7: The number of passes, of at least 25-yards, that have been caught by Amari Cooper, DeSean Jackson, Julio Jones and Marvin Jones. That is the most in football by the way.
16: The league leading “stuff” total of LeGarrette Blount, the worst mark in football. It’s one more than LeSean McCoy. Devontae Booker has only 34 carries, but he has not been stuffed one time. Meanwhile, Le’Veon Bell has been stuffed once on 48 carries and Jonathan Stewart once on 39 carries.
23: The league worst sack total of Andrew Luck. That’s the same number of sacks as Derek Carr (seven), Kirk Cousins (eight) and Drew Brees (eight).
64: The target total of Antonio Brown and T.Y. Hilton, the most in football.
84.6: The leading percentage, for a wideout, in converting targets into receptions by Cole Beasley. He’s caught 33-of-39 targets by the way. Next up is his teammate Terrance Williams at 83.3 percent (20-for-24). Good work Dak Prescott.
94.3: The league leading percentage of snaps out of the slot for Sterling Shepard. Tyler Boyd (88.3), Jeremy Kerley (87.0), Cole Beasley (86.8) and Andrew Hawkins (83.9) round out the top-5. Kerley leads the league with 47 targets out of the slot. Jarvis Landry is the only other man to see 40 snaps out of the slot. He has 43. Landry leads the way with 33 catches. Kerley/Beasley have 26. Meanwhile, Quincy Enunwa and Anquan Bolden lead the way with three drops out of the slot.
1,033: Yards after the catch by receivers for Matt Ryan, the highest mark in football. He’s the only quarterback over 920, other than Eli Manning (957).
Le’Veon Bell has a 4.2 yards after contact mark on carries, the best mark in the league. There are only 14 teams in the NFL who average 4.2 yards a carry.
Tevin Coleman leads the NFL with 286 yards after the catch. The guy is averaging a whopping 15.9 yards after the catch. David Johnson, who is second in football in receiving yards at running back (he has 265 to Coleman’s 320) is at 10.8 YAC. The top wideout in football is Julio Jones who has 247 YAC. That’s not overly surprising given that he leads the NFL with 656 receiving yards. The leading tight end in YAC is Martellus Bennett at 244.
C.J. Fiedorowicz is averaging 2.07 yards per route run which is sixth best amongst tight ends. He’s quietly caught four or more passes each of the last three weeks during which time he’s scored twice. He’s also caught 10 balls for 146 yards the last two weeks.
Case Keenum needs to throw the ball more frequently to Kenny Britt (more on Britt below). When Britt is the target of his throws Keenum has a 132.5 QB Rating which is stupendous. Britt is averaging an impressive 16.4 YPC. Last year the mark was 18.9 and the mark is 16.1 percent for his career. Britt has a tough matchup this week against Janoris Jenkins or Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie who had success last week against the Ravens.
David Johnson has broken 29 tackles on 118 touches. That’s impressive.
Tyrod Taylor forced 39 missed tackles last season. He’s currently on pace for about 35 this season.
IS PERCEPTION REALITY?
Perception: Jordy Nelson is Back.jpg)
I warned everyone over, and over, and over again this preseason. I said, repeatedly, that I didn’t understand the love for Jordy Nelson, a 31 year old wideout coming back from ACL surgery. People pushed all those concerns aside and took him inside the top-20 overall players according to ADP from the NFFC. To me, that was simply insane. Bonkers crazy. Nelson scored four times his first three games and five times in four games and I looked like an idiot, but…
Nelson has not scored in two games.
Nelson has caught just 10 passes his last three games.
He’s caught six passes the last two games.
He’s appeared in six games this season. He’s failed to reach 40-yards in half of those games. Half.
Nelson is on pace for a 16 game season of 72 receptions and 856 yards. Those numbers flat out stink. Sue he’s on pace for 13 scores but do you really think he’s going to get there? I certainly don’t.
Nelson can’t separate from defenders like he used to.
Nelson doesn’t even appear to be a preferred member of his offense any more. Think of it. Nelson has 11 targets the last two games. Davante Adams had 13 receptions on Thursday Night Football. Randall Cobb has 18 receptions the last two weeks. Montgomery has 20 receptions the last two games. Again, the last two weeks Nelson has 11 targets while Cobb has 18 catches and Montgomery 20.
Perception: Kenny Britt is a Weekly Starter
Kenny Britt is on pace for 1,312 yards. He has gone for 75-yards in 3-straight games. He’s caught at least four passes each game this season. That’s all impressive. However…
The Rams are not a good passing offense despite what we saw last week against the Lions. The Rams are 5th worst in passing yards a week at 236.2. The have thrown just 30.7 passes a game, the 4th fewest in football. They have thrown for seven touchdown passes in six games. None of that is good at all.
Back to Britt…
He scored twice last week. Those are his only two scores this season. Going back to last year he has scored five times in 22 games. In 38 games with the Rams Britt has scored eight times. This offense cannot support a big time scorer at wide receiver.
Britt has 40 targets this season. That is tied for 35th in football. Only twice in six games has he seen more than six targets in a game. He doesn’t get volume.
Britt is on pace for 80 receptions. In a career of seven season in the NFL he’s never had 50 catches. Things change, agreed, but that’s something to ponder. How about this one. Only twice in his career has Britt received 80-targets in a season (90 in 2012 and 84 in 2014).
Be very cautious with overestimating the value of Britt.
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).