Greetings! Dave Richard here. Chris Towers has handed over the reins to the Fantasy Football Today newsletter to me so I could reach out directly to you. Throughout the offseason, you'll see more newsletters from me, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings and the rest of our Fantasy crew with some of our best offseason content that we want to make sure you see. Hopefully this goes well. If not, you'll probably see me begging for loose change and pizza slices on a street corner near you.
On Wednesday's episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast, we talked about some stunning stats from the 2020 NFL season, including some fun numbers about Derrick Henry's big runs and Darren Waller's big catches. I wrote about some of those stats, with one you need to know for each NFL team. You can find five key facts below, and then head over to CBSSports.com to read the rest.
Before that, here are a few thoughts on the big news from the recent days, beginning, of course, with Russell Wilson's suddenly questionable future in Seattle.
Enjoy!
The latest news
- Russell Wilson acknowledged his future in Seattle isn't up to him, but if he is staying, he'd like to have a say in the personnel. He'd also like to be sacked less. Wilson has been sacked 230 times over the past five seasons, and 394 times in his career. Per Pro Football Focus, Wilson has been sacked at least 36 times per season when spending at least 2.5 seconds in the pocket in each of the past eight years, suggesting his inability or unwillingness to throw quickly contributed to his high sack total.
- In an in-depth interview with Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free-Press, Matthew Stafford opened up about how he really felt about leaving Detroit. It's worth seeking out to read yourself. But in the interview, Stafford admitted to playing in 2020 with a torn ligament in his right thumb, another torn ligament in his left elbow, injured rib cartilage, another tear behind his left knee and a right ankle sprain. The man is tough as nails.
- Joe Burrow is on track to begin a running program next week, a small but significant milestone in his rehabilitation from a torn ACL. There's still plenty of optimism that Burrow will be ready for Week 1 and participate in much of training camp. Burrow will be the most popular QB breakout candidate in 2021.
- Carson Wentz is still an Eagle, as teams have been "unwilling" to part with what the Eagles are asking for, per the Newark Star-Ledger. The Bears and Colts remain the most rumored franchises to acquire Wentz this offseason.
32 Fast Fantasy Facts
Stats don't always tell the whole story, but they're the entire basis of what Fantasy Football is. We measure players based on how many Fantasy points they get us, and start them because of the number of catches, yards and touchdowns a defense gives up.
I dug into the PPR Fantasy point totals of every single team and found one compelling stat for each. Something more than "this guy scored this many points in this week." These stats can help us see into the future as each franchise gears up for free agency and the NFL Draft ... not to mention give us an edge in 2021 drafts.
And as a bonus, I noted what the top 12 average Fantasy point numbers were for each position. Just to let you know what a good game was in 2020. Keep an eye out for the quarterback and running back averages -- they'll blow your mind.
But before you dig into the longer-than-usual read here, I wanted to showcase a few of my favorite facts:
In DeAndre Hopkins' nine games with at least 15 PPR points, a Cardinals running back also had 15-plus PPR points three times -- and Chase Edmonds had two of those three.
Hopkins had a similar track record with the Texans and their lame run attack. Also of note, a Cardinals running back had the same amount of 15-plus-point games, three, in the seven outings Hopkins failed to get 15 PPR points. We know Kyler Murray is a massive factor in the Cardinals' running backs not being efficient for Fantasy, but they could use an upgrade at the position anyway (maybe to take pressure off Murray). If the Cardinals make a big splash at running back, it could mean a statistical downtick for both Murray and Hopkins.
T.J. Hockenson scored 10 or more PPR points in 8 of 12 games the Lions played with Kenny Golladay limited (Week 8) or absent (Weeks 1-2 and 9-17).
Hockenson's arrow is already pointing up with Jared Goff's short-area passing game arriving in Motown along with tight end-friendly coaches in Dan Campbell and Anthony Lynn. Golladay changing teams would obviously open up targets for Hockenson.
Indianapolis' 12 games where a running back had 15-plus PPR points was third-most in the NFL.
Running the ball is the direction the Colts seem to be heading. Why shouldn't they be, with Jonathan Taylor primed to lead the way? Indy's run game overshadowed the rest of the offense to the point where a tight end had 10-plus PPR points in just five games and multiple receivers had 15-plus in just one game. Taylor has as much upside as anyone not named McCaffrey, Kamara or Cook (Dalvin, not Jared).
Derek Carr had nine games with 22-plus Fantasy points. Josh Jacobs attained 15-plus PPR points in just two of them.
For the record, Jacobs had just five games with 15-plus PPR points in 2020 despite scoring 12 touchdowns and totaling over 1,300 yards. How'd that happen? He had four multi-touchdown games and six scoreless outings with under 100 total yards. Consistency has been an issue for Jacobs through two seasons as he hit the 15-point PPR mark in 33% of his games this year and 38.5% last year. What reasons do we have to expect anything changing in 2021?
Tom Brady scored over 30 points in five games. Chris Godwin was inactive for one of them and had at least 15 PPR points in the other four. Godwin also had 15-plus PPR points in Brady's games with 29 and 27 points, and he even had 13 PPR points in another 27-point game for Brady.
Of course Brady helped all of his targets put up big games over the course of 2020, but Godwin seemed to click with him the most in big games, barely ahead of Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski. The Bucs need to keep Godwin.
