Top 10 Shocking Stats from 2018 + Trade Targets

Sixth best ever. George Kiddle was 14th best ever. We hadn't seen a tight-in with a top 30 all-time in the last two years. So can any of these guys, and we just had the Tide-in Truth Show on Tuesday. Right. Can Kelsey Ertz or Kittle? Can any of those big three tight-ins improve on this year's otherworldly numbers? Because...

And I brought this up on the last show. This is not the same NFL. It can be a little bit of a distortion to throw the best all time out there for certain players and certain stats. Because I think literally last year, Kelsey broke the receiving yards record and then Kittle broke it in the same weekend. Yep. Like an hour later. That being said, can you improve on it? That's a different ask. Can they improve?

It would be a tough ask for Travis Kelly to improve. But yeah, considering he didn't play a week. I mean, he took the final week off. So theoretically, yes, he can improve. If anyone is going to improve, though it would be Kittle because the yardage will be there. Maybe not 1,300 yards. Maybe not the most of all time. Maybe not that. But five touchdowns. George Kittle can certainly improve on that area where he saw.

His cohorts. Kelsey was at 10. Ertz was at 8. He also had 88 receptions. He could be up at 100. In a PPR league, that could go up. Yeah, he certainly could. And he's got an improving quarterback situation. He's almost like a hybrid of Kelsey and Ertz. And he's also likely the cheapest. I mean, he will be the league. In a league. So you're saying he's higher upside and he's the cheapest. He's just the lease established because Kelsey and Ernst have done it for.

Multiple. He's not saying his upside, like his ceiling can improve. I still would not say his upside is greater than Kelsey or Earth's, though.

Okay. Are there any other tight ends that could jump into that elite tier next year? Ooh. That top three. That's, I mean, that's the question that wins championships. You know, if you can get the guy before the jump in, you know. Spin to kettle. Yeah, exactly. Spend a kettle. This year, Ertz, two years ago, when you hopped on those guys, you won. And the first name that comes to mind for me is O.J. Howard. You know, he was, he was dominating when he played.

He missed a lot of the season, but he is a different – I mean, when you look at the tight ends, usually – take Ertz out. Ertz is just – he's just an incredible talent that you didn't really see coming. But you look at Kittle and Kelsey, and they are physically like combine wonders. These are guys that are bigger, stronger, and faster than all the other tight ends, and that's why they dominate.

That's what OJ Howard is. He is a physical freak even among all the freaks of the NFL. People need to realize the one thing that Ertz and Kelsey have in common was people sitting on their microphone for multiple years trying to project them as being elite. I mean, it took Ertz two years, two full seasons of disappointing fantasy owners, four touchdowns, three touchdowns, under 500 yards, 700 yards.

58 receptions. Before he had these big time years, and it took Kelsey a while, too. Remember, we were just waiting. Yeah. You know, Kelsey got hurt, and then we were waiting for him to Zeus out. But, so it could take some time. Howard, it could, you're right. Howard at least is in the category of could, but it could be another year. It could be two more years. He 6-6 ran a 4-5. Ebron's not going to do it. Burton's not going to do it. Injoku, like you brought up, probably not going to do it. Hunter Henry?

Probably not going to do it, but at least it's out there. He's interesting. But no, I don't think there's somebody that just jumps out as, yeah, it's going to happen next season for me. Agreed. I agree. All right, number five, this one is titled, Put the team on my backtrick Mahomes. Another, oh, goodness. Another bad one. That's two in a row. Look, Kyle can find these stats. Patrick Mahomes? No. No, not good. Can we get the drum?

Yeah, he can hear you, Kyle. He is not immune from the shame of the rim shot. No, stats are hot, titles are not. The Kansas City Chiefs running back group. This is what this means, apparently. The Kansas City Chiefs running back group. So this was Hunt for a while and then the Williams brothers. They combined for 12 receiving touchdowns on the year. That is, as many.

As 11 NFL teams had combined at that position. So if you took the Vikings, Texans, Broncos, Bucks, Seahawks, Titans, Packers, Lions, Bengals, Raiders, and Bills, they're receiving touchdowns at the running back position. You put them all together. They're the same. They're the same. So if the backfield is the Damien Williams experience next season, how many total touchdowns do you see?

What is the high-end ceiling projection for Damien Williams? I was going to go the other way. I was going to say what's his basement if he's the guy. You mean what's his floor? His floor. Like what's the worst you're going to get out of him if it's his backfield? And that would be 10 total touchdowns to me. That's the worst case scenario if it's his backfield. But a combination of on the ground and through the air, you're going to get 10. There's too many touchdowns going around in Kansas City to not have a true.

single, you know, guy who's running the backfield have 10. I agree with that. Now, I think his floor is much lower because I don't think he's going to be the guy. Certainly not by himself. But as far as ceiling, usually when you look at a running back and they're receiving touchdowns, a really good high number is like six. That's, that's a lot.

And so the fact that they had 12 receiving touchdowns total, this is part and parcel of my belief that Patrick Mahomes is not going to throw, you know, let's say next year Patrick Mahomes throws 40 touchdowns. One, that's awesome. That is great. That's probably leading the league or close to it. You're first or second. But it's also 10 fewer touchdowns than he threw this season. And a lot of those, I think, will come at the expense.

of the running back position just by the nature of what usually happens around the goal line. Now, I know you and the Patriots have a very interesting, you know, history right now with your bold prediction. But did you know this? Did you know that Damien Williams, before he resigned with Miami in 2017, he visited New England. And so Belichick was recruiting Damien Williams, and he said, quote,

I mean, and this just flies in the face of some things you've been saying about him. Quote, he's a good football player. Smart, versatile, can do a lot of things, can run the ball, can catch the ball, can pass protect. We had a good visit with him. He was a good guy to bring in and visit and get to know. He's not surprised is what I'm saying. Bill Belichick is not surprised. I mean, look, they gave him that offer. Best coach in history? They gave him that offer for a reason. You know, the, the Patriots said, I offer nothing to you.

Because that's what they offer everybody. Look, he's an in-division running back that was, you know, available. It's like, hey, why don't you stop in over here? We'll take a look. We'll see what you know. I just wanted to, how deep your head was in the, in the Damien Williams sand. I wanted a little check. This is still in your ears. It's V-D. 30. V-D. So, Kareem Hunt had seven receiving touchdowns in 11 weeks. I.

I agree with Jason that if a touchdown regression comes to Patrick Mahomes, that's the biggest place where it's going to happen. But this is what they did. This was a game plan for the Chief's offense when they got close to the goal line was the old shovel pass or the old tap pass. I mean, just counting as double for us. It was kind of interesting to watch Cream Hunt's beginning of the season, right? Where we were.

concerned about the receptions at the running back position. The first three weeks, he had three targets. Total. Yeah. But I mean, you also had that weird Travis Kelsey week one. I mean, Mahomes was getting used to the NFL. Got used to it. And he certainly did that pretty quick. All right. Number six. It's a QB's world and we just live in it. All right. In 2017, there were six quarterbacks.

to complete 65% or more of their passes. This stat's crazy. In 2018, there were 20 that completed 65% or more of their passes. So the question is, with completion rates higher than they've ever been, how does this affect fantasy and the importance of valuing the quarterback? And the qualifier for that was you had to play at least eight games. So it's not just...

Guy coming in for one game playing a half in relief. He was one for one. So basically, Jared Goff was right at the 65% mark and finished 20th in the statistic. Yeah, it's insane. Cam Newton's going, I got. Oh, Cam Newton was at 68% this year. Yeah. Former Cam Newton. His career height. Yeah. I mean, this year, you saw something happen in the NFL as, you know, as Andy said, like the chasing the McVeigh style, the playing into the new rules and the short.

passing, involving more running backs and passing. The total of, if you take the average of all the starting quarterbacks and you look at their quarterback rating this year, their average was over 90. That's insane. That's above like the career average of a ton of Hall of Famers. So yeah, I mean, will this continue? I think it will. This is where, you know.

where everything's going, but does it change the value of quarterbacks in fantasy? No. Not at all. Because they're all there. Yeah. If it changes it for, you know, two guys and nobody else is catching on, then yeah. At that point, it might change how you evaluate those two guys, but everyone is catching on. Well, Cam Newton's throwing for 68%. Obviously, Cam Newton's throwing for 68% and put up...

a poor fantasy performance relative to previous years when he had a lower completion percentage. Just the end of the year. Yeah. Well, I'm just saying it's not this one statistic, especially when spread out across 20 quarterback. It's just a rising water level in that one area for the quarterback position. But like you said, it doesn't affect fantasy very much. Number five was Derek Carr on the season. Yeah, he was. He actually, yeah. All right. Number seven, I've already renamed it. It's Target time.

Oh, you renamed it? Yeah, yeah, he's made no sense. There was... This one, I like this. There were 10,995 rushing attempts by running backs in 2018. Okay? On average, a running back rushing attempt yielded 0.627 fantasy points. Little more than half a point every time a running back got a carry. Yeah, exactly. In a half point league,

a running back target was worth almost double. So just a target to the running back was worth, on average, 1.17 fantasy points per target. That's double. Basically double the value. Not getting the ball handed to you, but just having... Not even catching it. Not even catching. Just throwing your way. And in a full PPR, it's worth two and a half times. Okay? So this is illustrating the value of a past catching...

running back. And so guys like Austin Eccler, right, last year, we just talked about the Chargers having two running backs in that top 24. Austin Eccler, Theoretic, Naim Hines, Chris Thompson. Chris Thompson, James White, Kenyon Drake, maybe, Jalen Samuels for a part of the year. Knowing that value, knowing how much more valuable the target is.

Are the running backs that we need to look at differently for 2019? How do you make the mental adjustment on a guy like James White who through many metrics show him as the most valuable draft pick in fantasy football this year relative to draft costs? And he's a past catching running back. Yeah, it's kind of a trick question, right? Because if you're saying how do we change with this data, then I would say not at all. Because this isn't.

surprising, right? We stack guys out in the ultimate draft kit for the last several years, and we give all of the value, you know, we know how much more valuable receptions are than carries. And so when you look at our rankings, we have that built in. In fact, this crazy stat of, you know, the fact that it was 1.56 points per target in a full PPR. That was actually down from the year prior,