I don't have the answers to which stats are most valuable when determining the ranking of a player, but what I do have is an idea that works for ME. I will simply suggest that you have everything you hear about a guy all laid out in one place. What are his numbers from last year? What improved from the previous year? What is different about his situation? Why did he drop so many passes? What was his pace for the 1st and 2nd half of the season? What is his contract scenario? What is the coach's scheme? All of this has merit.
A great example of this is a guy named Matt Harmon (if you're reading this you most likely already know who he is). He's a pioneer of sorts when talking about wide receivers. He created a model called Reception Perception and it gives such good insight into everything a wide receiver has to offer. Check him out for some next level info (@mattharmon_BYB). Point is he took what HE found valuable when grading players and not only turned it into a fantasy championship or 2, but an actual business. There is a sea of ones and zeroes just waiting to be noticed and compiling this information on a yearly basis will not only help you figure out what is important to YOU when judging positional rankings, but it will let you know to split aces and eights all day everyday.
Here are some whispers of truth that you may find interesting:
- Tavon Austin has has the same amount of TD's the past 3 years as Julio Jones (16). I can't tell if this is good for Tavon Austin or bad for Julio.
- David Johnson's touches for the first ten weeks of the season were 1-6-10-7-3-4-5-3-1-4... and he still finished as the #8 RB in PPR.
- Demaryius Thomas had a 10 TD pace the final eight games of the season with some of the worst QB play possible. In fact, the Denver QB's combined to be the 29th scoring QB in FPts/game last year. So let's not worry too much who will be under center for Denver this year.
- Pro Football Focus shows that only 61% of Mike Evans targets were deemed catchable last season (courtesy of @dudefantasybro). Maybe we should give him a little slack on the whole 'drops' thing.
- Since Odell Beckham Jr.'s first game played in week 5 of 2014 he is leading the league in TD's with 25. Next closest is Rob Gronkowski with 20 (courtesy of Chris Wesseling).
- Jarvis Landry has the most receptions in history for a WR to start his career.
- 5 of the top 7 scoring TE's in PPR in three of the last four years have been drafted in round 8 or later.
- Larry Fitzgerald caught 75% of his passes in 2015. His highest catch rate before that was 63% in 2009. Some people say it's because he moved to the slot. He moved to the slot in 2013 and had a 60% catch rate for two straight years.
- Jeremy Langford started 3 games for the Bears last year and had a pace to score 390.2 fantasy points in a PPR league. Yes, it's a very small sample size, but it also is what it is.
- Theo Riddick caught 80 passes last year for Detroit.
- Kamar Aiken, with 3 different QB's, in the final 8 games of the season was on pace for 100 receptions, 1,222 yards and 6 TD's. He is the guy to own.
- Jordan Reed's 2nd half pace (including playoffs) was 110 receptions for 1,350 yards and 12 TD's. Now I know his injury history sucks, but damn that is sexy potential.
These were just some fun stats to compile and look at. It certainly makes this time of year more bearable as we all wait for Week 1. My final thought on the whole concept I've laid out here is just to remember that touches and targets lead to opportunities which lead to points.