Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters. All fantasy stats are half PPR scoring unless otherwise noted.
7,156 Pass Completions
Yet another all-time passing record has passed on to Tom Brady. He passed Drew Brees for the most completions on Sunday, now with 7,156 and counting. In addition, Brady now holds the NFL record for passing attempts (11,152), passing yards (83,338), and passing TDs (617)…and counting! This year, at age 44, he’s leading the league in completions (378), passing attempts (554), passing yards (4,134), and passing touchdowns (36). Maybe it’s no fun for the rest of us to watch Brady week after week after week do what he does, but occasionally it’s time to reflect on just how far ahead he is of everyone else in the league (currently, and through history). Aaron Rodgers is maybe the only active QB who has a chance at catching Brady in any of these categories – he’s averaging 31.36 touchdowns per year started, vs Brady averaging 30.85 per year started. Rodgers is still 178 TDs behind Brady, which would take over 5 years at his current average – and that’s if Brady (still going strong) doesn’t throw another TD pass in his career.
1.0 Interception Percentage
Speaking of the owner of the Chicago Bears, Aaron Rodgers leads the league in interception percentage yet again. Rodgers has led the league in interception percentage (lower numbers better, of course) in 5 of his previous 13 seasons, including the last 3 in a row. Back in 2018, Rodgers finished the season with a miniscule 0.3% interception rate, throwing just 2 picks on 597 pass attempts. But let’s go back to the present – in last night’s game against the Bears, the Packers trailed by 10 points at two different times, but Vegas never made the Packers positive money on the money line during live betting. They know that Aaron, like MJ, takes that shit personally. The Packers, of course, wound up winning the game by 15, with Rodgers throwing 4+ TDs against he Bears for his 7th time in his career (54 total starts). The game also featured an incredible 2nd quarter where the two teams combined for 45 points, scoring 5 touchdowns of 38+ yards.
62.7 Fantasy Points
Over the last two weeks, George Kittle has scored 62.7 fantasy points, just putting up massive numbers for the 49ers with Deebo Samuel out or basically playing RB. In those games, he has 22 receptions on 27 receptions, 332 receiving yards and 3 TDs. Even with his 1.8-point game in Week 12, Kittle has the highest 3-week average among all TEs in the league with 16.1 points. Kittle now has 139.6 points on the season, 45% of those points coming in the last two weeks. Kittle has missed three weeks this year, and had two other games with less than 20 yards receiving. Both players ahead of him in points – Mark Andrews and Travis Kelce, have played a full compliment of games this year. Kittle has the highest average points per game at the TE position with 14 ppg, well ahead of Andrews and Rob Gronkowski, both tied at 13.1 ppg.
300+ Passing Yards and 100+ Rushing Yards
Josh Allen is the top scoring fantasy player in the league, and it’s an easier comparison now that every team has completed their bye week. Allen’s performance on Sunday was so good that it deserves two stats shouted out, considering he’s only the 4th quarterback to ever throw for over 300 yards and rush for over 100 in a single game. This is the 5th time that Allen has led the league in fantasy points for the week, putting up a massive 36.22 points against the Buccaneers this week. Allen is only the second 100-yard rusher that the Bucs have allowed all season. Allen actually leads the league in yards per carry this season with 6.1 yards/attempt. He qualifies for the minimum 6.25 attempts per game, just barely, with 6.7 rushes per game this year. He has more rushing yards than starters Miles Gaskin (526) and Josh Jacobs (496), but is only third in QB rushing yards.
205 Rushing Yards
Dalvin Cook has set the high-water mark for rushing yards this season with 205 yards on 27 attempts on Thursday night against the Steelers. His 34.7 fantasy points are also the second highest total for the week. This was a game where it was still up in the air earlier in the day if he would even be active – he wound up touching the ball 28 times, gaining 222 total yards and scoring 2 touchdowns in the Vikings wild win against the Steelers. At one point, the Vikings led 29-0, and had to hold off a furious comeback attempt by the Steelers where they scored three touchdowns in under 5 minutes at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth. Cook now has the highest rushing total of any player on the season (the only player above 200 yards), passing Jonathan Taylor’s 185 yards from week 11. With retirement talk for Ben Roethlisberger surrounding him every game now, it was nice to see him put up another 300+ yard game, his 67th of his career.
