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.

15 Games With 300+ Passing Yards

Justin Herbert just completed his 15th career game with at least 300 passing yards on Sunday against the Bengals. He’s only started 27 games in his career, and has more starts with 300+ yards than starts without reaching 300 yards. Herbert finished this week with 26.28 points as the QB3, and is the QB2 on the season (QB4 by points per game). His floor is great, never dipping below 12 points this year, and he’s topped the 30 point mark 4 times - in each of those 4 games, he has finished as the QB1 or 2 on the week. Outside of fantasy, he has 5 game winning drives complimenting his 5-4th quarter comebacks this season. This is a really great showing this year for a guy drafted as the QB8 (59th overall), right behind Russell Wilson, who is the QB24 on the year.

86 Receptions

Jaylen Waddle is currently on pace to break the rookie receptions record. He currently is averaging 6.6 catches per game and is on pace to smash the current record of 101, set by Anquan Boldin back in 2003. Thanks to the 17 game season, he’s on pace for a whopping 112 total receptions, but even if there were only 16 games, he would be on just enough of a pace to break it. Waddle is the WR15 on the year, helped along by much more consistent play over the last 5 weeks, where he’s averaged 7.6 receptions per game and helped his team to a 5-0 record during that time. Waddle won’t challenge for the rookie yardage record - his pace of 1,110 for the year is far from the record of 1,473, set by Bill Groman back in 1960 in only 14 games. 

35.1 Fantasy Points

For the first time this season, a tight end leads all fantasy players in total points for the week. George Kittle put together a massive 34.4 fantasy points in half PPR. He had 9 receptions on 12 targets for 181 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns. He tacked on a 5 yard rush for that little bit extra. Last week, Kittle had 1 catch for 13 yards, totaling 1.8 fantasy points. Kittle owners are sure to have whiplash from the point swing, so please be careful. Kittle got 30% of his total receiving yards on the season in week 13 (and 40% of his touchdowns, but he only has 5 total). Amazingly, Kittle has two games with higher yardage totals, and two with higher reception totals, but it’s his first career game with two touchdowns. 

12.2 Fantasy Points Per Game

Through 12 games this season, Nick Folk is averaging 12.2 fantasy points per game and is the #45 point scorer in all of fantasy football. That’s a better per-game average than DJ Moore, David Montgomery, Saquon Barkley, and the aforementioned Jaylen Waddle. Folk would be the RB11 and the WR12 on the season (if he played those positions and still kicked…it’s a stretch, work with me here). Folk has 7 games with double digit points this season. He’s only missed 3 field goal attempts on the year, all of them from 53 yards or longer. Tonight Folk has to kick in some sketchy conditions - it’s supposed to be very windy, and of course cold because it’s December, in Buffalo.

5 of the Top 10 Quarterbacks

Volatility is once again the name of the game at the QB position in week 13. Half of the top 10 QBs this week were not rostered in the drinkfive.com league, and those 5 QBs combine for an average ownership rate of just 39.2% in Fleaflicker leagues (thanks to Gardner Minshew for keeping that number low). This is the 4th time since week 8 that we have seen 5 out of the top 10 QBs not commonly rostered. This week saw a performance from Taysom Hill, which in hindsight, should have been obvious that it was coming. Even if he threw 4 INTs and ran for 100 yards (an NFL first), he’s still a good fantasy QB. Zach Wilson and Jared Goff both had their best games since Week 1. Ben Roethlisberger, the most rostered player in this group at 65%, had a stellar 4th quarter with 2 TD passes and a 2-point conversion on his way to beating the Ratbirds….errr, Ravens..