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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.

1 Pass Completion

A trio of position players completed passes this week. Perhaps, I should be more specific that they each completed one pass to their own team, but more on that in a moment. On Thursday, we saw Logan Thomas, a TE on a Football Team, hit Terry McLaurin on a 28-yard completion in the first quarter, the longest pass play of the day for Washington. Washington only really needed Antonio Gibson on Thursday, but we’ll get to him in a little bit. Cole Beasley joined in the fun on Sunday, throwing a 20-yard pass to Gabriel Davis in the Bills’ victory over the Chargers. Which brings us to the more infamous player who completed only one pass on Sunday. This, of course, needs a qualifier, because Kendall Hinton did complete two passes to the wrong team, and only one to his own team. A stat line of 1 for 9 with 2 INTs is not something I thought I would see in the NFL in a game that didn’t include some sort of blizzard or hurricane. Here we are, in 2020, where a practice squad player gets to start at QB because he was a backup QB in college.

51.4 Fantasy Points

We’re not here for tiny numbers, generally speaking, though sometimes they can be fun. Let’s break down the top fantasy performance of the season. Tyreek Hill did most of his damage in the first quarter, coming just a few yards shy of the all-time record for receiving yards in a single quarter. Hill started off with a 34-yard completion on the very first play of the game. He added another 23 yards on the same drive and had 57 yards total before 2 minutes had elapsed in the game. Two drives later, Hill got loose behind the defense and caught a 75-yard touchdown, his 6^th receiving TD from Patrick Mahomes of 50 yards or more. A good quarter, you say? There was still 7 minutes left to go! On the next Chiefs drive, Hill caught 3 more passes, capping it off with a 44-yard TD reception. Hill ended the quarter with 7 receptions on 7 targets for 203 yards and 2 touchdowns. In comparison, Hill slacked off the rest of the game and finished with “only” 13 receptions for 269 yards and 3 touchdowns.

3 Touchdowns on the Ground

Tyreek Hill wasn’t the only player to find the end zone three times in Week 12. A pair of running backs managed that feat. First, on Thursday, Antonio Gibson was all the offense that Washington needed to defeat the Cowboys in their annual “why do the same teams always play on Thanksgiving?” afternoon naptime entertainment. Gibson started the game just fine, scoring early to put fantasy owners at ease. It was his finish that was truly impressive. He had fourth-quarter touchdown runs of 23 and 37 yards to turn his average day into the best game of his rookie season. A pick-six by Washington on the play following Gibson’s last touchdown put away the game for the Football Team and also buried the Cowboys' last playoff hopes for this year. Gibson was outdone on Sunday by Derrick Henry, who did almost all of his damage in the first half against the Colts. Henry finished with 178 yards and 3 more touchdowns. This brings his season totals to a league-leading 1,257 rush yards and 12 touchdowns, just one behind Dalvin Cook.

1 WR Over 1,000 Yards

We’re 12 weeks into the season, so while almost every team has played 11 games, we have just one wide receiver averaging 100 yards per game, Davante Adams at 100.9 yds/gamee – a definite departure from the high-flying passing numbers that we’ve seen in recent years. Tyreek Hill is the only WR who has cracked the 1,000-yard mark (1,081) and it took a monster game from him on Sunday to do so. His teammate, Travis Kelce, who is the TE1, 2, and 3 is second in the league in receiving yards with 978. On the rushing side, we have two players averaging 100 yards per game – the aforementioned Derrick Henry with 114 yds/game and Dalvin Cook just behind him at 113 yds/game. The lack of a truly dominant top end in fantasy football has probably prevented teams from running away with it and made waiver wire moves and starting the right guys in the right matchups even more important in this chaotic football season.

23 Fantasy Kicker Fantasy Points

In a surprise to no one, kicker ownership is completely off track. This week’s top kicker was Younghoe Koo of Atlanta who went 5/5 on field goals and 4/4 on extra points for a whopping 23 points, second on his team to only the D/ST, who put up 28 fantasy points on their own. Of course, the Raiders turning the ball over 5 times helped, but I digress, this is about the ridiculous ownership numbers of kickers. Going by our drinkfive writer’s league, Koo is the only kicked owned (by yours truly) of the top 12 kickers this week. In fact, only 5 of the top 20 are on a team at all. The average ownership in Fleaflicker of the top 12 kickers is only 34.5%. So have fun picking a kicker for next week, I suggest that whatever you do, just swap out the kicker you have for someone at random!

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.

3 Safeties

Safeties are coming in bunches this season. Yesterday, there were three scored by three different teams - the Indianapolis Colts, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Seattle Seahawks. The first two were via sacks and the last one was a blocked punt that was nearly recovered for a TD instead of a safety. But, as I said, these things come in bunches. Of the 15 safeties that have been scored this season, two came in Week 2, three came in Week 3, and three more came in week 11. Minnesota has been involved in 3 of them - giving up 2 of them early in the season and finally returning the favor this week against the Jaguars - a must-have score that came in a game that wound up going to overtime. Indianapolis has been involved in 4 safeties this season - 3 in their favor and one against them, on a flag for intentional grounding in the end zone. The Seahawks have also been involved in 3 safeties this season - all 3 of them in their favor and all 3 of them occurring in weeks where 2 other teams have managed to score a safety.

1,039 Receiving Yards

Vikings rookie WR Justin Jefferson is now third among all wide receivers in the league (through Sunday's games) with 1,039 receiving yards. As expected, as a rookie, he started the season slow with only 70 yards in his first two games. Since then, he's averaging 97 yards per game, has put up 5 games over 100 yards, and scored 7 touchdowns.  He's now the #4 fantasy wide receiver with 178.6 points on the season, averaging about 15 points per game. With drop-offs of all the rookie QBs who were once playing well this season, Jefferson's name is now coming up in offensive rookie of the year conversations, and he could definitely be a strong contender if he keeps up this pace to close out the season. Jefferson's pace is rather historical, he has the second-most receiving yards by a rookie WR through his first 12 games. He's quite behind Odell Beckham's pace of 1,305 in 2014, but he's slightly ahead of Randy Moss in 1998 and Anquan Boldin in 2003. All three of those guys won the offensive rookie of the year award.

1,114 Receiving Yards

Travis Kelce turned in another huge game on Sunday night and is now just 5 yards behind the league leader in receiving yards - DK Metcalf with 1,119 yards.  Kelce is 4th in the league with 82 receptions and naturally leads all tight ends with 8 touchdowns. Kelce is leading all TEs is all statistical categories and is just shy of 200 points on the season. His average of 16.5 points per game is almost 4 points ahead of the second-best TE, Darren Waller. Waller had a historically great game on Sunday against the Jets, scoring 38.5 fantasy points, the best mark on the season for a TE by almost 6 points (and the high-water mark for Week 13 so far). In the Raiders' last-second victory over the Jets, Waller had 13 receptions for 200 yards and scored 2 touchdowns. This is the 4th time in NFL history that a tight end has had a game with 200 yards and 2 touchdowns. He'll need a lot more games like this if he wants to catch Travis Kelce for the points total this season - Kelce still has roughly a 45-point lead with just 4 games to go in the NFL regular season.

31 Fantasy Points on a D/ST

The New England Patriots turned in the D/ST performance of the season on Sunday while visiting the Chargers in Los Angeles. Their 31 points tops the Falcons' 28 points they got just last week. The Patriots tore apart rookie QB Justin Herbert and held him to a 49.1% completion rate for 209 yards and 2 interceptions. Along the way, the Patriots returned a punt for a touchdown and also blocked a field goal attempt at the end of the 2nd quarter, and returned that for a touchdown as well. Add 3 sacks and zero points allowed to all of that and you arrive a 31 fantasy points for a D/ST that had a decent chance at being on the waiver wire, as they're only 66% owned in Fleaflicker leagues. This performance sort of came out of nowhere considering the Patriots D/ST has scored 32 total points since Week 4. Next up for the Patriots, the other Los Angeles team, again in Los Angeles, coming up on Thursday night.  A quick turnaround might mean that the defense is still pumped up for this rematch of Super Bowl LIII.

4 of the Top 10 QBs

I like to use our drinkfive.com fantasy league as a way to find interesting or noteworthy stats, but often I find us a bit lacking in some areas. Often this comes in the form of nobody owning a kicker worth a damn on any given week (The top 3 this week are owned! But only 4 of the top 10). D/ST is another position where this crops up, this week nobody had the Patriots and only 5 of the top 10 teams were rostered. This also occasionally happens at the tight end position, but what I never find is a staggering lack of ownership at the quarterback position. This week, only 4 of the top 10 QBs (so far, there are 6 guys left to play) are on rosters. This is mostly due to the fact that there were lots of big performances from the middle and lower tiers of QBs. Derek Carr led the way with 4 total touchdowns, one of them a last-second bomb to keep the Jets winless. Baker Mayfield’s 4 first-half touchdown passes vaulted him into the QB2 spot of the week, scoring a Browns record 38 first-half points.

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.

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.

48 Passing Attempts for Zero Points

Last night, Tom Brady was shut out for only the third time in his entire career. The last time his team did not score any points in a game he started was Week 14 of the 2006 season when the Patriots lost 21-0 in Miami. Fast forward 15 years and Brady had a hell of a streak finally snapped. Last night’s game was the first time in his career that his opponent won while scoring fewer than 10 points. In last week’s column, I gushed about Brady as he broke yet another NFL record, so this week I’m going to have some fun celebrating him having an atrocious game on a national broadcast. Everything is just more fun when Brady isn’t winning every damn thing around. Brady has only lost 73 games that he’s started, so it’s not as if we get to do this every day - but then again, that is over 4.5 seasons of losses, so how great is he really? Brady seems to struggle when New Orleans comes down to south Florida - in those two games with the Bucs, he has 0 touchdowns, 4 INTs, and a fumble. He’s been outscored 47-3 and has a meager 55.8% completion percentage. He is 0-4 against New Orleans in the regular season over the last two years. Brady is currently the QB22 of the week - there’s only 2 starting QBs so far this week that have done worse.

36.1 Fantasy Points

Travis Kelce had his best game in his long career on Thursday night against the Chargers. Kelce’s final stat line was 13 targets, 10 receptions, 191 receiving yards, 2 TDs. This makes him the top fantasy player so far through Week 15 - with 4 games still left to play this week, I feel like anything can happen. This performance is the 2nd best TE game we’ve seen all season, in Week 5, Mark Andrews scored 36.2 fantasy points. George Kittle also had a 35.1 point game a couple weeks ago, so I think we can declare the mid-30’s the Tight End ceiling in fantasy football. Kelce, who has played over 120 games in his career, reached his all-time high in receiving yards with 191 (previous high was 168) and he now has 29 games with 100 or more receiving yards. He also tied his career high with 2 TDs, he now has 8 games with multiple touchdowns. The tight end position was pretty top-heavy this week, with both Kelce and Andrews breaking the 30 point mark, but TEs 7-10 combined did not match Kelce’s point total. 

13% Owned in Fleaflicker Leagues

This week’s top RB (so far, yeah) is a player that none of us started last week. The only people claiming to have him in their lineups are Duke Johnson’s mother, and liars. That being said, I want to congratulate Duke’s mom on her fantasy football playoff victory, because Duke had a hell of a game. Posting a career high 107 rushing yards (his only game over 100 yards rushing), and only his second game with two touchdowns, Johnson propelled the Dolphins back to .500 with their sixth win a row (yes, they started 1-7, if you’re counting). Duke has played in 93 NFL games, a rather respectable number for a guy who has never been a regular starter. His 107 rushing yards yesterday are 5.2% of his career total, and he scored 20% of his career rushing TDs! Duke saw 23 touches while only being on the field for 58% of Miami’s offensive snaps, so he could easily supplant the disappointing Miles Gaskin as the RB1 on the Dolphins. Unfortunately for Duke, his next two opponents will be the teams giving up the fewest (Saints) and second fewest (Titans) points to opposing RBs.

14% Owned in Fleaflicker Leagues

For an encore, let’s have a look at the QB1 of the week, who maybe a few of us started since he would have been a smart superflex fill-in. That being said, we’re going to need some proof if you want credit for starting him! Tyler Huntley told the Ravens, “No Lamar, no problem!” and proceeded to do his best Lamar Jackson impression with 28 completions on 40 attempts for 213 yards, 2 TDs through the air, another 13 rushes for 73 yards on the ground and 2 more TDs, good for 35.9 fantasy points. Huntley now has started or played significant time in 3 games this season and is on a definite upward trend, scoring 11.76 (Wk 11 @ CHI), 15.30 (Wk 14 @ CLE), and 35.90 (Wk 15 vs GB). Each of those three games, he has a completion percentage over 70% and has won, or had a chance to win at the end, each of those games. This year is Huntley’s first chance to get real playing time in a game, and he’s shown that he’s definitely more than just a backup level quarterback. If another team wants to design an offense around him, like the Ravens did for Lamar Jackson, I could see him getting snatched up as a starting QB as early as next year.

170 Rushing Yards

Jonathan Taylor had yet another massive game this season, this time against one of the best defensive minds ever in football, Bill Belichick. Taylor posted the highest rushing total and most fantasy points given up by the New England Patriots all season, with 170 yards on 29 carries and 1 TD, good for 23 points. Saturday night for Taylor was punctuated by a 67 yard rushing TD to close out the game when there was just about 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter. This season, Taylor owns the longest rush in the NFL at 83 yards, and the longest rushing TD in the NFL with 76 yards. He leads the league in rushing attempts (270), rushing yards (1,518), rushing TDs (17), yards from scrimmage (1,854), and total TDs (19). It’s all the more impressive when you consider his slow start to the season. In the first 5 games, he was not on the field for more than 55% of the snaps in any of those games, averaged 65.4 yards per game in that stretch, and scored only 2 TDs. Taylor, the 4th-highest scoring fantasy player in 2021, is in the MVP discussion, and is inching ever close to the lead there with Brady’s performance on Sunday night.