One fact for every NFL team. Some might say it's truly a great day to be great.

Special thanks to TruMedia, PFF, Pro Football Reference, and Next-Gen Stats for all referenced metrics.

Arizona Cardinals

  • Question: Has anyone been better than Kyler Murray under pressure?

In terms of EPA per pressured dropback, nope! And it's not particularly close.

 

Overall, Kyler has averaged a solid yards per attempt mark (6.9, 12th) while tossing three TDs against zero INTs when under pressure this season, but perhaps more impressive has been his escapability: Murray has averaged an absurd 14.4 yards per carry on 10 scrambles after being pressured–3.8 yards higher than the next-closest QB (Jalen Hurts, 10.6).

Atlanta Falcons

  • Question: Has the Kyle Pitts experience improved all that much this season?

Not really. He's scored as many TDs as last season … with three. His 44.9 yards per game are his highest since his rookie year (60.4), but still: This hasn't exactly been the sort of "generational" production that was expected out of the former No. 4 overall pick.

And get this: Old friend Jonnu Smith trails Pitts by a mere 0.7 PPR points on the season! The Dolphins' TE1 is ahead on a per-game basis! It may be time for the fantasy community to pay Mr. Arthur Smith a bit of an apology.

Baltimore Ravens

  • Question: Has loading the box helped slow down this run game?

Not at all. In fact, the Ravens are easily the best team in yards per carry against eight-plus defenders in the box.

  • Ravens (5.1)
  • Texans (4.3)
  • Saints (4.3)
  • Cardinals (4.2)
  • 49ers (4.1)

The worst team? Falcons (1.9). Yikes, but yeah: The only three RBs to average north of five yards per carry against these loaded boxes: J.K. Dobbins (6.1), Derrick Henry (5.6), and Tank Bigsby (5.3).

Can't wait to see what this stat looks like for Henry after a few cold, late-season matchups against teams that quit on the season weeks ago (whispers: Giants in Week 15).

Buffalo Bills

  • Question: How great is Josh Allen at avoiding sacks?

One of the best. The Chiefs didn't get him down once last week, and on the season Kansas City and Green Bay have allowed a league-low 13 sacks.

Obviously, the big uglies up front deserve a lot of credit, but it's been Allen's ability to consistently avoid pressure that has really stood out in recent years.

Allen percentage of pressured dropbacks that resulted in sacks:

  • 2024: 10.1% (No. 3)
  • 2023: 10% (No. 1)
  • 2022: 15.4% (No. 10)
  • 2021: 10.6% (No. 1)
  • 2020: 11.8% (No. 4)
  • 2019: 18.9% (No. 22)
  • 2018: 16.3% (No. 15)

Carolina Panthers

  • Question: How miserable is the Panthers pass rush?

Horrific. Especially because they actually blitz a fair amount.

 

The Panthers have a league-low 81 pressures this season. The Titans (96) are the only other team under 100. The only three defenses to post a pressure rate under 25% since 2020: The 2021 Falcons, 2022 Bears, and (you guessed it) 2024 Panthers.

Chicago Bears

It's tough to say otherwise. Overall, Johnson has converted five of his six carries inside the five-yard line into TDs, and his only failure was followed up by a successful score. That 83% TD rate is tops in the league among 37 players with at least five carries inside the five-yard line.

Cincinnati Bengals

  • Question: Just how ridiculous of a season is Ja'Marr Chase having?

It's been pretty ridiculous. Chase leads the league in receptions (73), receiving yards (1,056), and receiving TDs (12). If he maintains the lead in all three categories, he'll join 1990 Jerry Rice, 1992 Sterling Sharpe, 2005 Steve Smith, and 2021 Cooper Kupp as the only WRs to win the position's de facto "Triple Crown" over the past 50 years.

One of just eight players averaging double-digit yards per target this season, almost solely good things have happened when Joe Burrow has looked in the direction of his No. 1 WR—now PAY THE MAN.

Cleveland Browns

Very. In fact, he's arguably been the league's best pass rusher when it comes to 1.) Down-to-down pressure rate, and 2.) How quickly he's gotten said pressure.

 

The two other takeaways from this: Chris Jones is a BEAST, and get better soon, Aidan Hutchinson.

Dallas Cowboys

According to Next-Gen Stats: Pretty much. His 64-yard TD featured a top speed of 22.36 miles per hour; Brian Thomas (22.15) and Jahmyr Gibbs (22.03) are the only other guys to eclipse 22 MPH this season. Turn those frowns upside down, Cowboys fans!

Denver Broncos

  • Question: Has Sean Payton been in his bag lately when it comes to play-calling?

He sure has! Shoutout to Steve Patton (@pattonanalytics) for his weekly play-caller rankings, and sure enough, Payton comes in as one of the league's best through 11 weeks:

  1. Lions (Ben Johnson)
  2. Vikings (Kevin O'Connell)
  3. Eagles (Kellen Moore)
  4. Chargers (Greg Roman)
  5. Commanders (Kliff Kingsbury)
  6. Texans (Bobby Slowik)
  7. Bills (Joe Brady)
  8. Broncos (Sean Payton)

Detroit Lions

  • Question: Do the Lions give Jared Goff the best supporting cast in football?

I've calculated something I call "Supporting Cast Rating" a handful of times this year: Every team's average PFF rush, receiving, pass blocking, and run blocking grade (everything except passing). It's not perfect and probably gives too much weight to the blocking side of things, but I generally agree with the results directionally.

Anyways, yeah! Lions are No. 1. Hell yeah. Restore the roar.

Green Bay Packers

  • Question: Has Christian Watson been one of the game's more efficient WRs since entering the league?

When his hamstrings have cooperated: Yes. Overall, Watson's average of 9.4 yards per target ranks 10th among 63 WRs with 150-plus targets since 2022. His average of 15.9 yards per catch ranks fifth among that cohort, and he's also one of just 18 WRs in that group to average north of two yards per route run.

Note that this hasn't resulted in an overwhelming amount of production this season: Last week's 150-yard effort was the first time Watson reached even 70 yards; he has more games under 15 yards (4) than he does over 40 (3) through 11 weeks.

Houston Texans

  • Question: Are the Texans perhaps feeding Joe Mixon too many touches?

On the one hand, Mixon is making plenty of good things happen with his opportunities; he's the RB1 in PPR points per game after all.

On the other hand, he joins Saquon Barkley as the only RBs with 25-plus touches in four games this season, which is especially wild when considering the ex-Bengals veteran has missed three full games due to injury and been limited in two others.

Indianapolis Colts

  • Question: Should we feel bad for the Colts WRs?

A little bit. There have been some highs (Anthony Richardson was great last week!), but this passing game has generally not exactly consisted of one dime after another. Overall, the Colts (67.3%) join the Cowboys (68.8%) and Bears (69.1%) as the only three offenses with "on target" passing percentages under 70% according to Pro Football Reference.

That said: Richardson has the league's highest rate of passes dropped (11.2%), while Joe Flacco has the third-lowest mark (3.4%). Could this be a deep team-wide conspiracy to screw over Richardson? Or are most of his throws seemingly 120 miles per hour and the fastballs are hard to catch? Only you can decide (it's probably the latter combined with general ball placement).

Jacksonville Jaguars

  • Question: Has Trevor Lawrence's supporting cast been the primary problem here?

You could say that. Going back to "Supporting Cast Rating" which averages every team's PFF rush, receiving, pass blocking, and run blocking grade (everything except passing), we can see that T-Law has consistently been forced to make more with less since entering the league.

Jaguars rank in supporting cast rating:

  • 2021: 28th
  • 2022: 20th
  • 2023: 30th
  • 2024: 24th

Only the Giants and Jets had a worse five-year average than the Jaguars entering 2024.

Kansas City Chiefs

  • Question: Has Patrick Mahomes taken his game to another level on 3rd and 4th down?

Sure has. The Chiefs rank just 21st in EPA per dropback on 1st and 2nd down this season, but nobody has been better on 3rd and 4th down.

 

Side note: It's pretty wild that the Rams go from the fourth-best offense on 1st and 2nd down to *dead last* on 3rd and 4th down. C'mon, Stafford!

Las Vegas Raiders

  • Question: Are the Raiders RBs making less out of their carries than any team in the league?

You could say that. After all, they rank dead last in both tackles avoided and yards after contact per carry.

Los Angeles Chargers

Pretty special! 14th in ESPN's Open Rating and 10th in PFF receiving grade, the analytics say McConkey has been great, and the film agrees!

Los Angeles Rams

  • Question: How wild was that diving TD catch from Puka Nacua last week?

Very. In fact, Next-Gen Stats deemed the ridiculously awesome snag to be the sixth-most improbable completion (13.4%) this season.

The most improbable completion of the year? Gardner Minshew to Davante Adams back in Week 2. It was sweet.

Miami Dolphins

  • Question: Has Tua Tagovailoa completely turned around this Dolphins offense?

Yes! We're talking about the group being good-to-great with Tua to … the worst unit in the league without.

Minnesota Vikings

  • Question: Has Brian Flores done a brilliant job with this defense?

Sure has. Overall, nobody has forced more "Havoc" this season, which we can quantify by adding up every team's total pressures, tackles for a loss, forced fumbles, interceptions, and pass breakups by their total plays.

Havoc rate leaders

  1. Vikings (43%)
  2. Browns (42%)
  3. Lions (41%)
  4. Texans (40%)
  5. Eagles (39%)

Shoutout to the Jaguars, Bengals, Raiders, Patriots, Falcons, and Panthers for being the only teams under 30%.

New England Patriots

Yes ,he can. Overall, only Lamar Jackson, Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts, and Anthony Richardson have averaged rushing yards per game than Maye on the season. That's right: The rookie is literally tied with Kyler Murray when it comes to pure rushing!

Things actually get even more impressive when only looking at Maye's five complete starts: He's averaged 238 passing yards and 40.4 rushing yards across these contests AKA more than Josh f*cking Allen on both accounts!

Those numbers are truly amazing. The only QBs in NFL history to average 230-plus passing yards and 40-plus rushing yards per game in a single season: Allen, Jackson, Hurts, Murray, Cam Newton, Mike Vick, and Randall Cunningham. Pretty, pretty, pretty good.

New Orleans Saints

  • Question: Is Derek Carr having his best season in quite some time?

Arguably! Especially considering all the injuries to his offensive line and WR room.

Carr EPA per dropback and rank by season:

  • 2024: +0.186 (No. 9)
  • 2023: +0.050 (No. 20)
  • 2022: +0.092 (No. 15)
  • 2021: +0.107 (No. 16)
  • 2020: +0.173 (No. 14)
  • 2019: +0.154 (No. 10)
  • 2018: +0.009 (No. 30)

New York Giants

  • Question: Do the Giants have the NFL's most condensed passing game?

In terms of the highest combined target share between a team's top two WRs: Yes. Overall, Malik Nabers and Wan'Dale Robinson have a combined 61% target share–easily the highest mark in the league. Hell, the Eagles (57%), Jets (56%), Bengals (54%), Rams (52%), and Colts (50%) are the only other offenses at 50% or higher.

Here's to hoping Tommy DeVito can, you know, make said targets a bit more fantasy-friendly than Daniel Jones managed moving forward.

New York Jets

  • Question: Has Breece Hall been the NFL's most productive receiving RB?

Close! Alvin Kamara (105.3) and De'Von Achane (98.9) are the only two RBs to score more PPR points from purely receiving production than Hall (98.1) this season. Rachaad White (90.1) is the only other RB even close.

Philadelphia Eagles

  • Question: Has Jalen Hurts been more lethal than ever on scrambles this season?

He has! Whether it's simply a matter of getting healthier, or Hurts simply running hot: He's currently averaging a career-high nine yards per scramble while picking up a 1st down on 50% of such rushes. Hurts has also pulled this club out of his bag when it has mattered most: Only Patrick Mahomes (9) has picked up more first downs when scrambling on third downs (8) than Hurts.

Pittsburgh Steelers

It sure is. Among 40 qualified QBs, DangeRuss finds himself among the league's top-10 QBs in passer rating (105.1, 3rd), yards per attempt (15.7, 8th), PFF pass grade (91.0, 9th), and completion rate (47.4%, 7th).

Of course, George Pickens has been the usual recipient on the other end of these downfield heaves: No pass-catcher has hauled in more receptions (11) or gained more yards (391) on passes thrown at least 20 yards downfield this season.

San Francisco 49ers

Very! In fact, he's the WR13 in PPR points per game–a mere 0.01 fantasy points behind Garrett Wilson!

Most impressive has been Jennings' ability to win on 50/50 balls. Overall, his 11 contested catches are the seventh most of any player, and clearly Brock Purdy has taken notice of this skill: Jennings' 18 contested targets are within shouting distance of the rest of the San Fran WRs combined (23).

Seattle Seahawks

  • Question: How elite has Kenneth Walker's tackle-breaking ability been this season?

Amazing: Walker has forced a missed tackle on a whopping 38.1% of his rush attempts –the highest mark in the league by 7.3% and the best single-season mark since at least 2020 among all RBs with at least 100 rush attempts.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  • Question: Has Bucky Irving been one of the game's best dual-threat RBs?

Abso-lutely. That's him in the upper right quadrant by Austin Ekeler, Saquon Barkley, and Jahmyr Gibbs as the most efficient RBs in terms of both yards per carry and target.

Tennessee Titans

It's only been a four-week span, but the answer is very!

Ridley among all WRs in Weeks 8-11:

  • PFF receiving grade: 82.9 (tied for No. 7)
  • Targets: 37 (tied for No. 5)
  • Air yards: 581 (No. 1)
  • Receptions: 24 (tied for No. 8)
  • Receiving yards: 358 (No. 5)
  • PPR points: 70.1 (No. 7)

The numbers would be even bigger had those damn refs not nullified Ridley's 51-yard TD last week due to a ticky-tack illegal formation call. Yes, I'm still bitter.

Washington Commanders

More than any other QB in football. Overall, Daniels' 12.7% is the highest mark among 40 QBs with at least 100 dropbacks. Hell, Drake Maye (11.2%), Brock Purdy (10.2%), and Justin Fields (9.8%) are the only other signal-callers over nine percent.

Note this isn't necessarily a bad thing: Daniels' average of 7.8 yards per scramble is the 17th-highest mark at the position, and 41.3% of those rushes have resulted in first downs.

Fun fact: Matthew Stafford is the only QB with *zero* scrambles this season. Nine of his 12 rush attempts have been kneel downs, two were recovered fumbled snaps, and one was a QB sneak. Madness.

Now, let's dive into where I have everyone ranked for Week 12