Jay Ajayi forced four missed tackles on his mere six carries.
C.J. Anderson has touched the ball 20 times in 3-of-4 games. He’s also scored four times. Great stuff. Alas, the production in the yardage department has been a huge negative. He’s failed to hit 50-yards the last two games on the ground, and the las three games he’s caught five balls for 26 yards.
Tavon Austin caught two of six passes for 14 yards in Week 4. That’s now 16 receptions on 36 targets for him this season. that's a 44.4 percent completion rate on passes thrown to Austin --- and those passes are always within 10-yards of the line of scrimmage. #Disgraceful
Le’Veon Bell appeared on the field for 54 snaps. He was used out of the backfield 39 times with seven snaps at the wideout spot out wide, seven out of the slow and even one out of the tight end spot. #LockAndLoad
Martellus Bennett only ran 17 routes in Week 4 as he spent most of the day blocking. Still, he caught five balls for 109 yards in the effort with a massive 6.41 yards per route run, an elite level number. That’s two of four games with 100-yards for Bennett. The other two games he’s caught a total of five balls for 24 yards. By the way, Bennett leads the tight end position with 188 yards after the catch. On the year Coby Fleener has 163 receiving yards.
John Brown caught 10-of-16 pass attempts in Week 4 in a massive effort that is detailed in this edition of the Big-3 Video.
Brice Butler led all Cowboys wideouts with 62 snaps in Week 4 as he stepped into the shoes of Dez Bryant to catch 5-of-9 targets for 41 yards and a score. #MansGuyFinallyComesThrough
Jamaal Charles will see his role grow starting in Week 6 when the Chiefs return from the Bye. He was on the field for only 11 snaps Sunday, well behind the leader Spencer Ware (56).
Michael Crabtree caught seven of 11 passes for 88 yards and three scores. He actually has seen two more targets than Amari Cooper, 35 to 33, in four weeks. #RisingStar
Isaiah Crowell had another strong performance for the Browns. He forced eight missed tackles, a massive total given that he carried the ball just 15 times. Crowell leads the league with nine runs of 15 yards (Todd Gurley has only one). Additionally, he averaged a whopping six yards after contact. On the year he is the only back in football who is averaging more than 3.65 yards after contact at 4.51. It’s a huge number. Compare that a guy like Ezekiel Elliott 2.53 or Todd Gurley 2.35. Rather amazingly, Lamar Miller is being down at 1.98. Don’t panic with the Texans runner even though he has less scores this season than C.J. Spiller. Take a look at this Daily Dive Video for more on Miller.
Ezekiel Elliott ran for 138 yards against the Niners with 73 of those yards coming after contact. He leads the NFL with 412 rushing yards in four games at 4.4 yards per clip.
The highest rated wideout in the NFL, as of this writing, according to Pro Football Focus is Larry Fitzgerald who is just slightly ahead of Julio Jones. #Mr300
Ryan Fitzpatrick has dealt with a horrific 10 picks and he’s also suffering from 13 drops, the most in football (tied with Case Keenum). #IDontKnowWhatColorJerseysMyTeammatesWear
Josh Ferguson saw 10 targets in Week 4, just the second time a runner has seen double-digit targets in a game this season (Giovani Bernard in Week 2).
Matt Forte only ran the ball for 27 yards in Week 4 but he produced an amazing 24 of those yards after contact.
FOUR: The NFL leading drop total of some really big names – Julian Edelman, Jeremy Maclin, Allen Robinson, Marvin Jones and Tavon Austin.
Blaine Gabbert has thrown for four touchdowns this season. To have gone to the tight end (Vance McDonald). McDonald and Garrett Celek have 15 receptions for 224 yards. The top wideout this season is Jeremy Kerley at 18-202.
Melvin Gordon didn’t score last season. He has now scored in 4-straight games to open the 2016 season. Gordon has scored six times in total to become the second player the last decade to score six rushing touchdown in the first four games. Devonta Freeman last season on his way to scoring 11 times on the ground. Gordon fumbled in Week 4 and also generated just 36 yards on 19 carries. #SuccessYesButCaution
Jimmy Graham has gone over 100-yards in back-to-back games. He’s caught every catchable ball thrown his way. #ImBack
Jordan Howard was on the field for 63-of-69 plays for the Bears.
Carlos Hyde had a 32 yard run to open up the third quarter in Week 4. On his other 14 carries he produced 42 yards. On the season he’s at just 4.1 YPC, but he has two runs of 30+ yards last week. He also has just 30 receiving yards this season. Five scores cover up a lot of woes though. #ProductiveBue
David Johnson earned 52 of his 85 yards in Week 4 after contact as the Cardinals line had a hard time holding the Rams defense at bay. He leads the NFL with 17 forced missed tackles. Johnson also leads all backs with 139 routes run, 27 more than Theo Riddick. No runner in the game has a higher yards produced per route run than Tevin Coleman at 2.97 yards. Only two other backs are above 1.85: Spencer Ware 2.12 and Fozzy Whittaker 2.12.
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Matt Jones had his best game of the season with well over 100-rushing yards. He also broke four tackles on his 22 carries and averaged almost four yards after contact.
DeMarco Murray ran the ball 25 times for 95 yards and two scores. He also didn’t break a single tackle. #HowIsThatPossible
Greg Olsen has caught 24 of 39 targets this season. He leads the position in targets and is second in receptions with one less than Jordan Reed. Olsen has also caught all 24 of the catchable balls thrown his way. For his part, Reed has converted 25-of-26. #StickyHands
Ben Roethlisberger picked apart the Steelers. That’s what happens when you feel pressure on just four of 29 drop backs. He completed 22 of 27 passes for five scores and 300 yards in a masterful performance. Week 4 was also his first game this season without a pick.
Alex Smith led the NFL in drop backs in Week 1. He also pulled off the trick again in Week 4. #TrulyBizarre
Steve Smith is rounding into shape. He's seen nine targets in 3-of-4 games this season including catching 8-of-11 for 111 yards and a score last week.
Carson Wentz is last in the league with a 5.1 yards per aimed throw mark, according to PFF. He also has the lowest percentage of yards in the air of any quarterback in the game at 46.0 percent of his passing yards. That means his pass catchers have generated 54 percent of the yards he has put up. He’s been greatly dependent on his receivers making nice plays. By the way, Blake Bortles (46.7 percent) and Matthew Stafford (49.1 percent) are also both generating less than half their yards on passes through the air. At the other end of the spectrum no one is doing more on passes in the air then Big Ben who is at 68.5 percent of his passes being generated by himself.
THE SLOT
Quincy Enunwa didn’t move outside as we thought he would in the absence of Eric Decker. Enunwa stayed inside and still ran 93.2 percent of his routes out of the slot. #SlotSuccess
Jarvis Landry leads the league with 41 targets out of the slot. He also leads all slot receivers with targets on 27.9 percent of the routes he has run out of the slot. The #2 man is… wait for it… Jeremy Kerley at 27.0 percent. The player who leads the NFL in routes run out of the slot, as a percentage of the total routes the player has run, is Sterling Shepard who has run 94.7 percent of his routes for the Giants out of the slot.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).