Fantasy News & Analysis

51 stats to know for Super Bowl LI

ATLANTA - SEPTEMBER 29: Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (#2) and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (#12) exchange greeting before the start of tonight's game. The New England Patriots play the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Sept. 29, 2013. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Super Bowl LI is nearly here, and like we have in previous years, we’re once again here to bring you a plethora of must-know stats for the big game.

Prepare to know things.

1. Tom Brady had the highest PFF grade (99.5) this season that we’ve ever recorded (2006-present). Matt Ryan was tied for second this year with a 93.3 grade (tied with Aaron Rodgers).

2. Brady completed 74.4 percent of his aimed throws in 2016, which ranked third in the NFL.

3. Ryan completed 74.3 percent of his aimed throws. That was good for fourth.

4. However, in 2016, Ryan posted the best depth-adjusted completion percentage of the past decade.

5. Brady’s 2016 depth-adjusted completion percentage was the ninth-best of the past decade.

6. Ryan has posted an NFL QB rating of 120 or higher in six straight games. He’s the first player since 1960 to accomplish this.

7. Brady’s passer rating when throwing to the right side of the field 10-19 yards down the field was 156.3 this year — nearly perfect.

8. About 25 percent of Ryan’s touchdowns this year have come 20-plus yards down the field on either the left or middle portions of the field.

9. When Brady was under pressure, he was sacked just 10.6 percent of the time — the lowest rate among all quarterbacks who took at least 225 dropbacks this year.

10. When Ryan was under pressure, he was sacked 19 percent of the time.

(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

11. Brady threw only two interceptions all year. They both came when he was under pressure.

12. Ryan threw no interceptions when under pressure this year. He was the only quarterback with 225-plus dropbacks to achieve this.

13. Ryan threw off of play action on 27.6 percent of his attempts this year, most in the NFL by a significant margin.

14. Brady was sixth in the league with a 22 percent play action rate.

15. Ryan completion percentage was 65.1 percent off of play action, compared to 71.6 percent with no play action.

16. Brady was nearly the opposite. He had a 71.7 percent completion rate with play action and a 66.1 percent rate with no play action.

17. Brady led the league in NFL passer rating (128.1) off of play action. Ryan was fourth (118.2).

18. Ryan led the league in NFL passer rating (116.7) with no play action. Brady was second (107.4).

19. LeGarrette Blount led the NFL with 18 rushing touchdowns this year. That was the most rushing touchdowns scored by a running back since Adrian Peterson also scored 18 back in 2009. No running back has scored more than 18 rushing touchdowns in a year since LaDainian Tomlinson scored 25 in 2006.

20. Tevin Coleman gained 40.5 percent of his rushing yards on runs that went for at least 15 years — the fifth-highest “breakaway rate” in the NFL.

(Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

21. Devonta Freeman gained 37.5 percent of his rushing yards on long (15-plus yard) runs — the eighth-highest rate in the league.

22. Blount averaged fewer average yards after contact (2.48) than Coleman (2.71), but more than Freeman (2.22).

23. Coleman averaged 2.58 pass yards per route run — tops among all running backs.

24. Freeman was seventh with 1.59 average YPRR.

25. James White was third among running backs with 1.90 YPRR.

26. White gained 551 receiving yards, which was third among all running backs, trailing only David Johnson and Le’Veon Bell.

27. Freeman (462) and Coleman (428) both ranked in the top-seven in terms of receiving yards gained by running backs.

28. Ryan had an NFL QB rating of 148.1 when throwing to Taylor Gabriel this year — tops in the league for a QB-WR duo by a wide margin.

29. The second-best QB-WR duo in terms of passer rating belonged to Brady and Chris Hogan. Brady’s NFL QB rating was 129.9 when targeting Hogan.

30. Julian Edelman was tied for fifth in the NFL with 146 targets. No passes intended for Edelman were intercepted this year.

(Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

31. Ryan threw four interceptions when targeting Julio Jones this year.

32. He threw no interceptions when targeting Mohamed Sanu and just one interception when targeting Gabriel.

33. Sanu dropped only two passes all year, giving him a low drop rate of 3.28 percent.

34. Edelman had a drop rate of 10.91 percent this year — 74th-highest out of 96 qualifying receivers.

35. Malcolm Mitchell dropped 11.11 percent of his targets, which ranked 76th.

36. About one-in-four (24.8 percent) of Jones’ targets came 20-plus yards down the field (“deep targets”) this year. This was easily the highest rate of all Falcons receivers. However, Jones has been targeted deep on just 10 percent of his targets in the playoffs.

37. Jones gained 401 yards on deep targets this year, fifth among all wideouts.

38. Hogan gained 397 yards on deep targets, sixth among all wideouts.

39. Edelman was targeted deep 11 percent of his targets in the regular season. That number has risen to 17.4 percent in the playoffs.

40. Despite being known as New England’s “slot guy,” Edelman ran only about half (53.5 percent) of his snaps from the slot.

(Al Bello/Getty Images)

41. Edelman did gain 2.42 YPPR when running from the slot, however, which was third-most among all receivers.

42. Danny Amendola ran 88.7 percent of his routes from the slot this year — the fourth-highest rate among all wideouts.

43. Amendola caught 87 percent of his targets when running out of the slot — tops among all receivers.

44. Jones gained 3.12 YPPR this year — most among all receivers by a fair amount. This was the highest YPPR posted by a wideout since Steve Smith gained 3.83 back in 2008.

45. Gabriel gained 2.45 YPPR — third among wideouts.

46. Martellus Bennett gained 1.96 YPPR, which ranked fifth among qualifying tight ends this year.

47. Austin Hooper, Levine Toilolo and Jacob Tamme (now on IR) combined for 54 receptions this year. Bennett had 55 by himself.

48. Toilolo did gain 14.7 yards per target, however, which was second among all tight ends behind Rob Gronkowski (now on IR).

49. Hooper (10.8 — fifth) and Bennett (10.6 — sixth) also ranked in the top six in yards per target among tight ends, meaning four of the top six tight ends in the NFL this year in terms of YPT played on either the Falcons or Patriots.

50. Bennett ran 41.3 percent of his routes from the slot this season, and caught 89.5 percent of his targets from the slot — the second-highest slot catch rate among tight end this year.

(Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

51. The Patriots led the NFL with a net point differential of 191 this year. The Falcons were second with 134.

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