I was looking over some stats from last season and thought I’d throw some at you and see what stuck. These are all coated in Gorilla Glue so they will be tough to remove.
Marion Barber had 26 receptions for 221 yards and 8.5 yards per reception while Felix Jones had 19 receptions for 119 yards and 6.3 yards per reception. I thought it would be the other way around. Dumb me.
Chris Johnson had 427 plays. That is 43% of all the offensive plays for the Titans. The last player to be used like that was Larry Johnson in 2006 with 483 plays for 47% of all offensive plays. That is whole bunches.
Maurice Jones-Drew, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Adrian Peterson were they only running backs to see the ball more than 20 times inside the 5 yard line. 20, 29, and 30 disrespectfully (cuz that’s what I do). Rushing TD’s go 15, 12, and 18. LDT’s owners sure needed those looks since he plainly was horrid.
Out of the top 16 fantasy running backs only Joseph Addai had a yards per carry under 4, with a 3.8. Say hello Mr. Brown.
Ray Rice had 53 plays in the red zone compared to Willis McGahee‘s 32. Inside the 5, McGahee has 13 to Rice’s 8. You already are drafting Rice at least in the top 5 so it doesn’t matter much.
Out of the top 10 fantasy running backs 8 had 35 or more receptions. Makes PPR vs. non-PPR pretty close.
LaDainian Tomlinson averaged 3.3 yards per carry last season. The only semi starter to match that was Steve Slaton. So yeah, that wasn’t very good.
Andre Johnson topped all wide receivers with 175 plays which is close to 17% of the Texans offensive plays. That’s compared to Chris Johnson’s 43%.
Reggie Wayne was the only receiver to be targeted inside the 5 in the double digits with 10. Roy Williams and Randy Moss were tied for 2nd with 7. I don’t see that changing much this season. Wayne is still Manning’s go to.
Inside the 20, Brandon Marshall led the league with 29 targets. He will continue to be a red zone target in Miami and I actually like Henne more than Orton.
Tony Gonzalez, Brent Celek and Greg Olsen were the only tight ends with 20 or more red zone targets. Tells you just how off Cutler was last season.
Mike Tolbert was second in receiving touchdowns for running backs with 3.
The top yards per carry running backs with over 100 carries were — Felix Jones 5.9, Jamaal Charles 5.9, Chris Johnson 5.6, Pierre Thomas 5.4, Justin Forsett 5.4, Ray Rice 5.3, DeAngelo Williams 5.2, Jonathan Stewart 5.1, Willis McGahee 5.0, Shonn Greene 5.0, Frank Gore 4.9, Michael Turner, 4.9, Ahmad Bradshaw 4.8, Michael Bush 4.8, Ricky Williams 4.7, Rashard Mendenhall 4.6 and so on and so forth. Makes me wish McGahee went somewhere he could have started and makes me think that Michael Bush might be the starter in Oakland while McFadden becomes the third down dude.
Desean Jackson led all wide receivers, with over 40 receptions, in yards per catch with 18.5. If you lower that threshold to 39 receptions, Mike Wallace takes him with 19.4. If you lower the threshold to 12 receptions, Chris Henry led with 19.7. Those numbers will fall for Wallace and Jackson.
Robert Meachem had 9 red zone targets and 63 total targets for 9 TDs. That’s a touchdown every 7 targets. The next closest with 9 or more TDs was Marques Colston with a TD every 11.7 targets. But the winner has to be my man Jacoby Jones with 36 targets and 6 TDs for a TD every 6.1 targets! Whereas Wes Welker had a TD every 42 targets!
