McKissic – none of whom are rostered in our drinkfive.com league. Now, this is mostly me calling out our league, since both Pollard (75% owned) and McKissic (58% owned) should really be rostered. Cordarrelle Patterson was definitely a surprise to fantasy players this week, finishing with 21.4 fantasy points and scoring both on the ground and through the air, the first time he’s done that since his rookie season in 2013.

50.84 Fantasy Points

Through two weeks, the QB5 on the season is Daniel Jones, and he’s still only owned in 50% of Fleaflicker leagues. Jones is third in rushing yards among QBs, has 2 rushing scores, and perhaps most importantly, has just one fumble and zero interceptions on the season. Jones is taking clear steps forward in improving his game, at least as far as fantasy football goes. I suppose that fans of the actual New York Football Giants might have differing opinions. Elsewhere at the QB position, Derek Carr and Kirk Cousins both find themselves in the top 10 of fantasy points, outscoring guys who were drafted way ahead of them like Josh Allen, Dak Prescott, and Ryan Tannehill. As of the time I’m writing this, Aaron Rodgers hasn’t played in his Week 2 game yet, so it’s not really fair to pile on to his 3.32 point performance to open the season (though to be fair to me, that’s a really small target to try and pile on to).

4 Receiving Touchdowns

Rob Gronkowski is the early league leader in receiving touchdowns, nabbing two in each of his first two games. He’s also got 12 receptions through those two games, and he’s never finished a season above 5.6 receptions per game. It’s hard to say that this is a renaissance for Gronk, since nearly everyone expects his production to fall off at some point due to all the wear and tear he’s had through the years. I will, however, keep rolling him out at TE until he shows me that he’s going to slow down. Currently, he’s the TE2, but only behind Travis Kelce by 0.1 points, making them essentially both TE1’s on the year. They are way ahead of Darren Waller’s impressive 30.5 points on the year, who is in turn way ahead of the rest of the pack, which is in the low 20’s (pending T.J. Hockenson’s performance tonight).

12 Kickers with Double-digit Points

I avoided them last week, but you can’t dodge a kicker forever, so let’s see how they’re doing. This week was excellent for kickers, with a cool dozen players scoring 10 points or more, so great news, right? Surely, you started one of those kickers. Well, maybe not. In our drinkfive.com league, only 3 of those 12 kickers were rostered for last weeks’ games. 7 of those kickers were owned in 12% of Fleaflicker leagues or less, proving once again that this is probably the hardest position to predict on a week-to-week basis. Week 2’s leader, Graham Gano, is a name that has been around forever, yet he is on only 12% of teams, while going a perfect 5/5 on FGs and 2/2 on XPs for 23.2 total fantasy points. Remember folks, don’t just go for the guys who have big names, go for the guys who are on teams that cannot score touchdowns! Like Gano or the K3 on the week, Nick Folk of the Patriots. Of course, Folk missed an extra point, so his job is likely in jeopardy with a coach like Belichick.

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.

 0-6 Record in Their First Start

Trey Lance is the sixth rookie QB to make his first start this season, and in those games, all 6 rookie QBs have posted losses. Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Zach Wilson, Mac Jones, Davis Mills, and Trey Lance are the six rookies. Overall, those rookies only have 5 total wins, with Fields leading the way with two, Wilson with just one win last week in OT over the Titans. Mac Jones also has two victories this year, but interestingly enough, his opponent in both of those wins were also rookie QBs. Of this week’s performers, even though Davis Mills did not win, he was by far the best fantasy rookie QB of the week. Mills threw for 312 yards and 3 TDs for 24.68 fantasy points, good for QB5 on the week (and Mills is only owned in 21% of Fleaflicker leagues). His 141.7 QB rating was the second-best on the week, behind only the GOAT himself, Tom Brady – who posted his 9^th career game with 5+ passing TDs (and second of the season).

6 QBs in Tier 1

This season, it’s quite crowded at the top of the QB list. There are 6 QBs that I would consider all in the same playing tier, as they are all within less than a 10%-point difference of each other. On top is Patrick Mahomes, with a surprising 2-3 record, has a league-leading 16 passing TDs, and still leads the league in fantasy points with 136.9 (just edging out Tom Brady’s 136.28). The only other QB with a losing record, Jalen Hurts, is just 11.7 points behind the leader. Of the top 6, Hurts actually has the highest floor – his worst game clocks in at 21.80 points against the 49ers in Week 2. Take that, Kyler Murray, who could only post 13.66 this week against them. Perhaps in all of this I have not given enough credit to the best performer of the week, and the only QB to break the 40-point barrier this season, Justin Herbert. Herbert led his team to an astonishing 47 points, even if they weren’t trying to score a TD on that very last drive.

153 Yards from Scrimmage per Game

While the top of the QB list may be crowded, there is only one name atop the RB list, and that’s King Henry himself. Derrick Henry quietly had 130 rushing yards this week, actually lowering his season average for yards from scrimmage – probably because this is the first game this season that he was not targeted in the passing game. In every other game this year, he has at least two receptions. I suppose that his participation in the passing game wasn’t necessary since the Titans were easily handling the Jaguars, handing them their 20^th consecutive loss. Those of you with Henry on your team will just have to settle for the 3 TDs and 31 total points that he gave you. Henry is still on pace to break the single-season yardage record, though at this pace he will definitely need that 17^th game to do so. Henry definitely deserves his own tier when looking at the rankings – he’s nearly 20 fantasy points ahead of the second-best RB, Austin Ekeler, who in turn is 16+ points ahead of the 3^rd highest scoring RB this year, some slouch named Zeke that’s apparently barely worth mentioning. Of course, I kid, but Henry’s dominance is amazing. The best WRs have just a fraction over 100 fantasy points through 5 games.

3 Franchise Records

Alvin Kamara picked a good week to finally put up a performance worthy of his first-round draft status. While he’s been OK this year, this week was his first game over 20 fantasy points, his most receiving yards in a game, his most yards from scrimmage in a game, and the most TDs he’s scored in a game all season. Along the way this week, he set three franchise records that are so very Kamara-esque. He had his 9^th game with a rushing and receiving TD, his 12^th game to go over 50 yards rushing and receiving, and his 19^th multiple TD game. Kamara now sits as the RB9 on the season, not a terrible spot to be in, but when you look at the draft capital you would have spent on the RB10 guy, James Robinson, it’s hard not to think that perhaps if you drafted Alvin Kamara, you definitely overpaid (so far). Hopefully, the Saints can keep him rolling when they return from their bye in Week 7.

10 Receptions for 189 Yards

Pardon me while I take a victory lap with Kadarius Toney’s performance on Sunday. Last week I called him as a sleeper who could turn in a top-10 performance, and he did just that. Toney led the Giants in targets for the second week in a row, seeing 13 targets where the second-highest total was only 5. Unfortunately for Toney and the Giants, the injury bug has hit them in a very serious way. Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones both exited the game and were carted off before halftime. Darius Slayton and Sterling Shepard both missed their second consecutive game. Their offensive line is in shambles. 7 of their 11 opening day starters are now out with injury, leaving a team that was on the upswing for a moment reeling. Toney is now probably their best offensive weapon, and despite only having Mike Glennon throwing to him for now, he’s probably in line for another high-volume game next week against the Rams, though I hesitate to start him against that passing defense. Looking at their numbers on the season, however, the Rams are giving up the 15^th most fantasy points to opposing WRs and are susceptible to giving up good games to players with lots of targets.

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.

162.1 Total Fantasy Points

Derrick Henry didn’t score another 3 TDs this week, but he didn’t need to in order to finish the week as the highest scoring player in all of fantasy football for the 2021 season. Henry, who scored just 15.4 points this week, actually brought his average down to 27 points per game, in part because he failed to find the end zone. He did manage to throw a touchdown, however, salvaging his worst fantasy performance since Week 1 of this season. Speaking of bad fantasy performances, Patrick Mahomes put up his second worst fantasy game ever (Week 7 of 2019 was the only game worse). This poor performance left just enough of a window for Henry to pass Mahomes for the season-long lead. The last time a non-QB finished with the most fantasy points at the end of a season was Todd Gurley in 2017, who manage to do that in only 15 games.

201 Receiving Yards

This week, Ja’Marr Chase announced his presence as not only an Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate (he was already in the lead for that) but as one of the best wide receivers in the game right now. Chase is now the WR2 through 7 games on the season, finished just behind Cooper Kupp for both the season and Week 7-point totals. Chase had a career high 201 receiving yards, helped along by an 82-yard touchdown reception – a short pass where he got the ball over the middle and did the rest of the work himself. This was Chase’s second game with 10 targets. He leads the league with 21.5 yards per reception and is second only to Kupp in season long yardage. Chase is doing the most with what he’s given. He has only 35 receptions on the whole season (on pace for 85 for the year, though I would bet on the over for that). By contrast, Kupp has more receptions (56) than Chase even has targets (51). Chase’s 3.6 points per touch is an amazing number, one that is unmatched by anyone in the league so far.

28.54 Fantasy Points

The best free agent of the week, at least in the drinkfive.com “experts” league, is Tua Tagovailoa, owned in 71% of Fleaflicker leagues, but not this one. Tua is not only the best free agent of the week, he’s the best QB of the week, out of all players. Tua just edges out his 2020 draft mate, Joe Burrow, who led his team to a very impressive 41-17 victory over the Ravens. Tue finishes as the 4^th highest scoring player on the week, before the two WRs mentioned above and the man who gave away Tom Brady’s 600^th touchdown catch. Thankfully for Mike Evans, the fan gave it back, so he doesn’t have to get the cold shoulder from Brady for the rest of the season. Tua had a rough start to this season, but after a few weeks off for injury, he has returned and played very well at QB. In 2 games he has 6 touchdowns (and 3 picks, yuck). He has also run for over 20 yards in each game, and is averaging 25.45 points per game during this stretch. With games against Houston, New York Jets, and Carolina coming up, he’s a great streaming option to keep around for a while.

89.47% Catch Rate

The highest catch rate in the NFL belongs to Bengals TE C.J. Uzomah, who has caught 17 of his 19 targets so far this season (Pat Freiermuth leads the league at 90%). Uzomah has had quite the up-and-down season. He’s currently the TE10 on the year with 64.1 total fantasy points, however, 46.6 of those points (almost 73% of his total points) came in weeks 4 and 7. He finished as the TE1 in week 4 and currently leads the field in week 7 with no looming threats to overtake him on Monday night. Despite his fantasy high points, he’s a very tough player to start. He has only one week with more than 3 targets, and that was just 6 in week 4. Despite this, he’s managed to find the end zone 5 times in the last 4 games, so perhaps it’s time to find a way to insert him into your lineup, and maybe more than just a streaming option. Oh yea, and if you’re wondering, Rondale Moore has the highest catch percentage among wide receivers at 83.87%. Jaylen Waddle has the highest catch percentage among WRs with more than 50 targets with 77.19%.

602 Career Touchdowns

There was one thing happening this week that I just had to mention, and no, it’s not National Tight Ends Day. Raise your hand if you’re sick of hearing about that. No, this week Tom Brady threw his 600^th touchdown in the regular season. And his 599^th, and numbers 601 and 602 if we’re counting them all. Of course, we are. This season, Brady is leading the league with 21 passing touchdowns. Matthew Stafford is in 2^nd with 19. Brady also has a rushing touchdown, for good measure. He has 26 of those in his career. In addition, the ageless one is leading the league in completions, passing attempts, passing yards, and yards per game. Pretty good for anyone, unprecedented for a 44-year-old in the NFL. The yards per game mark is his second highest in his entire career, and he’s ahead of his career averages in completion percentage, interception percentage, and QB rating. I suppose if you’re going to play so many years in the NFL, you might as well make them count instead of just playing out the streak. In a league with so much great young QB talent, Brady might still be the best one each and every Sunday that he steps on the field. And I don’t mean that as an overall picture, I mean that right freaking now, he’s the best QB in football.