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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 standard Yahoo scoring unless otherwise noted.

7 Games of 60+ Rushing Yards

It’s hard to pick just one stat to lead with for Lamar Jackson, so let’s go with the one that nobody else has done in league history. Jackson is now the first QB in the NFL to have 60+ rush yards in 7 straight starts, as he continues his march towards Michael Vick’s single season record. Jackson added 86 yards on just 9 carries on Sunday. He’s now on pace for 1,260 rush yards and at this rate will easily break the record before Christmas. Jackson is amazingly efficient and playing so well for his team. His fantasy totals are gaudy, but don’t exactly feel like they would be if you look at just his passing stats. Another 4 passing TDs yesterday brought his season total to 19 – congrats to you preseason bettors, his Vegas over/under was just 15. He has had over 30 pass attempts just 4 times this season (2 of them were his team’s losses), and is just magnificent this year, especially for fantasy. He has zero fumbles, something that only Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray and Mason Rudolph can claim, though none of them run the ball like Lamar.

0.36 More Fantasy Points Than Lamar Jackson

Only one player in the NFL had more fantasy points than Lamar Jackson through Sunday, and it was Josh Allen, as he dismantled the Dolphins. The difference between the two is really that Allen had a rushing TD, his 7^th on the season, which leads all QBs and is tied for 6^th among all players in the NFL. Allen is showing plenty of growth in his second season. Last year he started 11 games, and this year he has 10 under his belt and he already has more pass yards, more pass TDs and fewer INTs. His completion rate has improved significantly and he is the QB6 on the season. Allen hasn’t thrown a pick in the last 5 straight games. He has played very well and just might hold on to make the playoffs. With a solid QB and a good defense, they might even be able to win a game there.

3 TDs in 3 Straight Starts

I don’t mean to only talk about QBs so far, but I would be remiss if I did not gush a little about the play of Dak Prescott, who has quietly been awesome this year. Unfortunately, his team does not beat good teams, but damn he’s played well against everyone since New Orleans in Week 4. Over the last 3 weeks, Prescott has 9 passing TDs and 1,098 passing yards over that time – he now leads the league with 3,221 passing yards. Prescott has reduced the frequency that he runs, but he’s gaining a lot more per run on the ground this year, up to 5.8 yards per carry, the second highest total of his career. These smarts also help keep him on the field – he hasn’t missed a start in his 4 seasons. So, Dak sits as the QB3 in fantasy football and the 4^th player overall. He’s having a great season and would be in the MVP talk if it wasn’t for the couple of QBs ahead of him, who are just a little bit better and winning a few more games. That being said, don’t count him out – there’s still lots of football left to play.

19.10 Points Without a Touchdown

OK, enough about the QBs, let’s dive into the RBs, who admittedly, had a down week. Leading the pack was Mark Ingram, who is the only RB to break the 20-point barrier as of Sunday in Week 11. He found the end zone twice through the air and was the week’s RB1, despite only gaining 85 yards from scrimmage. The guy who did rack up gaudy totals was, of course, Christian McCaffrey, who added another 191 yards from scrimmage on 25 touches. McCaffrey has 1,576 yards from scrimmage on the season, and he’s still on pace to just squeak by the single-season record of 2,510. Considering he put up another 19 points without finding the end zone, he’s clearly the fantasy MVP outside of QBs. He has 32 more fantasy points than the 2^nd place team and is beating the RB8, the aforementioned Mark Ingram, by over 100 points on the season.

94 Receptions in 10 Games

Congrats to Michael Thomas, who continues to be an absolute beast for Drew Brees and the Saints. Thomas now has 94 receptions through 10 games, obviously a league lead, but also a milestone that no one else in league history has reached. He’s leading the league this year with 1,141 receiving yards and is on pace for 150 receptions on the season, which would break Marvin Harrison’s record of 143. Heck, Thomas is already 5^th on that list with his 125-catch effort last season, a number he’s certain to break soon. Thomas now has 11 or more targets in all but 2 games this season, and has done the majority of his damage without Brees under center. Yesterday’s effort of 114 receiving yards exactly matches his 114 yards per game average this season. I’m all for players who like to express themselves, as we have seen at WR in the last few years, but there’s something awesome about the quiet dominance we get from guys like Michael Thomas, Julio Jones and Deandre Hopkins.

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.

16 Point Lead

It seems that in Atlanta, no lead is safe. Most recently infamous for blowing a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI (which still fuels memes around the internet), the Falcons have now blown back-to-back games where they led by at least 16 points. Dan Quinn has achieved the impossible – he’s become less popular in Atlanta than Covid-19. In two consecutive possessions late in the 4^th quarter, the Falcons ran the ball just once and netted -4 yards total in those drives. The second drive of that sequence featured 3 straight incompletions with less than 5 minutes remaining in the game, burning off a whole 11 seconds. Perhaps it’s too early in the season to fire a coach, but I cannot imagine a seat that is hotter than Dan Quinn’s right now, especially considering his offense is playing well for 3.5 quarters of football every Sunday.

75 TDs

This offseason was all about letting Russ cook, and that’s exactly what he’s done. Russell Wilson is now the first NFL QB to throw for at least 4 TDs in each of his first three games of the season. If there was an MVP for September, he would be the unanimous choice. On the season, he already has 14 passing TDs, on pace for a Peyton Manning crushing 75 on the season (the current record sits at 55). Of course, Patrick Mahomes was on pace to break this record back in 2018, but only managed (“only”) 50 TDs. Wilson is slightly ahead of Mahomes’ pace – he was at 13 after 3 games, and only managed one over the next two weeks. I think it’s certainly plausible that Wilson can keep up a record-breaking pace for quite a while. To go along with this, he’s also the #1 player in fantasy football, already cracking 100 points on the season. #LetRussCook

12 Total TDs

Right on the heel of Wilson’s great start is Josh Allen taking the Bills to 3-0. On the season, Allen has 10 passing TDs, 2 rushing TDs, 1,038 passing yards and has totaled 94.92 fantasy points, good for 2^nd overall. If it was not for Wilson, then Allen might be at the top of the MVP discussion, alongside Aaron Rodgers – the last of the top QBs without a turnover on the season. Allen has shown some vast improvement this season. His first two years, his best completion rate was only 58.8%, but he currently sits at 71.1% on the season and has only thrown one interception so far. He’s already matched his TD total from his rookie season, and he’s halfway to matching 2019 through 3 games. Allen is perhaps the most improved player and is the kind of fantasy pick that will help people win leagues – Allen’s ADP put him at QB8 and was being drafted sometime in the 8^th round in most drafts.

260 Kicking Yards

One of my new favorite changes in 2020 for fantasy football is the ability to directly award kickers for their exact yardage, instead of truncating the number and just giving 3, 4, 5, etc. This allowed Stephen Gostkowski to really max out his score on Sunday, where he kicked 6 field goals for a total of 260 yards, and threw an extra point in there for good measure. Under the old scoring system, he would have had 25 points, but yesterday, he put up 27 points, which is good for 1^st place among kickers by nearly 10 points. His 27 points Sunday are more points than 8 of the top 20 kickers have scored all season long. I don’t often devote an entry in this column for a kicker, but perhaps more performances like this one will change that. Mason Crosby deserves an honorable mention. His 41.6 points on the season put him just behind Gostkowski, but his perfect 7 for 7 FGs and 13 for 13 XPs certainly deserve praise. Until next week, have fun picking a kicker – 8 of the top 13 kickers this week are owned in only 26% or less of Fleaflicker leagues.

-3.33 Points per Week

Usually, you want to stream your D/ST against a team that struggles, and more on that in a minute, but let’s first marvel at the team you do not want your D/ST to go against. In 3 weeks, the D/ST going up against the Green Bay Packers have scored -4, -3 and -3 points. The Packers have scored 36 points or more in every game so far, and have only given up one sack each of the last two weeks. Perhaps this information isn’t that helpful to you to win at fantasy football, but it’s certainly something to marvel at, and that’s the real point of this column. If you want points, start whoever is playing the Jets, like the Colts in Week 3, who put up 26 points from 3 turnovers and 2 TDs. Or stream whoever is going against the Eagles, who have seen Wentz give up 2 INTs in every game so far this season, to go along with 11 total sacks. It won’t get any better for the Eagles, who now face the 49ers, Steelers and Ravens in their next 3 games.  

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.