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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.

158.3 Passer Rating

The NFL’s all-time leader in passer rating, Aaron Rodgers (with 103.2 for his career) finally posted his very first game with a perfect passer rating on Sunday. Rodgers went 25/31 for 429 yards and 5 TDs, adding another TD on the ground in perhaps the best game of his career. This was good for 43.76 fantasy points, which is 10 more than the next closest player this week. Perhaps Rodgers has finally figured out the new system that has been implemented in Green Bay this year. While they have done fantastic in the win-loss column, they definitely have not looked like the juggernaut offense that we all expected from a team led by Aaron Rodgers, until this week. This game was domination from start to finish, with Rodgers throwing for a TD in every quarter, and also spreading the love. All 5 TDs went to 5 different players. Honorable mention goes to Marquez Valdes-Scanting, who averaged 66.5 yards per reception (2 catches for 133 yards and 1 TD).

576 Rushing Yards

Lamar Jackson, after fooling us all with only 6 rushing yards in Week 1, just posted his third game out of the last 6 where we went over 100 rushing yards. This is a historic pace and projects to 1,316 yards over 16 games. If Jackson can keep this up, he will crush the single-season record by Mike Vick, which is 1,039 yards back in 2006. Jackson also continued his fantasy dominance, leading the league with 180.6 total fantasy points in 7 games. When you consider that he has not thrown for a TD in the last two games, this is just amazing. Not bad for a guy who was drafted 106^th overall on average (QB14). He’s the kind of player that allows for league dominance when you can find that kind of value. To further put Jackson’s rushing dominance in perspective, he’s on pace to break Vick’s career total of 6,109 rushing yards in only 111 games, versus Vick’s career 143 games. That’s two full seasons worth of games.

9% of Yahoo Leagues

This week’s leading RB scorer was Chase Edmonds, who was started in only 9% of Yahoo leagues on Sunday. Currently, he’s owned in 48% of leagues, which includes a 14% jump from yesterday. To me, this means that 14% of Yahoo leagues probably do not operate with a waiver system, which is bizarre to me, but I digress. Edmonds was able to dominate the Giants non-existent rushing defense, scoring 3 TDs all from at least 20 yards or more. Edmonds will definitely be the #1 waiver wire pickup this week, and deservedly so. It looks like David Johnson might wind up sitting a week or two, considering he spent almost all of Week 7 on the sideline and the Cardinals were able to win with only 104 passing yards. Edmonds’ 33 points basically doubled up the rest of his entire team combined, which was led by Kyler Murray’s whopping 6.96 points. On a side note, Murray joined Patrick Mahomes and Matt Ryan in the formerly high-floor group falling back to earth. At least Murray doesn’t have an injury he’s nursing.

1 of the Top 10 Fantasy Performers

Only one of the top 10 fantasy performances turned in this week was by a player owned in 100% of Yahoo leagues. To give some context, there are 23 players owned in 100% of leagues and another 15 owned in 99% of leagues. This is usually a stat that I like to track early in the season to find out who’s performing that we weren’t expecting. To see this kind of disparity halfway in the fantasy season means that we’re probably flat out ignoring some players. And I think we are – guys like Matt Stafford (58% owned) who is the QB8 in points per game, Jacoby Brissett (48% owned) who is QB10 in the same category and Kirk Cousins (64% owned), who is averaging 26 points per game the last 3 weeks. Throw in big performances by Latavius Murray and Marvin Jones and you have an average ownership of just 75% across the top 10 fantasy performers in Week 7. This is probably just a fluky week, but I think it’s time to take notice of a few of the QBs that fantasy players seem to insist on not rolling out there.

104 Rush Yards Per Game

The NFL’s rushing yards leader is currently Dalvin Cook, with 725 yards across 7 games. There’s only been one 200+ yard performance this season (Leonard Fournette, 225 yards, Week 4), so we’re lacking the gaudy totals that we have seen in previous years. But, none of that really matters to fantasy players as long as your guys are finding the end zone as well, which is what Cook is doing. Cook has scored 8 TDs on the season, which is tied with Aaron Jones for the league lead. Cook has also managed to have an amazing points floor, never scoring below 11.4 points on the season. Only Ezekiel Elliott can claim such a double-digit elite status. Even super fantasy RB Christian McCaffrey (who still leads Cook in points despite having his bye week already) cannot claim such a floor. Cook and McCaffrey sit alone in tier 1, about 30 points above the tier two guys, who all have 107-111 points. Cook’s ADP of RB10 this season makes him one of the few second round “steals” that are pretty rare any year.

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.

0 Punts

On Thursday night’s game, the Minnesota Vikings managed to not have to punt the ball for the first time in 15 years. Despite that amazing offensive feat, they put up a meager 19 points on offense. The Vikings had two 70+ yard drives that resulted in short field goals in a thoroughly underwhelming performance against perhaps the biggest dumpster fire of a team in the league (though the Bengals may have something to say about that). The Washington Redskins were led in fantasy by Adrian Peterson (10.3 whole points) in his, uh, revenge game? There were lots of “revenge” storylines in this game, with Kirk Cousins and probably Case Keenum too. None of them really lived to up to the pregame hype, considering it was maybe the worst Thursday night game all year. Heck, at least the Titans and Jaguars annual Thursday night suckfest featured Gardner Minshew.

45% Average Ownership

This may be the most chaotic week at the tight end position so far this year, and on “National Tight End Day”, of course. On average, the top 10 TEs were owned in only 45% of Yahoo leagues. For a snapshot example, only 4 of the top 10 TEs were owned in the drinkfive fantasy league. From week to week, we wind up seeing random players like Ryan Griffin (0% owned) leading the week in points. He had 20.6, courtesy of 2 TDs, 66 yards and a 2-pointer to top it off. Behind him were Darren Fells (18%) and Jonnu Smith (19%) which rounded out the top 3 TEs on the week. It’s surprising to me that Darren Fells is still in this group, as he’s now the TE6 on the season with 54.4 points, outscoring both George Kittle and Zach Ertz, who were early-to-mid round draft picks. Perhaps most surprising to me is that Travis Kelce, the TE2 overall on the season, put up just his second double-digit performance on Sunday night, scoring his 2^nd TD of the season and putting up the 5^th best performance by a TE this week. This position is all messed up from a fantasy aspect, so don’t expect any worthwhile insights from anyone, anywhere. Other than starting Austin Hooper, of course.

21 (more) Fantasy Points

The New England Patriots D/ST continued their amazing pace this week, scoring another 21 points against the turnover prone Cleveland Browns. How prone are they? Well, the Browns turned the ball over on 3 straight offensive snaps in the first quarter.  This is the 5^th time this season that the Pats D/ST has scored 21+ points out of 8 games. Their low mark was 10 points in Week 1. They have a total of 173 points on the year, which is blowing the 2^nd place 49ers out of the water by 71 points and more than double that of the D/ST3 Panthers, who sit at 75 points total on the year. Among all fantasy players, the Patriots D/ST would now be the 4^th highest scoring “player” in all of fantasy football. Can we nominate an entire unit for MVP? They’re definitely the fantasy MVP this season. Through half a season, the Pats now have more points on D/ST than all teams last season except for the Bears, who finished 2018 with a paltry 187 points. And we thought that they were impressive.

3 of the Top 10 WRs

Unknown tight ends were not the only group having fun on Sunday. We also saw 3 WRs make it into the top 10 of WR points who are owned in very few leagues. Darius Slayton (4% owned) caught a pair of TDs from fellow rookie Daniel Jones to put up a 17-point performance and clocked in as the WR5 on the week. Right behind him was Chris Conley (3%) who caught 5 passes on 7 targets for 103 yards and a score. Conley now has 15 targets in the last 2 games and double-digits in each performance. Check him out this week for waiver wire adds, as he’s definitely available in your league. Rounding out the top 10 WRs was Hunter Renfrow (1%) who scored his first TD on a 65-yard catch and run early in the game in Houston. Honorable mentions go to Josh Reynolds, WR13 and Marvin Hall, WR17, who are both owned in 0% of Yahoo leagues. These rounding errors both found the end zone and put up double-digit points while helping their teams to victory in Week 8.

28.18 Fantasy Points

This week’s leading QB was not a guy named Watson, Rodgers, Brees or even Wilson. No sir, it was the plain and boring QB for big blue, Daniel Jones. Jones had an impressive day - 322 passing yards with 4 TDs and no interceptions. This performance was just enough to land him on the top of the QB list for Week 8, and I don’t think it’s a reach to say that nobody in the Monday night game will pass him. If it wasn’t for the fumble he gave up that was returned for a TD, he might have even been able to win his third game of the season. At this point, it’s pretty clear that the Giants have found their successor to Eli Manning. Elsewhere, we see that many of the top 10 QBs this week are still a bit random. We saw a favorite of this column, Gardner Minshew, put up his second straight 20+ point performance, showing he’s back on track after a tough Week 6 against New Orleans. Derek Carr had a great game on the road, his best of the season in fact. Honorable mentions go to Matt Schaub and Matt Moore, both impressing in relief of their starters. This was only statistically impressive, however, as both guys lost.

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.

3 Allens are 3-0

There are three young QBs with the name Allen that all started (and won) yesterday. Josh Allen, whom we all know, led the Bills to victory over the Redskins yesterday. He threw for one score and got another on his own on the ground on the way to 17.6 fantasy points as the QB12 for this week and the highest scoring Allen. Just behind him was Brandon Allen, making his first NFL appearance at the age of 27 and grabbing a victory in the process. He threw for 193 yards and 2 TDs against the lowly Cleveland Browns and did just enough to win the game. Congrats to Brandon in his first start – though his career as a Bronco is not likely to last very long with his team at 3-7 and a rookie QB almost ready to start. Finally, we have Kyle Allen, one of the more surprising mid-season success stories this year. Allen threw for a couple of TDs, but more importantly, he gave Christian McCaffrey the ball 27 times, which is the most important part of the QB’s role on the Panthers. Allen is now 5-1 as a starter and will continue to hold the job next week when his team travels to Green Bay. Congrats to all the Allens this week!

11 Home Teams are 11-0

Going into Sunday, home teams were 57-65-1 across the NFL. Discounting the London game, where there is no real home team, every home team won on Sunday, going a perfect 11-0. There were some obvious ones here, like the Bills beating the dumpster fire from Washington and the Eagles holding on to beat the dumpster fire from Chicago. (I may not be creative, but I am accurate). There were also a few surprises, such as the Chargers playing like a real football team and running the ball down the Packers throat. The Chargers were in command the entire game and shut down Aaron Rodgers after one of his best two-game stretches of his career. The most impressive home victory came courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens, who put up as many points on the New England defense as they had surrendered in the previous 8 games. It wasn’t all easy for home teams, as the Steelers had to survive a missed FG to win the game, the Chiefs had to make a FG at the end to win and the Seahawks had to win in OT, but the true winners here are the Miami Dolphins, who finally got their first win of the season. Or are the real winners the Bengals, who now have sole possession of the first overall pick in next year’s draft?

25.55 Fantasy Points Per Game

This season, Christian McCaffrey is a fantasy madman. He’s currently averaging 25.55 points per game in standard scoring, which is nearly unheard of. He’s on pace to come very close to the season record in total scrimmage yards and already has 13 TDs. He’s already outpacing the next 4 RBs by a range of 30 to 80 points, and all of those players have played one more game than he has. We’re only halfway through the season here, folks, and McCaffrey is on pace to score over 400 fantasy points this year. The last time we saw that kind of performance was LaDanian Tomlinson in 2006, when he had 31 touchdowns. Since Tomlinson’s 2006 season, only 9 RBs have broken the 300-point mark, most of them just barely. McCaffrey, at his current pace, will reach (and pass) that milestone the very first day of December, while the rest of us are digging in to our Thanksgiving leftovers.

42% - Average Ownership of the Top 10 TEs

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. OK, don’t stop me, because yes, I am a broken record when it comes to pointing this out. This week, we saw another slew of random guys make up the top 10 scoring TEs of the week. This week featured Noah Fant (12% owned) leading the way with 17.5 points, helped along by a 75-yard TD. Jacob Hollister (1%) caught two touchdowns, one of them the game winner. Mike Gesicki (4%) and Nick Boyle (0%) complete the list of players who are owned in very few leagues, but made contributions to their teams. In fact, all 4 of these guys listed helped their team win. Honorable mention goes to Foster Moreau (0%) who caught one pass for a 3-yard TD, good enough to be the TE11 this week. Over the season, the active players in the top 10 at the position are owned in 90%+ of leagues (except Darren Fells, 63%), so I guess people are paying attention. The weekly chaos at the TE position is just begging for a further look and perhaps a change in how we incorporate them into fantasy football leagues.

39.22 Fantasy Points

With his stellar OT performance, Russell Wilson is now the first player this year to repeat as the top fantasy point scorer in a week. He also led the league back in Week 3 with 41.34 points. He now has 5 games (out of 9) with 24 points or more. His floor this season is 14.30 points, and he’s had between 14.3 and 16.6 points 4 times this year – a result of his team having a very strong run game. Despite this up-and-down nature of Wilson’s fantasy performances, he now leads all players in total points on the season with 225.50, though Lamar Jackson and the aforementioned Christian McCaffrey have played one fewer game and retain a higher per-game average. Wilson leads the league with just one interception and one fumble. His two total turnovers on the season is very impressive. The second-best players in turnovers are Aaron Rodgers and Kyler Murray (impressive for anyone, especially a rookie) with 4 total. Wilson has his team at 7-2, and they’re definitely the best looking second place team in the league. For Week 10, the Seahawks go to San Francisco for which is sure to be the best Monday night matchup of the season.

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.

33.42 Fantasy Points

Through Sunday, your Week 10 fantasy points leader is, for the first time this season Lamar Jackson. He’s finished in the top 5 a total of 6 weeks out of his 9 games this season, though never as the actual top player. He’s having an amazing season and is clearly one of the candidates for MVP, along with Russell Wilson, who we get to see later on tonight. Jackson had his second game of the season where he threw more touchdowns (3) than incompletions (2). He had a perfect QB rating, also for the second time this season, which is only the second time anyone has done it twice in one season. He added 65 more rushing yards and 4 total touchdowns. With 702 rushing yards so far this season, he’s on pace for 1,248 yards, which will crush Mike Vick’s single season record of 1,039 yards.

0.08 Yards Per Touch

Saquon Barkley was the #1 ADP player across all the major sites back in August, but he’s wound up as one of the more disappointing first round picks, especially after yesterday’s game. On 13 carries, Barkley managed to gain only 1 yard on the ground. 9 of his 18 total touches went for zero or negative yards. He’s having a very disappointing season, though a lot of that can be attributed to his garbage pile team. The Giants lost to the lowly Jets and it marks the low point of their season (so far). Compared to last year, Barkley is averaging a full yard per carry less, one fewer catch per game, and 24 fewer rushing yards per game. He only has 3 TDs on the season compared to 15 last year and having missed 3 games, he’s on pace to finish with numbers well shy of his rookie year. At least the Giants can point to their rookie QB Daniel Jones as a bright spot, even if he’s only won a couple of games. He’s thrown at least 1 TD in every game he’s started, and 4 of them twice.

9.6 Receptions per Game

Michael Thomas is currently leading the league with 86 receptions through 9 games, on pace for 153 on the season. This would match the single season record with an entire game to go. This year, Thomas has 5 games with at least 10 catches, and in every game except for one, he has at least 8 catches. Thomas is his usual PPR machine this year, but he’s also leading the league in yards, with 1027 already. Even in a standard scoring league, Thomas is third in points on the season, with a floor this year of 8.90 points. Thomas now has 1000 yards in each of his first 4 seasons, only the 4^th player to ever start his career like that.

446 Passing Yards

On Sunday, Patrick Mahomes returned to the Chiefs lineup after missing just 2 weeks from a dislocated kneecap. His 446 passing yards were the most any QB has thrown for this season, breaking the previous high of 443 yards, also by Mahomes, in Week 2. Mahomes also had a season high 50 passing attempts, and 3 TDs to zero INT, bringing his season-long ratio to 18:1. Mahomes put up a very respectable 29.84 fantasy points, good for the 5^th overall player this week. He’s currently at 2,626 yards on the season, good for 5^th overall, really good for a guy who has played 1 or 2 fewer games than all the players ahead of him. He’s leading the league in yards per attempt, yards per completion and yards per game. Not a bad follow-up of an MVP season – he would be in the conversation if it wasn’t for lots of other guys having stellar seasons.

49 D/ST Fantasy Points

Well folks, it looks like the AFC North is once again proving to be a tough matchup for anyone who finds themselves thinking there’s easy wins to be had. The Ravens and the Steelers defenses have come alive. The Ravens managed two scores against the hapless Bengals and were the best D/ST replacement for the Patriots that I could ever have hoped for. Now I just need to find a person willing to trade for a D/ST. This is definitely a first world problem, but on to the Steelers. Their trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick seems to be the smartest trade of the entire season. Fitzpatrick has 5 interceptions, 2 TDs and 1 fumble recovery in his 7 games with the Steelers. He’s a huge upgrade to their passing defense, and is a huge reason the Steelers have given up just one double digit game to opposing WRs since Week 2. The Steelers D/ST have double digit points in every game that Fitzpatrick has played with them this year.