Surprising NFL Player Stats and Trends

Those of you who follow fantasy football closely, which can be assumed is all of you who are taking the time to read this, probably know about the league leaders at each position and category. Derrick Henry is a beast, Kyler Murray looks like an MVP, yadda yadda...

Dig deeper and you'll find plenty of unexpected stats and early-season surprises. Rather than focusing on one category or position, I thought it might be useful to prepare a buffet of statistical data, free of extensive analysis. As Joe Friday would actually say, "All we know are the facts, ma'am." And here they are.

Data has been pulled from a variety of sources including RotoWire, Pro-Football-Reference, and AddMoreFunds.

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Quarterback

• • Sam Darnold leads the NFL with five rushing touchdowns. Three other players, all running backs (Derrick Henry, Ezekiel Elliott, James Conner) have four TD.
  • Lamar Jackson leads all qualified QBs with 12.1 air yards per pass attempt.
  • Jameis Winston is averaging just 7.6 intended air yards per pass attempt, 29th-lowest among all quarterbacks.
  • Ben Roethlisberger is tied for second in total pass attempts but is 17th in total passing yards.
  • Russell Wilson is No. 1 in Adjusted Net Yards per Pass Attempt at 9.61. Davis Mills is last among qualifiers at 1.63 ANY/A.
  • Jalen Hurts has the lowest Bad Throw% among QBs at 6.4%. Daniel Jones is second-lowest at 7.7%.

Jalen Hurts 387 passing yards is the most by an Eagles quarterback without an interception since Nick Foles 7 TD game 8 years ago

pic.twitter.com/SDovHXaeRz

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) October 3, 2021

• Mac Jones has a 70% completion percentage and is third in total completions (112) but has just a 4-4 TD-INT rate.
• Trey Lance is the only rookie QB with more TD than INT (3-0).
• Six quarterbacks have at least 100 rushing yards after Week 4 (Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, Daniel Jones, Kyler Murray, Ryan Tannehill).
• Ryan Tannehill has been sacked 17 times, on pace for 72 sacks over a full 17-game season. The NFL record is 76 sacks taken, set by David Carr in his rookie year with the Houston Texans in 2002. Tannehill is already 11th on the list with 58 sacks taken in 2013 with Miami.

 

Running Back

• Rookie Najee Harris leads all RBs with a 92% snap share. The next closest is Darrell Henderson at 83%.
• Harris has 13 broken tackles, tallying six as a runner and seven as a receiver.
• Miles Sanders leads all players with 15 broken tackles, Christian McCaffrey is next with 14.
• Sanders has four red-zone carries for a total of -3 yards. Antonio Gibson has four RZ carries for -2 yards.
• Jonathan Taylor's seven money-zone carries (inside the 10-yard line) are most in the league but he has just one rushing score.
• James Conner has five carries in the money zone and has four rushing touchdowns, tied for second in both categories.
• Ravens running back Ty'Son Williams averaged 6.07 yards per attempt in three games before being a healthy scratch in Week 4. New starter Latavius Murray is averaging 3.43 yards per carry.
• Kenyan Drake, signed for $11 million over two years in the offseason, saw one touch in Week 4 and has 35 over four games. Peyton Barber, released by Washington in the offseason and signed for just under $1 million before the season opener, has 40 touches in three games with the Raiders.
• Cordarrelle Patterson is the most efficient player in fantasy football by a wide margin. He has 83.4 fantasy points (PPR scoring) with just 45 touches (rushes + receptions). By contrast, Alvin Kamara has 57.9 points with 88 touches and Joe Mixon has 57.2 points with 90 touches.

Cordarrelle Patterson now just dusting the field in DraftKings points scored by snap. pic.twitter.com/zGV4VXOxbX

— Jon Anderson (@JonPgh) October 4, 2021

 

Wide Receiver

• • Brandin Cooks leads all receivers in team target share (37.1%) and air yard share (56.8%).
  • Three WRs are averaging over 100 receiving yards per game: Deebo Samuel (122.5), Tyreek Hill (113.3), and Cooper Kupp (107.8).
  • Deebo Samuel leads the league with 198 yards after the catch.
  • Six different Cardinals receivers have at least 15 receptions and 140 receiving yards after four games. Their top four wideouts all have 200 or more yards.
  • D.J. Moore leads all players with eight receptions of 20 or more yards.

D.J. Moore Turns it up again! ?pic.twitter.com/qk5vInBJMI

— PantherNationCP (@PantherNationC1) October 3, 2021

• Zach Pascal leads all receivers with nine red-zone targets and seven money-zone targets.
• Cooper Kupp has four targets inside the five-yard line. No other wideout has three but there are 12 others tied at two including Pascal and Robert Woods.
• Marquise Brown has the fifth-highest drop rate among WRs with at least 10 targets at a 13.6% Drop%. Sammy Watkins is sixth at 13.0%.
• Kadarius Toney has a -0.2 aDoT (average depth of target).
• Marvin Jones Jr. has been on the field for 234 plays, by far the most of any receiver. Adam Thielen is second with 208. Ja'Marr Chase is fourth with 197.
• Amari Cooper has lined up in the slot 102 times. CeeDee Lamb has 73 slot snaps as does Cedrick Wilson.

 

Tight End

• • Rob Gronkowski is 12th at TE in total targets with 21 over three games but still ranks as the fantasy TE3.
  • Mark Andrews leads all TEs with five catches of 20 yards or more.
  • Kyle Pitts is tied for the lead with three $Z targets and is second with seven RZ targets but has zero touchdowns.
  • Jody Fortson has caught all four of his targets on the year, two of which resulted in touchdowns.
  • Dawson Knox has six red-zone targets, same as Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley.

Dawson Knox's second TD of the day! #BillsMafia

?: #HOUvsBUF on CBS
?: NFL app pic.twitter.com/SpoxFKSH09

— NFL (@NFL) October 3, 2021

• Zach Ertz has run a route on 100% of his 62 snaps.
• C.J. Uzomah is sixth among all tight ends in routes run at 94 and his 12.2 yards per target is top among TEs with at least 10 targets.
• Maxx Williams' 11.2 yards per target ranks third. He is averaging 10.7 YPT since joining Arizona in 2019 after averaging 6.0 YPT in four years with Baltimore.

 

DST

• The Dallas Cowboys Defense leads the NFL with eight interceptions in four games. They picked off 10 passes in 16 games last year.
• The Atlanta Falcons Defense and New York Jets Defense are the only units without an INT this year. The Jets have only allowed two passing touchdowns, however, while the Falcons have yielded 11.
• The Buffalo Bills Defense has allowed three passing touchdowns and has seven interceptions in four games.
• Buffalo, New Orleans, New England, and Denver have more INT than passing TD allowed.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Defense has allowed a league-high 327.5 passing yards per game and 11 passing TD in four games.
• Tampa Bay allowed the fewest yards per rush attempt to RBs in 2020 at 3.51 and is doing it again by allowing just 2.85 YPC.
• The Washington Football Team Defense is allowing the most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks at 31.9 per game. Last year, they allowed the fifth-fewest at 20.7 FPPG.
• On the other hand, WFT Defense is one of nine teams allowing fewer than four yards per carry to running backs.
• The Detroit Lions are allowing a league-high 10.59 yards per pass attempt.
• The Los Angeles Chargers Defense is giving up the second-most yards per carry to RBs but the third-lowest yards per target to WRs.
• The Las Vegas Raiders were bottom-10 in fantasy points allowed to WRs last year but are top-five in that category this year.
• Despite not having to face Travis Kelce this year (or ever), the Kansas City Chiefs defense is allowing the most receiving yards to TEs.
• Arizona's opponents have missed three field goals and four extra points so far.
• The Vikings have seen their opponent kick a field goal of 50+ yards in each game this season.

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