There  are numbers everywhere you look. Some matter, some are just interesting, but Ray Flowers insists on sharing his thoughts with every fantasy football fan he can reach with his weekly numbers column. So dig in, find something you can use to better your fantasy football squad or at least win a bar bet. 

THROWERS

Blake Bortles was awful in Week 12, and he didn't attempt to stretch the field at all. On the passes that weren't thrown away or deflected, there were 24, fully 21 of them were thrown nine yards or less from the line of scrimmage by Bortles. Alex Smith would be embarrassed by that. 

Oh Jay Cutler. Not only did he throw just nine second half passes as the Bears took the air out of the ball but he also attempted just three passes all game of more than 10 yards. Cutler still has four scores in his last two games and eight in four and 22 in 11 games this season. Average two a week folks and you throw 32 touchdown passes in a season. Care to guess how many 32 score seasons Aaron Rodgers has? Try two. 

Robert Griffin III will start in Week 13 but that leash is going to be mighty short. RGIII looked bad in Week 12 against the Niners attempting just six passes over 10 yards in length (he completed just two). There's every reason to be jumping ship with RGIII, I get it. But before everything you're reading/hearing about how atrocious RGIII is, note the following. (1) His 88.0 QB Rating this season is just off his 90.8 career mark. (2) His 72 percent completion percentage would easily be a career best (65.6 as a rookie). (3) His 7.6 yards per attempt is right on his career average (7.5). 

Colin Kaepernick has one game this season in which he has thrown for 265 yards and he hasn't scored as a runner, not once. He's also thrown exactly one score in 5-straight games though at least he's only been picked off three times in his last nine games after being intercepted three times in Week 2. 

Eli Manning - I know you love to hate him. Hey, when a guy goes out and throws five interceptions in a game like he did two weeks back against the Niners we're reminded about everything he does wrong. He did thrown for 338 yards and three scores in Week 12 remind you that he's not as bad as you would like to think he really is? After all, he is on pace for more than 4,100 passing yards and 31 touchdown passes. That plays. It also happens to be the same 16 game average as Tom Brady possesses per 16 games for his career. 

Philip Rivers nearly threw for 300-yards (291) but he had only one score and tossed a pick in an underwhelming fantasy performance. He also did something truly remarkable. Rivers attempted 35 passes. Thirty of those passes were aimed, i.e. six were either batted down, thrown away or spiked. Of those thirty aimed passes he completed 29 of them. The only miss? A 99-yard pick-six. Only three of his passes were in the air for 10 or more yards in a shocking display of stupendously accurate blahtastic passes. 

Tony Romo is washed up... isn't that what MANY of you were telling me after his first two games this season? Don't look now but he's thrown for 22 scores against just six interceptions in 10 games while posting the best QB Rating of his life, a 111.4 mark that would literally be the 9th best mark in the history of the game. 

Mark Sanchez has thrown four interceptions in his last two starts. He looks bad folks He's also turned the ball over twice as a ball carrier though he has fumbled five times in total. He's thrown for at least 300-yards in each of his three starts. Give him credit for that, but that's pretty much it. 

RUNNERS

C.J. Anderson has caught 16 passes the last three games for 187 yards. If he kept that up for 16 games we would be looking at 85 receptions and 997 yards - as a receiver, and as we know he's a running back. He's also averaged 95.3 yards a game on the ground,  a 16 game pace of 1,525 yards. Yeah, he's been pretty good. 

Isaiah Crowell is averaging 5.0 YPC. He's also scored seven times on the ground. Do you know how many other runners have hit both those numbers at this point of the season? The answer is four. Check out who the names belong to: Justin Forsett, Arian Foster, DeMarco Murray and Jamaal Charles. Not a bad effort rookie. 

Andre Ellington has run for 648 yards which is 58.9 a week. He's averaging just 3.3 YPC. That's awful. Of all the players listed above him in rushing yards, there are 12 such men, not a single one has run for less than 4.0 YPC. Not one. Another way to look at it. Ellington is third in the NFL in rush attempts (196) but just 13th in rushing yards. 

Chris Ivory has converted eight of nine runs on third down into a first down when the carry started within three yards of the first down marker. Arian Foster and Frank Gore are just four for eight on their carries. 

Matt Forte has caught at least five passes in 10 of 11 games this season. He's a running back you know. He's already up to 72 receptions which puts him on pace for a stunning 105 receptions. 

Eddie Lacy, in a standard PPR setup, is up to 8th in total points at the running back spot. Those folks that took him in the middle of the first round thought they had blown it two months ago. Lookie here... he's about to justify that selection. Over his last five games he's scored three times as a runner and three times as a pass catcher. He's also caught 27 passes for 322 yards after catching 35 for 257 yards as a rookie. 

LeSean McCoy ran for 130 yards in Week 12. That's six of seven weeks with at least 80-yards on the ground, and it's also a pace of 95.3 yards a game over those seven contests. Perspective. That equates to 1,525 yards over 16 games. Far from washed up is he. Still, he's only caught a single pass in 4-straight games so he's certainly being used in an odd way. 

Alfred Morris has run for at least 92 yards in each of his last three games. He's also carried the ball at least 18 times in his last five contests while scoring four times in his last four games. That run of success has him on pace to run for 1,201 yards and 10 scores. Morris averaged 10 scores his first two seasons and ran for 1,275 and 1,613 yards his first two campaigns. Morris is up to 11th at the running back position in points in a PPR setup. 

Denard Robinson has seen his ground yardage mark decline every one of the last four games: 127, 108, 94, 60 and 25. He's also seen his carry total regress each of the past four games: 22, 18, 17, 15 and 14. Did we anoint him too quickly?

RECEIVERS

1: The number of wideouts who have three scores and more than 580 receiving yards. There are 13 WRs who have scored exactly three times and the lone fella with more than 580 yards is Golden Tate who has 1,047 yards. He's also the only one of the crowd with more than 53 receptions. He has 72. 

6: The number of snaps played by Clay Harbor with the return to action of Marcedes Lewis in Week 12. So much for that. 

Randall Cobb is tied with Dez Bryant for the most touchdowns by a wideout with 10. Bryant has a score ever 10.3 targets, Cobb one every 7.9 targets. Of the nine wideouts that have scored at least eight times Cobb is the only one with fewer than 80-targets. 

Matt Forte leads all pass catchers with 615 yards after the catch. The leading wideout is Golden Tate with 548 yards. Only one other player has 500-yards and that is Demaryius Thomas (547). Rob Gronkowski leads tight ends with 346 yards. 

Antonio Gates has failed to hit 35 yards in his last three outings. He's been held off the scoreboard in those three games. Gates also caught three or fewer passes in 3-straight and five of six outings. 

Jimmy Graham scored twice on Monday Night Football to bring his season total up to nine touchdowns. That effort puts him on a 16 game pace of 13 touchdowns. He's also on pace for 95 receptions which would be a three year high and four off his career best mark of 99 in 20111. It's the yardage that disappoints. Graham is on pace to have a four year low in yardage at just 974 yards. 

DeSean Jackson is averaging 8.5 yards after the catch. That leads wideouts. Emmanuel Sanders, who has caught 76 passes for 1,079 yards, is averaging less than half of that at 3.7 YAC. By the by, Sanders is the only man under 4.8 who has caught at least 850 yards worth of passes. 

Vincent Jackson leads the NFL with 55 passes thrown his way that weren't caught. Next up on the list is Andre Johnson, Julio Jones and Kevin Benjamin who all have seen 46 passes they haven't caught.

Charles Johnson played more than any other Vikings wideout in Week 12 seeing the field for 67 of 69 snaps. For more on him see the Week 13 Waiver Flavor piece.

Julio Jones is averaging 89.1 yards a game. You do that over 16 games and you end up with 1,425 yards. (1) Jones averages 82.6 yards a game for his career. (2) Jones has never had more than 1,198 receiving yards in a season. (3) Over his last 16 games he's caught 113 passes for 1,560 yards and six touchdowns. Sorry, but he's good, despite what you might think. 

Travis Kelce is an elite talent. Talent doesn't mean jack if the quarterback doesn't throw you the football cause his coach isn't telling him to. Kelce is on pace for 60 receptions, 789 yards and six scores. That would be a great rookie season for a tight end, fantastic actually, but it's not an effort that excites in the fantasy game. By the way, Kelce is averaging an elite 8.0 YAC. 

Steve Smith went for 89 yards in Week 12. That was his first game in four with more than 40-yards. He also scored, his first touchdown in five games. He's not the player he once was but he can still light up a bad secondary. Though he's undoubtedly lost a step, Smith is averaging 5.4 YAC which would be a three year high and his second best mark in five years. 

 

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