Shocking Stats from 2020 + Buy or Sell, Gut Punches - Fantasy Football Podcast for 2/18

Running back receiving yards hit rock bottom, averaging 7.4 yards per reception. That's the lowest in the last decade. So even when they caught the ball, they weren't doing a whole lot with it. And yet, on the other hand, running backs averaged 0.66 fantasy points per rush, which is the highest in the last 10 years. So when they were rushing the football this year, more efficient, more effective when they were catching the football, less efficient, less effective than in years past.

Derek Henry, stop messing with our stats, man. You're throwing things off. You're making these past catchers look bad. Well, and our main heroes of the running back receptions, I mean, they were hurt. Barclay was out. Christian McCaffrey was out. We're backup heroes and catching the ball? Washington was being stupid and not throwing Antonio the Gibson the ball more. Antonio the Gibson? Yeah. I don't know what happened there.

Yeah, CMC Barkley hurt, like you said. We only had two running backs, Camara and McKissick, that had 65 plus receptions. We had seven last year in 2019. Were you making that face? I was bracing. That was bracing. That wasn't a McKissick face? Well, he was. Okay. All right.

Four of the top seven in running back receptions were McKissick, Heinz, Mike Davis, and Chase Edmonds. Yeah, that's part of the problem here is that you really had journeymen and backups that were thrust into the past catching roles more than what you usually see. But the real takeaway from me, when I look at this stat, of basically this was not a good year for receiving.

at the running back position. And this was a great year, best in the last 10 years of fantasy points per rush attempt on the ground. And you say, okay, this is a bad year for the receiving and the best year for running. And then you look at those two numbers and you go, okay, per reception, it was 1.48 fantasy points per reception.

Per rush. It was 0.6 fantasy points per run. That's the best versus the worst. And it's so clear as day. This highlights how valuable running back receptions are because even in a down year, it just beat the tar out of fantasy points per rush. So that's why we want those three down backs. We value even receiving backs by themselves. You know, J.D. McKissick's a perfect example. He's not that good.

He was a helpful tool for fantasy this past season. Well, and we were even talking a bit yesterday about the profiles of some of these rookie running backs coming into the league, specifically Kenneth Gainwell and his electricity in the passing game. And it's always interesting to try to map out where those players can go and have an Austin Echler-like impact on a team because of the value per touch that happens in the receiving game, although it did go down a lot last year because the Avengers were all injured, I guess.

So, all right, here's another shocking stat titled O, How the Mighty Have Fallen. I really don't like this one. I feel. Oh, I love it. I feel like it was just a setup from the beginning here by our editor-in-chief Kyle. Fact one. Michael Thomas had 55 targets on the season, which is great for the show, not for Michael Thomas. Fact number two, former Cardinals great.

Hakeem Butler had one route run on the entire season. That's a sarcastic great. Yeah. And then fact three is that Hakeem Butler had more in-zone targets than Michael Thomas had on the entire season, which is a way to say that Michael Thomas not only had just 55 targets, but he had zero in zone targets. Not what you signed up for in the first round, not what you hoped for. And was it enough of a gut punch?

The Michael Thomas gut punch of 2020. Was it enough to damage draft stock, damage his future in the fantasy landscape? What's the temperature check on him? It wasn't just a gut punch. It was we got punched in the gut. So then we, of course, doubled over exposing our face to then a Shryukin uppercut because Drew Breeze is going to be gone. I mean, we haven't got the official word yet, but it was now you have the sting of last year.

A guy really disappointing you. And now who's his quarterback? Is it Tassam Hill? Who, Taysom Hill did flash and looked like, okay, maybe he can be competent, but he's not going to be Drew Brees. Is it going to be James Winston? Is it an unknown player? So when you combine the combo punches there, yeah, it definitely hurt his draft stock and where he is in Dynasty. Like right now, you know, if you're looking in the Dynasty pass at the rankings,

I have Michael Thomas at 7 and he was a, which is really not that bad. I mean, seven, he was the consensus. But he was like number one or number or two on most, most dynasty boards at the wide receiver position last year. Yeah, I mean, I don't take much away from Michael Thomas this year. It's much more about the quarterback situation. I think he was, he's, he's awesome. He was playing through.

serious, serious injuries this season because he thought it was going to be Drew Breeze's last. And, you know, he's getting some of those worked on this offseason. It's just a matter of who his quarterback is. And let's say it's, you know, let's say it's not Drew Breeze. I still expect Michael Thomas to finish wide receiver six through eight somewhere in that, you know, mid wide receiver one.

for the next like five, six seasons in a row. And so my dynasty outlook on him is not as faded as, oh no, we don't know whose quarterback is going to be. So it's going to be the worst. And he's going to be a nobody. He had a bad season this year. Now he doesn't have a quarterback. This season was.

just injuries in my opinion. Well, it reminds me of a couple things. One, it makes me think about discussions that we had last year about his future quarterback situation and the way that we thought about players, even like Juju, who will obviously not be in Pittsburgh most likely, but we still had the thought of like, okay, Big Ben's not long for the NFL. It also reminds me of DeAndre Hopkins when he was in Houston and when they were rotating through different quarterbacks. Oh, man. Yeah.

It's like you need two keys to fire the torpedo, you know. And if you don't have the quarterback, you can't get to that number one, right? You can get, like Jason said, six through eight every single year. That's the same way we would grade out DeAndre Hopkins. But the math to put Hopkins at number one involved Deshaun Watson, right? And until we know what that second dependency is at quarterback for Michael Thomas, I don't think that he's going to be, you know, he was so far and away the number one for everybody.

this past year. It wasn't close. There wasn't anybody making a different decision at wide receiver. You guys want a shocking stat off the cuff here. Who had a higher completion percentage? Drew Brees or Tayson Hill. Oh, man. I'm going to guess based on the setup that it's Tayson Hill. It was. It was Tayson Hill at 73%. I mean, that's okay.

I'm not going to translate into Drew Brees. That's a funny stat. You heard it here first. Tayson Hill is one of Mike's favorite quarterback heading into 2021. Oh, my man. If Tayson Hill is a started quarterback for the Saints, then yes. He will be one of my favorite fantasy quarterbacks heading into draft season. Before we jump into some more shocking stats, ooh, want to thank today. So terrible. Darno Anderson would hate that.

I want to thank today's sponsor, Headspace. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a bit of stressful time. It's been a stressful last year. Things right now are a little bit crazy. Check out Headspace, taking care of the mental health. It is important. And Headspace, they're all about meditation. Headspace is one of the only meditation apps advancing the feel of mindfulness and meditation through clinically validated research.

Whatever the situation, they can help you feel better. Are you overwhelmed? Headspace has a three-minute SOS meditation for you. Do you need help falling asleep like so many of us do? They have wind down sessions. Their members swear by it. For parents, we all got crazy kids, and those crazy kids are at home a lot right now. There are sessions you can do, mindfulness sessions you can do with your kids. Just 30 days of headspace can lower stress by 32%. We all have headspace. We've all signed up.

We have all used it. It is incredibly simple. You will not have a problem getting into it. They are backed by 25 published studies on its benefits. $600,000 five-star reviews over 60 million downloads. You deserve to feel happier in Headspace as meditation made simple. Go to headspace.com slash footballers. That's headspace.com slash footballers for one free month trial with access to Headspace, full library of meditations for every situation. This is the best deal offered right now.

Head to headspace.com slash footballers today. All right. Our third shocking stat is titled Mr. Limited. Mr. Limited. Seattle, despite being 12 and 4, finished 27th in third down conversion percentage. That is the lowest for a 12-win team since Peyton Manning's final noodle-armed year of 2015. Oh, man.

Russell Wilson completed just 60% of his passes on third down. Players who had more fantasy points on third down than Russell Wilson. These are fun stats here. Mike Williams had more fantasy points on third down than Russell Wilson. That seems impossible. When did he start playing quarterback? The superior third down Russell. Russell Gage had more fantasy points on third down than Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson. Gardner Manchu had more third down fantasy points.

than Russell Wilson. So this has been, this is the, this is the spiraled universe of Seattle. This is simultaneous good and bad at all times. It's Russ crushing on first and second down. That is what it is mostly. Well, they certainly still had third downs and they didn't convert on them at a percentage that was good. But is this a fluke for Russell's splits? What do you think about this stat?

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing. The, you know, some was made, people figured out what was going on with D.K. Metcalfe halfway through the season. There was a shift in play calling to run the ball more, but D.K. wasn't able to just surprise everybody and get over the top of everybody in single coverage as the season went on. And, you know, as.

As the future goes on, I'm going to take the longevity of history we have with Russell Wilson. I'm going to assume they will fix this. Obviously, they replaced their offensive coordinator, so they're going to have new designs. And while I think that they are going to be focused more on the run than the pass, it will be completely different than what the other teams figured out last year. And I think it will open things up for him on third down. He's not been a bust third down player for his.

career. But this year, it really did seem like they were put in bad third down positions. And every time you watched these games where you just assume he's going to get it done, he never seemed to get it done in those important moments. It was a real surprising version of Russ this year. Two questions for you briefly before we go to another shocking stand. Number one, we'll...

Russell Wilson make another Super Bowl appearance in his career. And number two is he a Seahawk for the next five years? Yeah, he's been going on different talk shows and saying, I don't know if Seattle wants to be back. You have to ask them. He wants to throw the ball. He does. And they don't want him to, which is weird. I think they do make another Super Bowl appearance. I think when you have a great head coach, which I believe Pete Carroll is a great head coach,

a solidly run organization, and a great quarterback, you have a chance. And I was shocked when Russ came out and said, oh, I want to play another 10, 15 years. I was like, what are you talking about? I thought Russ was like 36 is where I, like mentally, because he's just been, you know. In the league for so long? Yeah. But he's, I think he's 32. He's got enough years left of prime football ahead of him where I think they make another Super Bowl.

It's possible, but I'll take the field. Is he avoided in all fantasy drafts for you, or is there a value point where you're willing to do the dance every year? Because here's the funny thing, I feel like when people walk into Pete Carroll's office and they suggest things to him, I'd like to throw the ball more. I want a different offensive coordinator. I want to do this. I want to do that. I feel like he just pulls out a piece of paper.