Fantasy Football Redraft

Print

100 Fantasy Football Facts You Need to Know

Blood, sweat and beers go into our player profiles each season.

All kidding aside, they’re the most detailed fantasy outlooks you’ll find. They fuel the projections, rankings and your MVP Board.

There’s no substitute for digging in to each and every profile. But here’s the next best thing: the top 100 facts we uncovered while researching and writing these bad boys.

Enjoy!

1. Aaron Rodgers has finished 7 of his 8 full starting seasons among fantasy’s top 2 QBs.

2. Drew Brees’ 2nd-place fantasy finish last year marked his 8th time among the top 3 QBs in 11 seasons with the Saints. He’s fallen outside the top 4 just twice in that span and has never ranked lower than 6th.

3. Russell Wilson recorded a 40.5% completion rate in the red zone last year, 3rd lowest among qualifiers behind Case Keenum and Cam Newton.

4. Jameis Winston’s 8,132 passing yards are the 2nd most in NFL history through 2 seasons.

5. Philip Rivers has finished 8 of the past 9 seasons among fantasy’s top 11 QBs. (He’s QB15 in ADP right now.)

6. Andy Dalton’s 17 rushing TDs since 2012 are 2nd most among QBs, behind only Cam Newton.

7. Cam Newton produced 18 fewer fantasy points on the ground in 2016 than he had in any of his first 5 seasons.

8. Ben Roethlisberger averaged 28.7 fantasy points per game at home last year — a point and a half more than any other QB averaged over the entire season. His 16.2 fantasy points per game on the road would have landed him 25th at the position.

9. Dak Prescott tied for the 2nd most TD passes by a rookie in NFL history. He set rookie records for highest completion rate (67.76%), lowest INT rate (0.9%) and best QB rating (112.1).

10. Matt Ryan’s 9.3 yards per attempt last year was the 10th best average in NFL history and the best since Kurt Warner back in 2000.

11. Only 4 QBs have run for more total yards than Blake Bortles over the past 3 seasons.

12. Alex Smith has finished as a top 12 fantasy QB in just 13 of 46 games over the past 3 seasons.

13. Sam Bradford set an NFL record with his 71.6% completion rate last year … but his 9.8 yards per completion ranked last among 30 qualifying QBs.

14. David Johnson finished as a top 15 fantasy RB in all 15 of his healthy games last season.

15. If we take just Le’Veon Bell’s per-game receiving stats from last year — 6.3 catches, 51.3 yards and .17 TDs — he would have ranked 26th among WRs in PPR points.

16. Ezekiel Elliott averaged 5.1 yards per carry, despite facing an average of 8.0 defenders in the box on his runs. Only 4 RBs had a higher average.

17. Melvin Gordon drew a league-high 85% share of carries from the 5-yard line or closer last year. Nine of his 10 rushing scores came from that territory.

18. Jay Ajayi became the 4th player in league history to record 200+ rushing yards 3 times in a single season.

19. Devonta Freeman is the only RB to finish among the top 6 in PPR and non-PPR points in both of the last 2 seasons.

20. DeMarco Murray has carried 878 times over the past 3 seasons — 100 more than anyone else.

21. Jordan Howard averaged 5.7 yards per carry in 8 games vs. bottom-16 run defenses last year. He averaged 4.2 in 5 starts against top 16 units.

22. Todd Gurley hasn’t posted 90+ rushing yards since Week 14 of 2015 -- a streak of 18 straight games.

23. Isaiah Crowell out-targeted Duke Johnson 34 to 27 over the 2nd half of last season.

24. Lamar Miller averaged 4.1 yards per carry on his first 10 attempts of games. That dropped to 3.9 on carries 11 through 20 and down to 2.6 on carries 21 through 30.

25. Joe Mixon’s new team, the Bengals, have ranked among the top 9 in total rushing attempts in 4 straight seasons and among the top 7 in rushing TDs in 3 straight years.

26. Bilal Powell last year ranked 2nd in yards per carry, 3rd in yards after contact per carry and 9th in missed tackles forced per carry, according to Pro Football Focus.

27. Oakland RBs scored the position’s 5th-most non-PPR points and 4th-most PPR points last year. Potentially good news for Marshawn Lynch.

28. C.J. Anderson topped 3.7 yards per carry in just 2 of 7 games last year.

29. Mark Ingram ranked 8th among RBs in total PPR points in 2016, but he finished outside the top 24 at his position in 9 of 16 weeks.

30. Paul Perkins averaged just 3.4 yards per carry in his first 8 games last year but 4.5 over his last 5.

31. Frank Gore’s 1,025 rushing yards last season were the 2nd most in NFL history by a 33-year-old.

32. Eddie Lacy ranked 2nd among RBs (min. 70 carries) with 2.8 yards after contact per attempt last year, according to ESPN.

33. Kenneth Dixon finished with a better yards-per-carry mark than Terrance West in 7 of last year’s final 9 games.

34. Mike Gillislee tallied 3.34 yards after contact per attempt last year, 3rd most among RBs, according to Pro Football Focus.

35. Tevin Coleman’s 13.6 yards per catch in 2016 was tops among all RB seasons of 40+ targets over the past 18 years.

36. LeGarrette Blount scored 11 times from the 1-yard line last year.

37. The Saints have produced 16+ rushing scores in 3 straight seasons and 7 of 11 overall under HC Sean Payton and QB Drew Brees.

38. Jonathan Stewart scored on 9 of 16 carries from inside the opponent’s 5-yard line last year. That 56.3% conversion rate easily topped the league average of 46.9%.

39. Only 9 active RBs have more career catches than Danny Woodhead’s 267. None of them have averaged more than his 9.4 yards per catch.

40. Theo Riddick ranked 11th (across all positions) in receptions per game last season; 10th in 2015.

41. Jeremy Hill failed to reach 4 yards per carry in 12 of his 15 games last year.

42. Darren Sproles has caught 50+ balls in 6 of the past 7 seasons.

43. New Orleans’ top pass-catching RB has averaged 61.9 receptions per season. That guy has posted at least 42 grabs every year and topped 70 catches 5 times. Potentially good news for rookie Alvin Kamara.

44. Antonio Brown set 4-year lows in catches and yards last season — but still led all WRs in PPR points and ranked 3rd in non-PPR.

45. Julio Jones’ 9 red-zone targets tied for 87th league-wide last year and ranked 6th on his own team.

46. Odell Beckham ranked as a top 12 fantasy WR 8 times last year, but he also finished 39th or worse 5 times.

47. A.J. Green averaged 7.3 catches, 107.1 yards and .44 TDs in 9 full games last year — a full-season pace of 117 catches, 1,714 yards and 7 TDs. The catch and yardage marks would have led the league by significant margins.

48. Mike Evans ranks 2nd in NFL history in catches, yards and TDs through age-23.

49. Jordy Nelson finished 15 of his 16 weeks among the top 36 PPR receivers last year and tied for the league lead by delivering 11 top-24 level weeks.

50. Dez Bryant’s 7.9 targets per game last year (excluding Week 17) were his fewest since 2011.

51. The Saints’ #1 WR has averaged 119.5 targets per year during the Sean Payton/Drew Brees era. Only once has that guy topped 131 targets. Michael Thomas’ volume might not grow as much as you think this season.

52. T.Y. Hilton ranks 6th among WRs in yards per target over the past 3 seasons.

53. Amari Cooper drew 13 red-zone targets last year — 8 fewer than Michael Crabtree and 7 fewer than Seth Roberts.

54. Over the past 3 seasons, only Antonio Brown has more 5+ catch games (by 1) than Demaryius Thomas.

55. DeAndre Hopkins ranked 76th in yards per target last year among 92 WRs who saw 50+ looks.

56. In Rick Dennison's last 4 seasons as an OC, his top WR has seen the following target shares: 29.8%, 28.6%, 29.2%, 25.3%. Good news for Sammy Watkins.

57. Only 5 players have caught more balls than Golden Tate since he arrived in Detroit 3 seasons ago.

58. Doug Baldwin posted career highs in targets (125), target share (22.8%), catches (94) and yards (1,128) last year.

59. Allen Robinson’s 5.85 yards per target last year ranked 82nd among 92 WRs with 50+ looks. That was way down from his 2015 mark of 9.27 that landed him 16th at the position.

60. Keenan Allen has averaged just 10.5 yards per catch since the 14.7 of his rookie year.

61. Larry Fitzgerald is 1 of 8 players in league history with at least four 100-catch seasons.

62. Davante Adams tallied 24.8% of his targets and 33% of his catches in 2 games last year.

63. Terrelle Pryor will help absorb the 214 targets left by DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon in Washington.

64. Jarvis Landry averaged 10.4 targets per game prior to Jay Ajayi’s Week 6 breakout last year but just 7.5 targets per game after.

65. Stefon Diggs averaged 9.0 yards per target and 13.3 yards per catch under OC Norv Turner last year; 7.3 and 8.9 under OC Pat Shurmur.

66. Emmanuel Sanders’ target share went from 31.9% over the first 5 games of last season to 22.5% the rest of the way.

67. DeSean Jackson has ranked among the top 5 WRs in fantasy points per target in 4 straight seasons — the only WR to do that.

68. Tyreek Hill drew a target every 5.01 snaps last year. Only 7 players were targeted on a higher percentage of snaps.

69. With Tom Brady back for the final 12 games of 2016, Julian Edelman ranked 1st in targets, 2nd in catches and 10th in PPR points among WRs.

70. Willie Snead ranks 11th in catch rate and 15th in yards per target among 88 WRs who totaled 100+ targets over the past 2 seasons.

71. Eric Decker’s 51 total TDs since 2011 rank 6th league-wide.

72. Pro Football Focus charted a league-high 55% of Brandon Marshall’s 2016 targets as uncatchable.

73. The 5’8, 182-pound Jamison Crowder ranked 16th among WRs in red zone targets last year.

74. Kenny Britt averaged 9.01 yards per target last year, while all other Rams mustered just 5.44.

75. Jeremy Maclin spent 4 years in Philadelphia playing in current Ravens OC Marty Mornhinweg’s system. Maclin averaged 65 catches, 863 yards and 6.5 TDs across those seasons. His PPR finishes: 36th, 14th, 31st and 22nd.

76. Donte Moncrief ranked 86th in yards per target among 92 WRs who saw 50+ looks last year. Teammates T.Y. Hilton and Phillip Dorsett ranked 10th and 20th, respectively.

77. Jordan Matthews last year became 1 of only 5 players in league history with a minimum of 65 grabs and 800 yards in each of his first 3 seasons.

78. Tyrell Williams finished among the top 36 PPR WRs 10 times last year. Only 9 guys beat that total.

79. Pierre Garcon spent 2 seasons with 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan in Washington, posting lines of 44-633-4 (in 10 games) and 113-1,346-5.

80. Marvin Jones drew 23.1% of Lions targets over the first 4 games; 13.0% over his final 11.

81. Bears QBs combined for a 100.1 rating when throwing to Cameron Meredith in 2016.

82. Quincy Enunwa’s 80% catch rate on deep balls ranked #1 league-wide last year among WRs with 10+ targets, per Pro Football Focus.

83. Rishard Matthews’ 13.8% TD rate last year was 5th highest among the top 50 PPR WRs. The average TD rate of that group: 8.0%.

84. Adam Thielen’s 12-202-2 line at Green Bay last year accounted for 22.7% of his season PPR points; 25.4% in non-PPR.

85. Devin Funchess’ 44.6% catch rate ranks dead last among 84 WRs who have seen 100+ targets over the past 2 seasons.

86. Taylor Gabriel led all 92 WRs who saw 50+ targets last year in PPR points per target.

87. Chris Conley was 1 of only 4 players to draw 10+ red-zone targets without scoring in 2016.

88. Rob Gronkowski leads the NFL with 68 receiving TDs since 2010.

89. Travis Kelce led TEs with 221 PPR points last year. But that would have ranked 6th in 2015 and 4th in 2014.

90. Jordan Reed has led all TEs in PPR points per game in each of the last 2 seasons.

91. Greg Olsen last year became the 1st TE in NFL history to post 3 straight 1,000-yard seasons.

92. Delanie Walker is 1 of only 2 TEs to finish among the top 11 in PPR points in each of the past 4 seasons. (Olsen is the other.)

93. Since 1970, Eric Ebron has the 6th most receptions by a TE before turning 24.

94. Tyler Eifert sits 4th among TEs in TDs per game over the past 4 seasons — but just 18th in yards per game and 20th in catches per game.

95. Green Bay has had a TE rank among the team’s top 3 in red-zone targets 2 of the past 3 years. That figures to be Martellus Bennett in 2017.

96. From Week 9 onward, Zach Ertz finished #1 among TEs in total fantasy points and points per game.

97. Jack Doyle’s 78.7% catch rate led all 35 TEs who saw 40+ targets last year. He ranked 13th among that group in yards per target.

98. Coby Fleener’s 16 red zone targets last season ranked 2nd on the Saints and 5th among all TEs.

99. Among 46 TEs who saw 25+ targets last year, Austin Hooper ranked 4th in yards per catch and 2nd in yards per target.

100. Antonio Gates led the Chargers and ranked 2nd among all TEs with 18 red-zone targets in 2016.

Alex Korff, Product Manager

Alex is an engineer by trade and focuses a lot on the game theory and the “value” of players. He spends most of his time in spreadsheets and building new fantasy football tools.