101 interesting fantasy facts from the 2014 season

sharonorn

If you've immersed yourself in the world of fantasy sports, whether you want to admit it or not, there's a good chance you're a stats geek. (It's alright, geeking out about sports stats is a heck of a lot more macho than getting excited about the new season of "American Idol"). As a slave to the stat myself, I went back into the depths of the 2014 season and beyond to unearth 101 interesting little nuggets. Some of them you might know,  Germaine Pratt Jersey some of them you probably don't. It's a pretty long read as far as fantasy columns go, so give yourself some time and indulge your inner stats.Special thanks to NFL research extraordinaire Careen Falcone for her help with this column. You can follow her at .A total of four players (, , , ) scored 40-plus fantasy points in a single game this season. In two of those four contests (Roethlisberger, Gray), the opposing team was the .A total of 12.57 percent of fantasy owners who had the sixth overall pick in their NFL.com drafts won their league, which was the highest of any draft slot. A total of 73 percent of owners who took a running back in the first round won their league, with the next closest being quarterback (11 percent). The le son here ... take running backs early and wait on quarterbacks. rookie wide receiver Jr. was the player who appeared on the most NFL.com fantasy championship rosters (40.5 percent), followed by running back (29.8 percent). In an ironic twist, both of those players were added off the waiver wire rather than in drafts.The set single-season franchise records in points scored (474) and total touchdowns (54). The team scored 11 return touchdowns, the third-highest total in NFL history. Ten different scored a return touchdown in 2014, the most in a single season in NFL history. became the only player in NFL history with three touchdown receptions, an interception returned for a touchdown and a fumble recovery touchdown in the same season. His three receiving touchdowns are more than , , and in 2014.The value of fantasy quarterbacks continued to rise in 2014. Sixteen signal-callers reached the 250-fantasy point plateau, which marks the fourth consecutive season that number has increased. That number has also doubled since 2010, when there were eight quarterbacks with 250-plus fantasy points. A total of 17 quarterbacks finished in the top 25 in fantasy points in 2014, which is  Trey Hopkins Jersey the second-most since 2009. Nine different quarterbacks threw for at least 30 touchdowns in 2014, the most ever in a single season. The NFL is truly a pa sing league.There have been eight quarterbacks who have thrown for 40 or more touchdowns in a single season. Of those eight quarterbacks, is the only player to throw for at least 40 touchdowns again in the following season (2011-12). was the lone quarterback with 40 touchdown pa ses in 2014.Although Luck led the NFL in fantasy points through the first nine weeks of the season (25.5 PPG), his production dropped significantly in the second half. He averaged 17.4 points over the final seven weeks, which ranked 19th overall. In the fantasy playoffs (Weeks 14-16), Luck averaged 13.1 PPG ... that ranked 23rd among quarterbacks. Luck was also second in giveaways with 22, trailing just .Cutler threw eight touchdown pa ses in the ' first three games this season, breaking Sid Luckman's previous franchise record (seven in 1946). Despite his hot start, this was still arguably Cutler's most disappointing year of his career ... one that saw him benched for at the end of the season. Cutler still managed to finish 14th among quarterbacks in fantasy points (255.58), though. has finished no worse than second in fantasy points among quarterbacks in five of the last six seasons. The only season he finished outside of the top two was in 2013, when he mi sed seven games with a broken collarbone.Rodgers did not throw an interception at home this season. His 36 touchdowns and 418 pa s attempts without an interception on his home field are both NFL records. Since 1960, only one field general has started all eight home games in a single season and not thrown a single interception. That quarterback was in 2003.At the age of 38, is the oldest player in NFL history to score 300-plus fantasy points in a single season. He had 312.68 points in 2014 ... that was almost 100 fewer points than he scored in 2013, however.In his first 11 games of 2014, averaged 23.96 fantasy points and was on pace to finish with 359.35 points. That would have ranked him first among quarterbacks. His production declined in the final four weeks, however, as Manning averaged 10.19 fantasy points and finished with 312.68.Over the final four weeks of the NFL's regular season, no quarterback scored more fantasy points than (85.98). In fact, his point total was more than double the output of (36.60 points) during that time span. Romo had 12 touchdown pa ses and one interception, while Manning to sed just three scoring strikes and had six picks., , , , and were among the 26 quarterbacks who scored Nick McCloud Jersey  more fantasy points than from Weeks 14-17.Carr was the highest-scoring rookie quarterback this season, ranking a mere 20th at his position based on fantasy points. That makes this the second year in a row that the top rookie signal-caller finished 20th, with finishing in that slot in 2013. In 2012, three different rookie signal-callers (, Luck, ) finished among the 10 best players at their position. Wilson ranked just 15th in pa sing yards (3,475) and 16th in touchdown pa ses (20), but he still finished third among quarterbacks in the league based on fantasy points (327.60). That's due in large part to his finishing first among all signal-callers in rushing yards (849) and rushing touchdowns (6). Wilson also threw just seven  Cincinnati Bengals Jersey interceptions all season long.Wilson has seen his fantasy point ranking among quarterbacks increase in each of his first three seasons. He finished third, with a career-high 327.60 fantasy points, in 2014. Wilson had three games with at least 100 yards rushing, joining Vick as the lone quarterbacks with at least three 100-yard rushing games in a single season in the era (since 1966).Proving that you can find good value late in drafts at the quarterback position, only three of the top 10 signal-callers based on fantasy points (, , Rodgers) were picked within the first two rounds based on average draft position (ADP). Six other field generals who reached that level of succe s were drafted in the sixth round or later on NFL.com.Roethlisberger finished fifth in fantasy points among quarterbacks this season, but he wasn't very consistent in the stat sheets. In fact, he recorded fewer than 16 fantasy points in half of his starts. Furthermore, more than 50 percent of his 306.18 fantasy points came in a mere five games. recorded 522 pa sing yards, six touchdowns and no turnovers in Week 8 against the , totaling 44.78 fantasy points. That number is the highest in a single game this season. He also became the first player in NFL history with six touchdown pa ses in back-to-back games (Weeks 8-9). Roethlisberger also had two 500-yard pa sing games, the first player in NFL history to achieve that feat. Based on average draft position, Roethlisberger was the best value in among quarterbacks. Despite not being drafted until the 13th round (129th overall) in most NFL.com leagues, finished fifth in fantasy points among quarterbacks.Brees failed to finish among the top two in fantasy points Kevin Huber Jersey  for the first time since 2010, which was the year he was featured on the cover of the Madden video game. Although he tied Roethlisberger for the most pa sing yards in the NFL (4,952) and finished sixth in fantasy points, Brees had his worst statistical campaign in the last four years. had a strong start to the fantasy season, ranking 6th among quarterbacks in the first six weeks (18.8 PPG). He struggled over the final ten weeks, however, averaging 12.9 fantasy PPG (22nd among QBs) despite posting 27.66 points in Week 16. He also finished without throwing a touchdown pa s in the fourth quarter all season. The last quarterback to start 16 games and fail to throw for a score in the fourth quarter was (2006). threw for a career-high 4,045 yards this season. He is the only quarterback other than Dan Marino to throw for 4,000 yards in a single NFL campaign. Marino accomplished the feat six times during his career. finished the season with 4,410 pa sing yards and 30 touchdown pa ses (both second-best in his career), but he still finished outside of the top 10 in fantasy points among all quarterbacks with 269.5. In 2010, that would have been good enough to finish sixth overall at the position. averaged a mere 9.31 fantasy points (four TD pa ses) in his first four games. Over his next five starts, he averaged 27.2 points (18 TD pa ses). He would go on to record 17-plus fantasy points in four of his last six games, though he did post a 10.28-point stinker in fantasy championship week.The 2014 fantasy playoffs were not memorable for Brady and