Numbers can inform us compelling tales.
They’ll, nonetheless, mislead, normally when framed in a solution to assemble a story or assist a particular declare.
Appreciating that each info can concurrently be true is essential to your fantasy soccer decision-making course of. In any case, fantasy soccer is, in itself, a numbers sport. The numbers decide our groups’ fates, and so they have a large say in our draft day, waiver wire and weekly lineup processes.
As you put together for the 2025 fantasy soccer season, garner as a lot information — and take in as many of those statistical info — as you’ll be able to, to assist information your decision-making all year long. Concurrently, scrutinize each quantity, understanding that every typically tells you just one angle of the story.
What follows beneath are my favourite numbers heading into 2025, collected throughout my preseason analysis interval. Respect them nonetheless you want to decide them: some to assist make powerful calls between intently valued gamers; some to present you a head begin by yourself analysis and draft preparation; some merely as bar-bet kind materials, or “huh, how about that?” trivia nuggets.
Join ESPN Fantasy Soccer. Play the No. 1 Fantasy sport without spending a dime!
40 Ja’Marr Chase scored at the very least 40 PPR fantasy factors on three separate events final season (Weeks 5, 10 and 14). He joined Isaac Bruce (1995) and Davante Adams (2020) as the one vast receivers because the merger to have had at the very least that many such video games in a single season.
12 Courtland Sutton has seen at the very least 12 finish zone targets in every of the previous three seasons, the one participant within the NFL who could make that declare.
10 Prior to now three seasons mixed, DJ Moore had a league-leading 10 catches on throws that Subsequent Gen Stats calculated had a 25% likelihood of completion or worse.
7 Solely seven receivers noticed at the very least 15 red-zone targets, had at the very least 10 yards common depth of goal and averaged at the very least 30 routes run per sport final season. The plain 5 had been Justin Jefferson, Drake London, Sutton, Tee Higgins and Tyreek Hill, all of whom completed among the many prime 18 vast receivers in PPR fantasy factors. You would possibly fairly have guessed a sixth, Jordan Addison, who completed twenty first.
The seventh was a a lot more durable one to guess: Rome Odunze, who completed forty ninth.
20.7 Following the Carolina Panthers’ Week 11 bye final season, Bryce Younger scored 145.12 fantasy factors throughout seven video games, sixth-most amongst quarterbacks. To additional put that into perspective, Younger averaged 20.7 factors in these contests, greater than double the 9.7 that he averaged in his earlier 21 profession NFL begins.
89 Throughout the previous three seasons, Travis Kelce has run 89 extra routes, seen 28 extra targets and caught 17 extra passes contained in the purple zone than every other tight finish. That wasn’t fully the results of his career-best 2022 marketing campaign both, as in 2024 alone, he ran 16 extra routes, noticed 4 extra targets and caught two extra passes than anybody else at his place in those self same conditions.
5 To reiterate the good thing about rostering a cellular quarterback, 30% of all quarterbacks’ begins final season resulted in a 20-point fantasy output or higher. That was proper in keeping with the league-wide charge 5 years earlier (31%, 2019).
Nevertheless, beginning quarterbacks who had at the very least 5 dashing makes an attempt final season scored 20 or extra fantasy factors 43% of the time. To place that into perspective, in 2019, solely 31% of quarterbacks with at the very least 5 carries scored 20-plus factors.
5 dashing makes an attempt isn’t any randomly chosen quantity, because it seems to be the trendy “candy spot” for fantasy success. In each 2022 and 2024, there have been extra 20-point quarterbacks with at the very least 5 dashing makes an attempt as those that had fewer, the primary two seasons in NFL historical past during which that has been true.
5 quarterbacks averaged at the very least 5 dashing makes an attempt per sport final season: Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Bo Nix. They completed eighth, fifth, first, second and seventh, respectively, in complete PPR fantasy factors scored.
100 Talking of Jackson, he scored 107.5 of his quarterback season report 430.38 fantasy factors together with his legs, the fourth time in his seven seasons that he has scored at the very least 100 dashing fantasy factors and the seventh straight yr with 80-plus dashing factors to start his profession. He, Allen and Cam Newton are the one three quarterbacks in historical past who can declare the latter.
That is to not take something away from Jackson’s abilities as a passer. He accomplished 30 landing passes from contained in the pocket, and his 116.9 passer ranking on these throws was the seventh-best charge by any quarterback this century.
59 From Week 11 ahead final season, Jonnu Smith scored a good end-leading 148.7 PPR fantasy factors (14.2 greater than the subsequent greatest) in eight video games. A part of the rationale was how typically the Miami Dolphins cut up him out vast, as Subsequent Gen Stats tracked him working a position-leading 59 routes in that alignment throughout that point span, leading to 29% of his fantasy manufacturing.
The main focus for Smith now shifts to how he’ll be utilized by Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, who has had Jonnu on his roster, whether or not as head coach or coordinator, for every of the tight finish’s three earlier greatest fantasy seasons (2019, 2020 and 2023). And whereas Arthur did not use Jonnu in fairly the way in which that the Dolphins did in 2024, he did start to separate Jonnu vast in 2023 in Atlanta with respectable outcomes, giving him 52 such routes (thirteenth amongst tight ends) and leading to 31.1 of 124.2 PPR fantasy factors for the tight finish. Hold your fingers crossed that Arthur Smith continues that artistic Dolphins utilization of Jonnu Smith in Pittsburgh.
55 Of Caleb Williams’ 254.54 fantasy factors final season (Sixteenth-most amongst quarterbacks), a league-leading 55% got here together with his Chicago Bears trailing by at the very least a landing. Actually, he amassed 35% of his seasonal fantasy level complete in what’s generally thought-about “rubbish time,” after halftime of video games and together with his group needing at the very least two scores with a view to tie.
33 Conversely, Derrick Henry’s 109.9 PPR fantasy factors together with his Baltimore Ravens up by at the very least two scores after halftime of video games was the second-most by any particular person participant this century. That accounted for 33% of his whole seasonal complete.
That stated, solely two working backs averaged at the very least 5 yards per carry, 4 yards after contact per carry and had at the very least 20 “explosive performs” (rushes of at the very least 10 yards) final season: Henry, who completed fourth in PPR fantasy factors on the place, and Bucky Irving, who completed thirteenth.
34.9 Brock Bowers set a season report for PPR fantasy factors by a good finish final season (262.7). For these involved about regression for the second-year Las Vegas Raiders star, keep in mind that it hasn’t struck top-scoring rookie tight ends as dramatically as you would possibly’ve feared. Taking the ten greatest single-season rookie tight finish seasons because the merger, the group declined by solely 34.9 PPR fantasy factors, and 0.51 factors per sport, as sophomores.
Sure, Sam LaPorta, whose 2023 report Bowers broke, skilled one of the dramatic declines among the many group (down 64.7 factors, or 3.2 per sport), however even he completed eighth greatest amongst tight ends in scoring final season.
200 Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery scored at the very least 200 PPR fantasy factors apiece in every of the previous two seasons. They’re the primary backfield teammates in historical past to try this, although, for a historic observe, it is price declaring that Dallas Cowboys’ Tony Dorsett and Ron Springs each reached the 200-point plateau in 1981 and 1983, with a strike-abbreviated 1982 in between.
75 Gibbs’ 75% charge (12 of 16) of changing his carries from inside three yards of the aim line for scores in his two NFL seasons led the league.
Gus Edwards was the NFL’s chief in that division over the previous three seasons (76%, or 16 of 21).
46 A full 46% (13 of 28) of De’Von Achane’s video games over the previous two seasons have resulted in him scoring at the very least 20 PPR fantasy factors. Christian McCaffrey is the one working again with a better such proportion in that point (60%, 12 of 20 video games).
6 Pete Carroll, the Raiders’ new head coach, had Seattle Seahawks offenses that completed prime 4 within the NFL in dashing yards six occasions between 2012-23. Not all of these had been Marshawn Lynch groups, both, as Chris Carson was the group’s main rusher in each 2018 (Seahawks led the league) and 2019 (Seahawks completed fourth).
11 Patrick Mahomes endured a streak of 11 consecutive video games, spanning from Week 13 of 2023 by means of Week 7 of 2024, scoring fewer than 17.5 fantasy factors. Amongst quarterbacks who’ve had a 350 fantasy-point season sooner or later of their careers, he and Matt Ryan (12 video games, in 2021-22) are the one ones with a streak at the very least that lengthy, and do not forget that Mahomes has 4 350-point seasons on his résumé (Ryan has one).
6 After Zack Moss was misplaced for the season as a result of a neck harm in Week 8, Chase Brown scored 165.0 PPR fantasy factors in eight video games over the season’s closing 10 weeks. That was the sixth-most amongst working backs throughout that span.
3 Jonathan Taylor has a historical past of robust finishes. Throughout his 5 NFL seasons, he has scored 332.6 PPR fantasy factors from Week 14 ahead, third-best amongst working backs, and his 20.8 per-game common trails solely Gibbs’ 22.6.
15 Brian Thomas Jr. scored at the very least 15 PPR fantasy factors in every of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ closing six video games of 2024. He joined Randy Moss (1998), Odell Beckham Jr. (2014) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (2021) as the one rookie vast receivers because the merger with as lengthy a streak.
12 Throughout the previous 5 seasons, solely three vast receivers have had at the very least 12 video games scoring 25 or extra PPR fantasy factors and at the very least 12 scoring fewer than 5: A.J. Brown, Mike Evans and Cooper Kupp.
17.4 Jauan Jennings scored 173.6 PPR fantasy factors in 10 video games final season during which one or each of his fellow San Francisco 49ers (on the time) vast receivers Brandon Aiyuk or Deebo Samuel Sr. had been absent. Jennings’ 17.4-point common was higher than the seasonal averages for all however 9 vast receivers.
