What is fantasy football but tracking stats? Statistics are so important when playing fantasy for really any sport. When we consider fantasy football, stats can help separate the good picks from the great picks in your draft. After a full offseason of research, fantasy football analyst Joel Smyth gives his top-50 fantasy stats to know before the biggest draft weekend of the year!
Since 2019, the difference in PPG from a top-eight pick to Picks 9-12 in the first round is only 0.5 in PPR (if your guy is going ninth on average and you have Pick 5, just go get your guy).
The only starting QB since 2024 with zero carries from inside the two-yard line is Lamar Jackson.
After leading the NFL in deep targets with 32, DK Metcalf dropped down to 17 in 2025 with Aaron Rodgers despite a heavily vertical route tree.
In his third straight season with his fantasy PPG decreasing, Travis Kelce ranked 28th among TE in red zone target share.
Minnesota and its WRs were bad last year. Yet still, Kevin O’Connell’s offenses rank fifth in receiving PPG in his four seasons with the Vikings.
In Travis Hunter’s four games with 20+ defensive snaps, he averaged 5.8 PPG (13.5 PPG and 2x more targets in other three games).
Puka Nacua’s targets per route since 2024 is 36.8%. No other qualified player is over 30%.
Dalton Kincaid ranked first among tight ends in targets/route, yards/route, yds/target, yds/reception, 1st downs/route, targeted passer rating, yds/target over expected, fantasy pts/route and expected fantasy pts/route in 2025. Efficiency is not the problem; he just needs more routes (<25% of run-blocking snaps).
Denver’s offense (14th in scoring) ranked seventh in WR fantasy points, despite a much weaker WR room compared to other top-10 teams. (Waddle bump)
The top-three QBs in checkdown percentage were all Cincinnati QBs in 2025 (yay Chase Brown)
Since entering the NFL, Christian McCaffrey has four of the five best PPR seasons in fantasy football (Barkley 2018). Unparalleled ceiling.
Dolphins QB Malik Willis is fifth in fantasy points/snap among QBs since 2023 and first in 2025.
In Jacksonville’s final four games, Parker Washington had 454 receiving yards. Brian Thomas Jr. and Jakobi Meyers combined for 267, despite both having more routes than Washington.
Cardinals TE Trey McBride had 667 routes in 2025. Ja’Marr Chase was second with 613, Travis Kelce second among TE with 511.
Colts TE Tyler Warren’s target/route skyrocketed from 21% with Michael Pittman Jr. on the field to 30% without. For comparison, McBride’s target/route in 2025 was 24.4%.
CMC was the only RB above 2.0 combined goal line carries + red zone targets. But in 2024, both Kareem Hunt and Chuba Hubbard were above 2.0 as well (great for Kenneth Walker III and Hubbard’s potential).
The highest catch rate on deep balls in 2025:
Kayshon Boutte
2. Stefon Diggs
3. Jaxon Smith-Njigba
4. Puka Nacua
5. Drake Maye WRsRome Odunze had 55% of his end zone targets deemed “inaccurate.” The next closest was 37%. DJ Moore also vacated 13 end zone targets, fourth most among WRs.
Luther Burden III ranked eighth in fantasy points per snap as a rookie. Six of the seven WRs above him were fantasy WR1s.
Travis Etienne Jr. was 35th in explosive carry %, but 14th in explosive yards (biggest diff in RB). His explosive points far outweighed his per attempt production. He also was the only RB with multiple explosive receiving TDs (3, 1 prior in career).
Ravens WR Zay Flowers 4.83 yds/route on play action was the second-best among WR. Play action %: Baltimore 26th, Chicago (new OC) second.
In his last 17 games with Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase has exactly 200 targets (Amon-Ra St. Brown was second to Chase in targets in 2025 with 172 in 17 games).
In total RB volume (expected fantasy points), SF, DET, & ATL were unsurprisingly top-three. fourth was the Steelers, with multiple RBs in the top-24 in volume.
Tetairoa McMillan had 16 targets dropped/or a WR error in his rookie season (T-most in NFL w/ BTJ, I’d expect this to bounce back in a major way in Year 2).
Justin Jefferson has failed to hit his season average in fantasy points in all six fantasy championships (10.6 PPG).
Kyler Murray only played five games in 2025, but he was the fantasy QB5 (PPG) from 2019-2024 and a QB1 in all six seasons. Kevin O’Connell’s QBs have finished QB12, QB6, QB9, QB30 in Minnesota.
Enjoying this article? Support our work with a small crypto donation.Kyle Pitts Sr. was the TE5 last season, but the distance in PPG to the TE4 is the same as the distance to TE15.
Jaguars HC Liam Coen’s QB ranks third in fantasy PPG since 2024 (players ahead were Allen, Jackson) and fourth in passing PPG (behind only Burrow, Goff, Stafford).
Jalen Hurts will have his fifth play-caller in five years in 2026. All four previous play-callers have given the Eagles QB over 40% of the team’s goal-line carries. (Nick Sirianni’s gonna tush push).
Trevor Lawrence and Jared Goff, former No. 1 overall picks went from bottom-four QBs as rookies to QB11 in Year 2. Cam Ward finished as the QB32 in 2025 with the league’s hardest fantasy QB schedule.
In the last 10 years, only two of 33 RBs in the first four rounds to score 20+ PPG came in Rounds 3-4, while seven of 30 WRs to score 20+ PPG did.
DeVonta Smith, Luther Burden III and Ladd McConkey, all players who played a lot in the slot in 2025, were all much better in yards per route outside, contrary to popular belief on some. All three should play more outside in new offenses/WR rooms in 2026 (Increases in yds/route: Smith +150%, Burden +59%, McConkey +39%).
Davante Adams 7.9 PPG on end zone targets in 2025 was the most since 2007 Randy Moss. In 2008, Moss dipped down to 3.1
Of top-12 drafted RBs in the NFL Draft in recent history, only Christian McCaffrey and Bijan Robinson did not score 15+ PPG as rookies before Jeanty failed to as well. In Year 2, Bijan was RB3 overall, CMC RB2 overall.
Lamar Jackson had five TDs dropped in 2025, the most in the NFL, even though he was last in pass att/gm and only played 13 games (also does not count the Isaiah Likely end-zone fumble).
Emeka Egbuka was the only WR to play a top-five fantasy WR defense five times, without playing a single bottom-five WR defense (Tampa Bay has the hardest WR schedule of 2025).
Jahmyr Gibbs was second in yds/att in gap schemes, and 42nd in zone schemes last season. James Conner led the NFL in gap schemes (69%) in 2024 w/ Drew Petzing as OC.
Jadarian Price had a PFF pass blocking grade of 38.5 in his college career (bad). The bottom-three RBs in pass blocking grade from 2025 were rookies.
Kansas City and Andy Reid ranked fifth in RB PPG from 2014-2023 (29th in the last two seasons).
When taking just Chase Brown’s starts in 2024, Zac Taylor has produced a fantasy RB1 in each of his last six seasons as Cincinnati’s head coach.
De’Von Achane averages 11.4 receiving PPG w/ Tua Tagovailoa in his career. In his eight games without, that drops to 3.4.
Josh McDaniels has been OC/HC for 19 years. His RB1 has hit 60% of the team RB touches only 5 times, with only 3 RBs crossing 15+ PPR PPG (2022 Raiders Josh Jacobs, 2012 Rams Stephen Jackson, 2010 Broncos Knowshon Moreno).
Jaylen Warren was top-2 among RB in targets/route, yards/route, and missed tackles/reception in 2025. PIT has the most vacated RB targets with 82.
Thirty-five “passing” QBs have been drafted in Rounds 2-5 since 2015, with a hit rate of 31%… rushing QBs are at 63%, while Josh Allen is at 100%.
Josh Allen has finished top-two in fantasy points among QBs in each of the last six seasons… Nobody else has finished top-two twice.
Ladd McConkey’s yards per route increase by 96% with motion. Mike McDaniel runs the most motion in the NFL.
In my luck metric stat, CeeDee Lamb was the unluckiest player of 2025, with -2.7 PPG from his “bad luck.”
Drake Maye was the QB32 in the fourth quarter last season, and QB1 from quarters 1-3. The Patriots’ schedule now makes them the favorite in only 10 games.
Here are the cornerbacks Brian Thomas Jr. is set to face in the first eight weeks of the season: Denzel Ward, Patrick Surtain II, Christian Gonzalez, DJ Turner, Quinyon Mitchell, Derek Stingley Jr., BYE, Sauce Gardner.
Fourteen RBs have been selected top-25 in the NFL Draft since 2015. Of the first 11 RBs in the group, ALL 11 had an RB1 fantasy season by their second year. Ashton Jeanty and Omarion Hampton can make it 13 for 13 in their sophomore year with an RB1 season (plus, Jeremiyah Love).
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