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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.

42 Pass Completions

If I told you that the franchise record for passing completions for the Colts was 42, you would immediately think of Peyton Manning. Nope, he only has 40. Maybe you would remember Andrew Luck – also topped out at 40, also against Houston, just like Peyton. It turns out, that record now belongs to Matt Ryan, who completed 42 of his 58 pass attempts on Sunday. I guess that’s really called for when Jonathan Taylor has to sit for his second straight game. Ryan threw 13 more passes than the next closest QB (Jacoby Brissett with 45), and had 13 more completions than the next highest total (Garoppolo with 29). Ryan may not be scoring a ton of points in Indy this year, but he’s led the team to a winning record and he has thrown the ball at least 37 times in all but one game this season. There may not be a lot of fantasy production from Ryan, though he is definitely a starting superflex QB every week, there’s value to be found at the WR position. 4 of their WRs are averaging at least 3 catches per game, and 8 players have at least double-digit receptions (Jonathan Taylor not among them).

28.6 Fantasy Points

Ja’Marr Chase led all WRs in fantasy points this week, putting up 7 catches for 132 yards and scoring 2 touchdowns. His 28.6-point total was the second-highest of the week, behind his QB, Joe Burrow. Both players seemed to relish in their return to Louisiana, where they won a national championship with LSU. It’s the 4^th time in 23 regular season games that the pair have connected on multiple touchdown passes in one game. Chase has 7 games with 100+ receiving yards in his career, and now 6 games with over 20 fantasy points. He’s the WR5 on this season after this performance, despite half his games being under 9 fantasy points. His forever-teammate, Joe Burrow, is also 5^th at his position in fantasy points. He’s been a bit more consistent, accumulating a respectable total with only two top-5 finishes this season.

19 Total Points

Thursday night football has really been stinking it up lately. It’s best to go ahead and make dinner reservations on Thursdays if the last two games are any indicator. Week 6’s matchup between the Bears and the Commanders was just 3-0 at halftime. Chicago, despite rushing for a ridiculous 238 yards, generated only 7 points. This just goes to show that imbalance I have spoken of over the last few weeks is still a big problem, and not resulting in any good outcomes for the Bears. The previous Thursday resulted in only 2 more points, a 12-9 game that excruciatingly went into overtime – extra football that nobody asked for. Tonight, we’re being given our 4^th primetime look at the Broncos in 6 weeks. Someone at the scheduling office is clearly a fan of bad football. The Saints @ Cardinals this coming Thursday does nothing to dispel that notion. The only advice I can give is to bet on bad football and not start anyone on Thursdays if you can help it.

116 Rushing Yards

Breece Hall is really getting going now in his rookie season. This week, he posted his first game with 100+ rushing yards. He’s now scored a rushing TD in 3 straight weeks – all of them victories for the Jets. He’s averaging 5.6 yards per carry over the last 2 games, and though he’s had only 2 targets per game in the last 3 games, he’s still 3^rd in the league in receiving yards among running backs. Hall is the RB6 on the season and is putting up very consistent fantasy points. He has at least 12 points in every game other than week 1. He has increased his carries every single week, and is averaging just over 5 yards per carry on the season. Hall is really having the season you hoped for if you drafted him first overall in dynasty leagues, and the Jets are surprisingly good, though apparently, it’s not very surprising to them.

616 Rushing Yards

The Jets, however, aren’t even the best team from NYC. The Giants are 5-1, showing that their win last week was not a fluke with this week’s comeback against the Ravens. The Giants now have more wins this season than they did all last year when they went 4-13. Led by Saquon Barkley, the RB2 in fantasy, he has the 2^nd most rushing yards in the league, the 7^th most receiving yards among RBs, and leads the league in rushing attempts. Barkley looks like the player he was in his first two seasons. He has at least 17 points in all but 1 game this year. His next 4 matchups are very favorable, including one against the Texans, who are giving up the most fantasy points to opposing WRs. All 4 of those opponents are giving up top 10 points to opposing RBs. Barkley could definitely be a player to target if you need that one more piece on your squad to put you over the top.

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.

71.74 Fantasy Points

Joe Burrow has led the league in fantasy points for two consecutive weeks now. Over this time, he has 781 passing yards, 6 passing touchdowns, and two rushing TDs. He’s also completed 78% of his passes and not turned the ball over once. In fact, after week 1’s fiasco, he only has one turnover in the last 6 games. Burrow led the top tier of a very top-heavy week among QBs with fantasy points. The top 4 players all scored at least 27 points, and then there’s more than an 8-point drop to the rest of the pack. Of the top 13 QBs this week, 7 of them aren’t even rostered in our drinkfive.com league. The point drop between QB 4 and QB5 is greater than the point drop between QB5 and QB20.

14.25 Points Per Game

This stat would sound great if you were talking about an RB or WR, but it’s a bit disappointing when you talk about a QB. If I told you that the QB who had an ADP of 9 is currently trailing the guy with an ADP of 27, you’d be really disappointed. And if you drafted that QB, thinking you were being sneaky and likely to get the reigning 2-time MVP, well, then you’re surely as disappointed as I am. Aaron Rodgers is the QB21 on the season now, after failing to make his stat line look at all distinct from Taylor Heinicke. Rodgers had 194 yards and 2 TDs compared to Heinicke’s 204 yards and 2 TDs. On the season, Rodgers has not even reached 18 points in any single game. He has not reached 300 passing yards in a game, and he has not thrown for 3 TDs in any single game. The drop-off at QB is quite precipitous this year, as evidenced in the microcosm from this week I mentioned previously. After Joe Burrow at ADP7, you have to go all the way to Trevor Lawrence at ADP of 18 to find a guy who’s scored in the top 10 of QBs through 7 weeks.

147 Rush Yards Per Game

Over his last 3 games, Josh Jacobs has had no less than 143 rushing yards in each outing. He’s been remarkably consistent and is being given a huge workload, with 69 carries and 13 receptions over that span. He has accumulated 523 yards from scrimmage and 6 touchdowns during that time, which adds up to a whopping 94 fantasy points. That’s just shy of Aaron Rodgers’ season-long total, but my sections appear to be bleeding into each other, so let me go on about Jacobs. He is averaging more points over each of the last 3 games than he had in total over the first 3 games. He’s averaging 6.4 yards per carry and has charged into the elite tier of RBs. He’s 4^th in total fantasy points this season, even with his bye week already completed. With this remarkable pace that Jacobs finds himself on, he’s not even leading the league in points per game for RBs.

21.2 Points Per Game

The player that finds himself leading all RBs in points per game, and total points for that matter, is Austin Ekeler. The half PPR scoring is important here, but I feel like some type of PPR is very standard these days – after all, it’s been our default for years. Ekeler is third among all players with 53 receptions, 5^th among all players in yards from scrimmage, and tied for first with Nick Chubb with 8 total touchdowns. Like Jacobs, Ekeler had a slow start and is doing all his damage lately. Ekeler has over 30 points in 3 of his last 4 games. In previous seasons, we’ve observed that WRs often perform better in the first half of the season, with RBs performing better late in the season. This season, the opposite is true. For total points, 4 of the top 5 position players (RB/WR/TE) are running backs.

22 Fantasy Points

If you had a choice between D/STs and could know some facts going into the week, who might you pick? The team that has to go up against one of the top offenses in the league? Or maybe you want to go with the D/ST that will have two pick-sixes in just over 1 minute during the second quarter. Perhaps I’m leading you a bit with this one. The Cowboys D/ST scored 22 points on the strength of 5 sacks and 5 turnovers, edging out the Cardinals D/ST’s 18 points. The Cardinals did not have much other than the pick-sixes, just one INT outside of those two plays, along with surrendering 34 points. The Cowboys' 22 points is tied for the second-best performance of the season at the position. They are leading the league in sacks with 29, and have the most fantasy points with 79 (though the Bills took the week off).

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.

2.04 Points Per Touch

That’s a hell of a lot of points to gain every single time you touch the ball. When you gain over two points, on average, across an entire game, that’s incredible. When you do that after 26 touches, it means you’ve had a hell of a day. Joe Mixon lit up my fantasy league, your fantasy league – everybody’s fantasy leagues this week. 22 carries, 153 rushing yards, 4 rushing TDs, 4 receptions, 58 receiving yards, and one more receiving touchdown marks the best game he’s had in his career. It’s a top-10 all-time fantasy performance. He scored more than the RB2 and the RB3 combined. More than halfway through his season, he scored 34.8% of his total points. He’s now the RB4 on the season – he would have been as low as the RB18 going into the week. Mixon completely overshadowed a QB who is starting to become a genuine fantasy breakout.

178 Rushing Yards

There was only one player who had more rushing yards than Joe Mixon, and it wasn’t a running back. Justin Fields topped anything that Lamar Jackson has done this season. OK, by 0.1 points, but the hyperbole is irresistible. Fields set a new record – the most rushing yards by a QB in a regular season game (only 3 yards shy of tying the all-time record). Fields has the most fantasy points by a QB over the last 5 weeks, and over the last 3 weeks, he’s stomping on the competition by over 20 total points. So, though it’s happening slowly, the Bears are slowly working a bit more passing into their offense as they’re starting to really click. This week they only ran the ball 58% of the time, considerably down from the 67% they were at when we checked in with them earlier in the season. I wish I could buy stock in Kool-Aid in Chicago right now because everybody around here is drinking it. Fields is trending up, scoring more points than his previous game in each of the last 6 weeks.

3 Straight 100+ Yard Games

Over the last 3 weeks, Travis Etienne has 379 rushing yards, topping 100 in each of those games. Only Derrick Henry has more during that stretch (he’s averaging 150+ during that stretch and has 5 of 100+), but this isn’t about Henry. This entry is about Etienne, a player who is practically a rookie, considering he did not see a single snap last season. He’s finally getting the ball a lot more, with his 3 highest totals of carries over this 3-game stretch. He has scored 4 touchdowns during this time, with his first career score coming back in week 7. Etienne is finally becoming a central focus of the Jaguars' offense and has the backfield almost all to himself after James Robinson was traded to the Jets. Once he can get into a good groove with the passing game, he will be a top-10 RB.

122.7 Receiving Yards per Game

Tyreek Hill is having a hell of a season. Through 9 games, he has a stat line that most players would like to see at the end of the year. Hill already has been targeted 100 times for 76 receptions and 1,104 yards. He’s on pace for over 2,000 yards – 2,085 to be exact. The record was set by Calvin Johnson with 1,964 back in 2012. In many categories, Hill’s stats are better this year than he ever had in Kansas City with Mahomes as his QB. He’s got the highest catch percentage of his career, averaging nearly 2 receptions per game above his career high. He has more than a 30 yards per game average than his best season. Hill is a huge reason that the Miami passing game has exploded. Quietly, they have the second-most passing yards in the league and the third-most passing touchdowns. They’re being incredibly efficient considering they have the 15^th most passing attempts.

31.8 Fantasy Points in the Last Three Weeks

So maybe we’re playing with some by weeks, but as long as I admit that up front, I can use this one – right? Cole Kmet is leading all TEs in total points over the last 3 weeks (though Juwan Johnson is giving him a good challenge, late on Monday night), mostly due to the two touchdowns he scored this week. Kmet’s week 9 total is nearly as many points as he has scored in the last 4 weeks combined. He also had season highs in both receptions and targets, along with his second-highest receiving yardage total. Kmet is looking like he could be a viable weekly starting TE for the rest of the season, provided the Bears' offense keeps looking like a competent NFL team, rather than a team that was far too imbalanced earlier in the year.

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.

10 for 10 on Field Goals

Also, 5 for 5 on extra points. This week saw the two kickers top the season-long scoring charts, and go perfect along the way. Brett Maher kicked 4 field goals and 4 extra points as the Cowboys destroyed the Vikings. His 23 fantasy points are better than anyone in the first 10 weeks of the season. Tyler Bass, meanwhile, made the most out of not having to kick outdoors in 6’ of snow. He went 6 for 6 on field goal attempts and, appropriately, added an extra point. Bass’s 26-point performance is the best of any kicker this season, with Maher’s week 11 the second best. Bass was the 10^th highest-scoring player in all of fantasy football this week. He scored the most fantasy points in his game and Jacoby Brissett was right behind him at 25.86 points. If you had Bass and Brissett as the two highest scorers in a game that included Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, and Nick Chubb, then I’m calling you a liar.

10’s Wild

Derrick Henry has 10 rushing touchdowns on the season and 1,010 rushing yards so far. A very nice total after 10 games in the season. Henry has 7 games over 15 fantasy points, after starting the season with 2 games under 9 points. Six of those games are over 22 points. Three of his last four games have two touchdowns each (one of those a passing score this week). Henry is now the fifth player in history to rush for at least 10 touchdowns in five straight seasons. He’s the RB2 on the season, just 1.54 points behind Austin Ekeler, without ever leading the league in scoring in a given week.

11 Receiving Touchdowns

Travis Kelce leads the league in receiving touchdowns. His 3 on Sunday night, including the seemingly inevitable game-winner late in the 4^th quarter. He’s now at 11 receiving scores on the season and just utterly dominating at his position. He’s the 4^th highest-scoring non-QB fantasy player, but what’s perhaps more amazing is that he’s ahead of the TE2 by an astonishing 78.7 points. Mark Andrews, the TE2, has only 58% of Travis Kelce’s season-long point total. Kelce is officially an all-time great, as if there was any doubt, when he passed the one and only Gronk for most 100-yard receiving games by a TE in league history.

11 QBs with 20+ Points

For the second time this season, 11 QBs scored at least 20 fantasy points in one week. As of halftime on Monday night, Jimmy Garoppolo has a shot at being the 12^th, which would be the high-water mark of this season. Included in these 11 QBs is Joe Burrow, topping the weekly list for the third time this year. Jacoby Brissett and Andy Dalton, are on an average of just 34% of rosters. Justin Fields for his 6^th straight top-10 finish. And, though he’s pushed it the last two games, did not include Aaron Rodgers in the realm of 20-point scorers, yet again, like he has…all season long.

$20 Million in Salary Cap

If you told Jerry Jones that the $20 million in cap space that he’s devoting to the running back position produced 6 touchdowns and 573 yards from scrimmage from just one of the players, he might be pretty happy. If you told him that all that production comes from the guy who is using up less than 6% of that cap space, well, maybe his eyes might finally pop out of his head. Tony Pollard has been outstanding in his contract year with the Cowboys. While Ezekiel Elliott is looking at getting his contract picked up or not, Pollard is looking at dollar signs coming up in 2023. Pollard put up his second 33-point fantasy performance this season and is now the RB8 on the season – a far cry from his ADP of RB35. This guy is someone who is propelling your team to the playoffs if you landed him in the second half of your draft.