100 Facts for the 2022 Fantasy Football Season

This article isn’t an original idea. In fact, I started writing it as an homage to it’s original creator, fantasy football guru, Matthew Berry, in the wake of his recent departure from ESPN. We’ve since learned Berry’s career is coming full circle with his return to NBC Sports and the revival of Rotoworld, now known as NBC Sports Edge. In fact, he’s released his version of this article on that platform, something I wasn’t sure we’d be fortunate enough to read this summer during his career shift, but I’m ecstatic about nonetheless.

In Matthew Berry’s 2021 100 facts article, he discusses a need for more curiosity and less judgment in fantasy football. Nobody has all of the answers, so we should ask more questions. This resonates with me especially as I think back to Spring of last year. I began to grow curious if I could take my own passion of fantasy football to the next level.

“Is there room for me in such a saturated space to create content? How do I get people to listen to what I have to say? What if I do try and fail?”

More curiosity, less judgment.

So, I sent in an application to write for Fantrax and, to my surprise, they gave me a shot. Like most other fantasy football analysts, I don’t do this for a living. I talk enough about it already on a daily basis, so I thought I might as well write some of it down to connect with others. It is by far my biggest hobby.

It’s not lost on me that this is all entirely possible because of Matthew Berry. He’s the pioneer that paved the way for, not only himself, but the thousands of others, including myself, who write, podcast, and produce every other form of media content surrounding fantasy football today. Of course, the folks at Fantrax gave me the space and chance to write for them, for which I’m forever grateful. But, there are no shots for people like me without Matthew Berry making fantasy football what it is today.

This article is just one example that I, too, have what it takes to make worthwhile content to help others win fantasy football championships while having some fun along the way. Sure, it’s a Matthew Berry summer staple, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or at least in this case, so I hope.

So, here I am, 100 published articles later on Fantrax, sharing 100 facts for the 2022 fantasy football season with you. I hope they make you think, that you enjoy this piece, and perhaps shed any doubts about pursuing a passion of your own.

More curiosity, less judgment.

100 Facts to Consider Ahead of the 2022 Fantasy Football Season

The following 100 facts are meant for your own interpretation. Two different analysts can take two different avenues in discussing the same player and make you feel completely different about them. Fantasy football is a statistical game that is often driven by opinion. I’m not here to tell you exactly who to draft and who to avoid. Rather, I’m here to merely present information I find useful for you to then formulate your own opinions in preparation of your own drafts where you make your own decisions.

So, here is my version of, and an addition to, Matthew Berry’s 100 facts for the 2022 fantasy football season.

Two analysts, two avenues. More curiosity, less judgment. Enjoy!

1. Davante Adams was traded from the Green Bay Packers to the Las Vegas Raiders in March.
2. Adams is reuniting with his college quarterback, Derek Carr.
3. With Carr at quarterback, over two seasons at Fresno State, Adams totaled 233 receptions for 3,031 yards and 38 touchdowns in 26 games.
4. Adams has scored the most touchdowns (65) amongst wide receivers in the league since 2016 with no less than 10 per season.
5. The only Raiders wide receiver that caught a pass from Carr last season that is returning to Vegas in 2022 is Hunter Renfrow.
6. Amari Cooper was also traded this off-season from the Dallas Cowboys to the Cleveland Browns.
7. In seven seasons, Cooper has never finished in the top-12 on a points per game basis in fantasy football.
8. He’s only averaged more than 15.0 PPR points per game twice.
9. Cooper has seen 103 or more targets in his last three seasons with Dallas.
10. No Browns wide receiver saw more than 85 targets last season and 101 the year prior.
11. That Browns wide receiver in both instances is Jarvis Landry.
12. Landry is now a New Orleans Saint.
13. Tyreek Hill was also traded this off-season from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Miami Dolphins.
14. He leaves behind a 24.9% target share in K.C. from last season.
15. The Kansas City Chiefs signed free agent Juju Smith-Schuster.
16. Juju has only seen a 20% or more target share once in his career: 24.5% in 2018 with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
17. He finished as WR9 in points per game (18.6) that season with an 111/1,426/7 stat line.
    1. Antonio Brown was the WR2 in ppg (21.6) with a 104/1,297/15 stat line on that same Steelers team.
18. Juju is currently being drafted in the 8th Round.
19. Rashod Bateman is also being drafted in the 8th Round.
20. Bateman has 32 receptions in just eight games played with Lamar Jackson.
21. No other current Ravens wide receiver has more than 32 receptions in their entire career.
22. Marquise “Hollywood” Brown leaves behind a 25% target share in Baltimore from last season.
23. No 27-year-old, or older, running back has finished top-six in fantasy football in the last five years.
24. James Conner, Austin Ekeler, Leonard Fournette, and Derrick Henry will all be age 27 years or older this season.
25. Austin Ekeler and Derrick Henry are being drafted, on average, in the top-six at the position.
26. Josh Allen has averaged 21.77 fantasy points per game in 61 career regular season games and 22.86 points in 49 non-rookie games.
27. Though Allen finished as the QB1 in 2021, for some perspective, his non-rookie fantasy average of 22.86 points per game would slide in as the QB3 for 2021.
28. Josh Allen is really good at football.
29. Bills tight end, Dawson Knox, caught 49 passes in 2021.
30. Nine of his receptions, or 18% of them, were touchdowns.
31. Patriots’ tight end, Hunter Henry, caught 41% of Mac Jones’ touchdown passes last season.
32. Henry had just 14.5% of the Patriots’ target share.
33.  10 quarterbacks, that played 12+ games, averaged over 20.0 fantasy points per game last season.
34. That’s never happened before.
35. Three of the top-four quarterbacks on a points per game basis rushed at least 63 times.
    1. Josh Allen (122), Justin Herbert (63), Kyler Murray (88).
36. The other, Tom Brady, ran the ball just 28 times, less than twice per game.
37. Tom Brady led the league in pass attempts (719), passing yards (5,316), and passing touchdowns (43) in 2021.
38. He turned 45 at the beginning of August.
39. Mike Evans will be 29 at the end of August.
40. He has at least 1,000 receiving yards in all eight years of his career.
41. He leads the league in receiving touchdowns since the start of 2019.
42. Cooper Kupp is older than Mike Evans.
43. Kupp led the league in receiving touchdowns with 16 in 2021.
44. The Eagles rank second in rush attempts per game (31.5) in 2021.
45. Miles Sanders led all Eagles running backs in rush attempts (137).
46. Sanders did not score any touchdowns last season.
47. Jalen Hurts led all Eagles in rush attempts (139).
48. He also led all quarterbacks with 10 rushing touchdowns last season.
49. The Philadelphia Eagles traded for A.J. Brown from the Tennessee Titans this offseason.
50. He is averaging four 100+ yard games per regular season since entering the league in 2019.
51. Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and Cedrick Wilson combined for 226 targets in Dallas last season.
    1. That’s 35.5% of the team’s targets and 58.3% of wide receiver targets.
52. Cooper, as mentioned before, is now a Cleveland Brown, Cedrick Wilson is a Miami Dolphin, and Gallup is recovering from a late-season ACL injury.
53. Ceedee Lamb led the Dallas Cowboys in targets last season with 120, a career high.
54. Behind Lamb on this year’s depth chart are rookie, Jalen Tolbert, Noah Brown, Simi Fehoko, Dennis Houston…Do I need to keep going?
55. Ezekiel Elliot has 2,026 total touches since his 2016 rookie season.
56. He totaled 1,289 all-purpose yards on 284 touches in 17 games.
57. Tony Pollard totaled 1,056 all-purpose yards on 169 touches in 15 games.
58. Pollard is getting drafted roughly 55 picks and seven rounds after Ezekiel Elliot in 10-team PPR leagues.
59. Najee Harris is the first rookie running back ever with 300 carries and 70 receptions.
60. He led the entire league with 381 touches.
61. He accounted for 29.7% of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ scrimmage yards in 2021.
62. He also logged 75.8% of the team’s rushing yards on 75.9% of snaps amongst Steelers running backs.
63. He played 100% of the running back snaps twice and 95% or more seven times.
64. Benny Snell Jr., Anthony McFarland Jr., and Mateo Durant are currently behind Harris on the depth chart.
65. Kevin O’Connell is the Minnesota Vikings’ new head coach.
66. He is the former offensive coordinator of the Super Bowl Champion Los Angeles Rams.
67. Over the last two seasons, with O’Connell as the O.C., only the Bills have targeted their wide receivers more than the Rams.
68. Additionally, the Rams have targeted their running backs a league-low 12.63% during that same two-year span.
69. Dalvin Cook is the starting running back for O’Connell’s Minnesota Vikings.
70. He has never played more than 14 games in five career regular seasons.
71. He is being drafted as a top-five running back.
72. The WR1, 2, and 3 on the 2021 Rams ran the most routes in the league per team dropbacks.
73. The WR3 ran the second-highest percent (80%) of routes per team dropbacks.
74. K.J. Osborn, the Vikings’ WR3, is going undrafted in most PPR leagues, outside of the top-75 wide receivers.
75. Vikings WR2, Adam Thielen, has scored 24 receiving touchdowns over his last 28 games.
76. Vikings head coach, Kevin O’Connell, was Kirk Cousins’ quarterback coach in 2017 in Washington.
77. Cousins finished as the QB6 in overall points and QB9 on a points-per-game basis that fantasy football season.
    1. He has never finished higher in either set of rankings.
78. Carson Wentz is the new starting quarterback in Washington.
79. He is on his third NFL team in as many seasons.
80. He is averaging just 17.03 points per game in 56 regular season games since tearing his ACL in 2017.
81. No wide receiver has ever averaged more than 14.0 PPR points per game in a fantasy football season with Carson Wentz as the starting quarterback.
82. Terry McLaurin has an ADP of WR17.
83. The WR17 on a points-per-game basis in 2021 averaged 15.2 points per game.
84. The WR17 on a points-per-game basis in 2021 is, now Tennessee Titan, Robert Woods.
85. There are more than 50% of vacant wide receiver targets available in Tennessee following the departure of A.J. Brown and Julio Jones.
86. Woods’ competition for targets at wide receiver are first-round pick, Treylon Burks, fifth-round pick, Kyle Phillips, and third-year receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, to name a few.
87. Westbrook Ikhine has 64 total targets over two NFL seasons.
88. Robert Woods is barely getting drafted as a top-100 player.
89. A rookie wide receiver has finished as a top-10 PPR fantasy receiver in each of the last two seasons.
    1. Justin Jefferson (2020) and Ja’Marr Chase (2021) for those wondering.
90. Drake London, Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Jameson Williams, Jahan Dotson, and Treylon Burks are all first-round picks from the 2022 NFL Draft, selected in that order.
91. Christian McCaffrey is a consensus top-two pick in 2022 fantasy football drafts.
92. He’s only played 10 total games over the last two seasons.
93. He’s averaging 21 carries for 107.6 yards and 1.33 rushing touchdowns in his last three Week 1 performances.
94. That also includes 7.33 receptions for 69.3 yards on an average of eight targets per game, as well.
95. McCaffrey is averaging 33.03 PPR points per game to open the season over the last three years.
96. He’s finished as RB1, RB2, and RB1 in his last three Week 1 games played, respectively.
97. Christian McCaffrey has finished as a top-eight running back in 95% of his fully healthy games since 2019.
98. D’Onta Foreman signed a 1-year/$2 million deal with the Panthers this off-season.
99. In nine games last season, in place of Derrick Henry in Tennessee, Foreman averaged 15.77 touches per game.
100. Foreman is going undrafted in most 2022 fantasy football leagues.