Fantasy Football: Interesting Statistics

Plain and simple, this is a list of stats I have researched that may (or may not) help when it comes time to draft your NFL fantasy team. These stats are not ringing endorsements for the players involved, but they are interesting stats that may help when it’s time to select your team.

Fantasy Football: Interesting Statistics

1. In 2013, under Chip Kelly, DeSean Jackson finished as WR9 in fantasy with 1,332 yards and nine touchdowns.
2. Jackson finished the season with 126 targets and averaged 16.2 yards per catch.
3. In 2014, under Chip Kelly, Jeremy Maclin finished as WR9 in fantasy with 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns.
4. Maclin finished the season with 143 targets and averaged 15.5 yards per catch.
5. Heading into the 2016 season, Torrey Smith is Kelly’s presumed number one wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers.
6. Smith averaged 20.1 yards per catch in 2015.
7. Jordy Nelson had more 40+ yard plays in 2014 (eight) than the entire Green Bay Packers team accumulated in 2015 (six).
8. In 2014, Aaron Rodgers averaged 8.4 yards per pass.
9. In 2015, that number fell to 6.7.
10. Rodgers had never finished a season where he played all 16 games with under 4,000 passing yards, until last year.
11. Rodgers will have Nelson healthy for the start of the 2016 season.
12. In eight straight seasons, from 2007-2015, Drew Brees finished in the top three in pass attempts in a season.
13. Seven of those times, Brees also finished in the top three in completion percentage.
14. Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers finished number one overall in 2015 in passing yards per game, with 328.
15. In 2014, Roethlisberger and the Steelers tied for first with 310 passing yards per game.
16. The Steelers will be without wide receiver Martavis Bryant for all of 2016, but they gain Ladarius Green and presumably Le’Veon Bell.
17. Kirk Cousins finished the season as the most accurate passer in 2015, completing 70% of his passes.
18. Cousins also finished in the top five in average yards per pass.
19. Ryan Tannehill has been sacked 184 times since 2012, which is the most over the last four seasons.
20. Jay Ajayi looks to take over bell cow-type duties with the Miami Dolphins.
21. Previous Dolphins running back, Lamar Miller, is now the lead back with the Houston Texans.
22. In 2014, the Texans ran the ball more than any team, 551 times.
23. In 2015, Houston rushed 472 times, good for fifth overall.
24. Miller has only carried the ball over 200 times in a season once in his career (2014).
25. Miller hasn’t missed a game in three straight seasons.
26. The team that gave up the least amount of sacks in 2015 (18) was the then St. Louis Rams (now the Los Angeles Rams).
27. The team who gave up the most sacks last season (54) was the Tennessee Titans.
28. The Titans now have Demarco Murray and Derrick Henry in their backfield.
29. Tennessee ranked 25^th in rushing yards per game (92.8), 17^th in yards per carry (4.0), and 18^th in rushing touchdowns (10).
30. Murray’s career average yards per carry is 4.6, which is over half of a yard per carry more than the Titans averaged in 2015.
31. No running back has lead the league in yards in back-to-back season since LaDainian Tomlinson did it in 2006 and 2007.
32. Adrian Peterson led the league in rushing yards in 2015.
33. Last season was the first time in recent years that more wide receivers had 200+ fantasy points (6), than running backs (2).
34. Amari Cooper had 72 catches for 1,070 yards and six touchdowns, in 2015.
35. Danny Woodhead had 81 catches for 756 yards and six touchdowns.
36. When you factor in Woodhead’s carries (97 rushes, 335 yards, and three touchdowns), you get 1,091 yards and nine touchdowns, which is more than Cooper.
37. Woodhead finished as RB3 in PPR formats in 2015.
38. He also finished number one overall in YAC (yards after catch) in 2015, with 688.
39. Theo Riddick finished second overall, with 628 yards.
40. Mark Ingram finished eighth in catches by a running back in 2015 with 50.
41. Ingram finished as RB11 in PPR formats in 2015 and missed the last four games.
42. Keenan Allen’s most targeted season was 2014 when he was targeted 121 times and had 77 catches.
43. In 2015, Allen was targeted 89 times and had 67 catches in eight games.
44. If you stretch that across a 16 game span, that’s 178 targets and 134 receptions.
45. The New Orleans Saints are losing 176 targets from the retirement of Marques Colston (67) and the loss of Benjamin Watson to free agency (109).
46. The Saints have added Michael Thomas and Coby Fleener.
47. Gary Barnidge has only missed three games in his five year career.
48. Prior to 2015, Barnidge never surpassed 25 targets in a season, but in 2015, he had 123 targets, 1,043 yards and nine touchdowns.
49. In 2014, 26 kickers were perfect on extra points.
50. In 2015, that number dropped to six.
51. Chicago Bears kicker, Robbie Gould, made the most field goals of 50+ yards in 2015 (seven), five of which were kicked at home, in the Windy City.
52. The best field goal percentage in 2015 belonged to 37 year old Josh Brown, who kicked the ball with 93.7% accuracy.
53. Brown missed only two field goals all year.
54. Andre Johnson has never recorded 10+ touchdowns in an NFL season.
55. Johnson’s coach for the majority of his career was Gary Kubiak.
56. Demaryius Thomas finished with less than 10 touchdowns for the first time since 2011 and his head coach was Kubiak.

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