Hello, #FANation!
Each week I’m going to get on the horn and tell you some of the more surprising stats that I found while doing my weekly research. And this week, with only two weeks in the books, there are a lot of outliers. As an analyst, here at FantasyAlarm, it’s my job to determine if those outliers will correct themselves over the next few weeks, or if these are real changes.
But for now, I’ll present the raw stats, without the analysis. Maybe it’s your turn to make the call.
Alex Smith threw for 368 yards and four touchdowns in Week 1 versus the Patriots. In Week 2, he crashed back down to earth and threw for 251 yards and one touchdown. However, his fantasy score was the 10th highest in standard formats.
Tom Brady leads the league with 714 passing yards. Second is Aaron Rodgers with 654 yards and third is Drew Brees with 647 yards. The yardage leaders are also the top-3 ranked quarterbacks going into the season.
According to Pro Football Focus, of the quarterbacks projected to start in Week 3, Deshaun Watson has the lowest adjust completion percentage in the league at 59.6 percent. However, the next three at the bottom of the list may surprise you: Carson Palmer (62.5), Jameis Winston (63.3), Marcus Mariota (63.5).
In Week 2, Deshaun Watson rushed for 67 yards. That was more rushing yards than Ezekiel Elliott, LeSean McCoy, Jordan Howard, DeMarco Murray, and Melvin Gordon combined… Of all those running backs, only Melvin Gordon scored a touchdown and went over 50 yards receiving on the day.
Kareem Hunt leads the league in fantasy scoring at his position by at least 20 fantasy points, regardless of format. Hunt has the most rushing and receiving yards among all running backs. His 126 receiving yards would be 16th among wide receivers. He also leads all backs with five total touchdowns. Mike Gillislee is second with four touchdowns, all on the ground.
On only 6 carries and 7 receptions, Chris Thompson is the sixth highest scoring running back in non-PPR leagues and the fourth highest scoring in PPR formats. He’s also averaging a league-high 13.5 yards per carry.
Tarik Cohen averaged 12 yards after contact in Week 1, and then 1.7 yards after contact in Week 2. Combined, he still leads the league with an averaged 6.0 yards after contact, which is a real-life example of why you need to break down averages and look at what happens on a per game basis.
Ty Montgomery has played in 88.0 percent of his team’s offensive snaps, the most of any running back in the league. Elliott is second, having been on the field for 84.8 percent, but then it drops dramatically to Lamar Miller, who’s been out there for 77.9 percent of the Texans’ offensive snaps.
In both non-PPR and PPR leagues, these are the top-5 scoring receivers through two weeks of regular season play: Michael Crabtree, J.J. Nelson, Tyreek Hill, Antonio Brown, and Jermaine Kearse. And as I write this, Kearse is still less than 40 percent owned in Yahoo leagues.
DeAndre Hopkins is the only wide receiver who has been out on the field for 100 percent of his team’s offensive snaps. He also received 41.7 of the team target share in Week 1 and 54.2 percent of the team targets in Week 2.
Chris Hogan has been on the field for 87.9 percent of the Patriots’ offensive snaps, second highest in the league, but he only has six receptions on the season, five of which came in Week 2.
According to Pro Football Focus, Amari Cooper has five drops over the first two games of the season. He only had four drops over the entirety of 2016, but he did lead the league with 18 drops during his rookie season in 2015.
In Week 1, five wide receivers went over 100 yards receiving: Antonio Brown, Adam Thielen, Tyreek Hill, Golden Tate, and Danny Amendola. In Week 2, three players crossed that threshold: J.J. Nelson, Julio Jones, and Keenan Allen. There is no overlap, and only Antonio Brown and Julio Jones went over 60 yards in the week that they didn’t hit the 100-yard mark.
In non-PPR leagues, Tavon Austin has yet to score a whole point. His high score in PPR formats? 1.8…
Jason Witten turned 35 in May of this year, and yet over the course of two weeks he is the fantasy leader in both non-PPR and PPR leagues. His 17 receptions on the season are the most among tight ends, running backs, and even wide receivers.
Only Jason Witten, Coby Fleener, and Jesse James have scored two touchdowns at the tight end position. All three of them are top-8 scoring fantasy options at their position, regardless of format. None of them were ranked in the top-14 going into the season, or had an ADP in the single-digit rounds.
Zach Ertz managed 190 receiving yards over the course of two games. He is the yardage leader among tight ends, but more interestingly, only Antonio Brown and Adam Thielen have more total yardage than Ertz.
The highest scoring kicker on the season is Giorgio Tavecchio of the Oakland Raiders. He’s a replacement kicker, filling in for kicking stalwart Sebastian Janikowski. He’s 27 years old, and in Week 1 he became the first kicker in history to make two 50-plus-yard field goals in his regular-season NFL debut.
In leagues that use graduated scoring (i.e. 4 points for a 40-yard field goal), Ryan Succop and Matt Bryant both scored 12 or more fantasy points in each of their two outings this season.
The Jacksonville Jaguars lead the league with 11 sacks and are tied with Philadelphia at the top with three fumble recoveries.
The Baltimore Ravens have a league-high eight interceptions on the season. Second most in the league is Detroit, with four.
Good luck in Week 3!