It’s Week 6 of the NFL season which means that statistics which could have been regarded as flukes or outliers at the start of the season have now had some time to balance themselves out. Does that mean that every early season trend will hold up over the rest of the year? Of course not. But, as any prudent fantasy owner knows, it’s much easier to make the correct decision if it’s an informed one.
When you’re wondering who to pick up, who to drop, who to sell high or who to buy low, don’t ask the other people in your league; look at the numbers. Numbers don’t lie – people do.
68.3
That’s the sixth-best completion percentage in the league and it belongs to Terrelle Pryor. In addition to the stellar amount of passes that Pryor is completing, he’s also taking care of the football and has only two picks on the year. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 10 fewer picks than Eli Manning has thrown.
7
Tied with such masters of the pocket as Alex Smith and Geno Smith, that’s the number of touchdown passes that Tom Brady has thrown this year. He’s behind Jay Cutler, Matt Schaub and, ughh, Sam Bradford. There’s no doubt that Brady will pick it up once Rob Gronkowski is back in the fold, but it certainly appears that he’s missing his BFF Wes Welker. Oh yeah, Welker has already caught seven touchdowns from Peyton Manning this season; he leads the league.
580
Yards that Julio Jones was able accumulate for the Atlanta Falcons before being lost for the season with a foot injury. That yardage total puts him behind only Jimmy Graham for tops in the league and means that Matt Ryan is definitely going to have to find someone else to catch the football in Jones’ absence. He’s disappointed in the past, but Harry Douglas could be kind of interesting when the Falcons come out of their bye week.
31
Number of catches that top-ranked receivers like Welker, Brandon Marshall, Victor Cruz, A.J. Green, Cecil Shorts and…Danny Woodhead have on the season. Woodhead has been a PPR machine this year despite catching only two passes in Week 1 and he has already grabbed more balls than Pierre Garcon, Dez Bryant, Eric Decker, Reggie Wayne and Jason Witten.
49
It might not be the most exciting stat (kicker stats rarely are), but that’s number of points that Philadelphia Eagles kicker Alex Henery has scored on the season. He’s tied for third in kicker scoring with Steven Hauschka and the only kickers that have put more balls through the uprights are Matt Prater and Garrett Hartley. As of this writing, Henery is only owned in 19 percent of Yahoo leagues.
100
He doesn’t have much to show for it, but Doug Martin has recorded triple-digit rushing attempts despite only playing in four games this season. The troubling thing for Martin owners shouldn’t be the number of attempts, but they should be worried that he’s only averaging 3.4 yards-per-attempt. Of the 10 backs with at least 80 carries, the only ones who are averaging less yards-per-attempt are Trent Richardson and Chris Johnson, both of whom are at 3.1.
5.2
On the other end of the spectrum, of the 10 backs with at least 80 carries, that’s what LeSean McCoy averages in yards-per-attempt. DeMarco Murray at 4.8 and Adrian Peterson at 4.6 round out the top-three.
7
Passing categories that Peyton Manning leads the NFL in (amongst quarterbacks who have actually played more than a handful of snaps): Completion percentage, yards, yards-per-attempt, yards-per-game, quarterback rating, interceptions and, last but not least, touchdowns.
216
Passing attempts by Sam Bradford, second only to Matt Ryan. All of the hoopla surrounding the St. Louis running backs might not amount to a hill of beans because the Rams are going to be passing the ball, not handing it off (especially because they will be trailing more often than not). Owners of Daryl Richardson, Zac Stacy, Isaiah Pead and Benny Cunningham should probably take notice.
Evan Bleier is a freelance writer based out of wherever he can plug in his laptop. You can send him questions, comments and Buffalo wing suggestions @itishowitis or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
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