You can’t move forward without knowing something about the past, or something like that. Part of our preseason package includes that look back to the 2018 NFL campaign, with individual articles about the Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver and the Tight End position (no one gives a crap about kickers, and defenses can change greatly with schematic/coaching/player moves). Is what you are about to read below 100 percent applicable to the player’s outlook in 2019? Probably not. There are role changes, coaching changes and personnel changes that have to be factored in. Still, there are likely to be more than a couple of nuggets in what resides below to help you construct a winning roster in 2019.
LEAGUE NUMBERS
In 2018 there were 11,952 points scored, the second most in league history (11,985 in 2013).
In 2018 there were 1,371 touchdowns, an all-time record (previously 1,338 in 2013).
In 2018 the league averaged 23.4 points per game per team setting an all-time record.
In 2018 there were 12-year highs in Yards Per Attempt (7.35), Touchdown Passes (848) and Fantasy Points (8,690). The average the last 12 years are 7.11, 762 and 7,524.
In 2018 the league QB Rating was 92.9 percent. That’s the highest mark in league history.
The league threw the ball 57.1 percent of the time, the third highest mark in the 21st century (the record is 57.9 percent in 2016).
There were 132 games last year of 300 passing yards. In those games, the quarterbacks didn’t even produce a .500 winning percentage at 64-66-2.
Last season quarterbacks posted decade highs in rushing attempts, rushing yards and rushing scores.
Last season, quarterbacks produced their fantasy points thusly: 55 percent passing yards, 34 percent touchdowns and 11 percent rushing yards. Joe Flacco led quarterbacks with 65 percent of his yards coming in the air. Lamar Jackson was the lowest at 28 percent. Patrick Mahomes led the league with 45 percent of his points coming on touchdown passes. Lamar Jackson was the lowest at 14 percent. Lamar Jackson led the way on the ground with 58 percent of his points coming with his wheels (Josh Allen was at 48 percent). Phillip Rivers was the lowest at about 0.2 percent.
QUARTERBACKS
Josh Allen ran for eight scores. He joined Cam Newton, RGIII and Vince Young as the only rookie QBs to rush for at least seven scores in the Super Bowl era. Allen produced 40.5 fantasy points in his final game, the most points ever scored by a quarterback in Week 17 of the fantasy season. Allen produced a pass attempt of at least 20-yards on 19.7 percent of his throws. Since 2006, that’s the third highest mark. Allen completed just 36.5 percent of his 63 deep passes (over 20-yards in the air) throwing for seven scores and seven picks. Only Case Keenum, with eight, had more such picks. Allen was also last in football with a 28.3 percent completion rate when under pressure. Allen held the ball longer than any QB in football with an average time to throw of 3.20 seconds. Only two others were over three seconds in Deshaun Watson (3.13) and Russell Wilson (3.04). 
Tom Brady threw for the most touchdowns ever by a 40-year-old in 2017 when he tossed 32 passing scores. Last season he posted the second-best mark ever as he threw for 29. He has led the Pats to at least 400-points in 12-straight seasons, an all-time record. Brady has thrown at least 28 scores each of the past five years, and his average effort in that time has been 4,273-32-7. In 4-of-5 seasons he’s thrown single-digit picks only missing last season with 11. That said, Brady has seen his yards per game mark dip each of the last three years down to a four-year low last season of 272.2 yards.
Drew Brees threw a touchdown pass to 14 men last season (playoffs included), the most in NFL history. Further, eight of those players weren’t even drafted. Remarkable. Brees posted a 131.4 QB Rating when throwing to the wideout, the highest mark in football. Brees posted a 118.1 QB Rating in the red zone, the highest mark in football. Brees posted a 128.6 QB Rating on deep passes, the best mark in football (he also led football with a 52.7 percent completion rate on such passes on his way to nine scores and just one pick). Brees posted a 74.4 percent completion rate, the highest mark ever. Brees threw for 27 scores and just one pick when the pocket was clean last year. Mitch Trubisky threw 11 picks with a clean pocket. Finally, Brees led all QBs with a 143.8 QB Rating on play action (11 scores and no picks), followed by Philip Rivers (128.6) and Russell Wilson (126.0).
Derek Carr averaged 6.26 yards per pass with a clean pocket, the lowest mark in football. Carr averaged 30 passing scores in 2015-16. The last two years he’s averaged 22 scores a season. Alas, he’s averaged 12 picks the last two years after averaging 10 the two years prior.
Kirk Cousins produced a passer rate under pressure of 91.5 through Week 9. From Week’s 10-17 the mark dropped all the way down to 20th in football at 69.5. Still, he led the league with a 64.0 percent completion rate while under pressure (no one else was at 61 percent). Cousins led the league with 17 passes batted down, three more than Blake Bortles, but he still finished with an elite 70.1 percent completion rate (the 10th best mark of all-time). That’s a completion mark of 67.8 percent the last four seasons while he’s averaged 4,368 passing yards and 28 scores a season. Tom Brady has one season ever with a 67.8 completion rate, and Ben Roethlisberger has thrown for 4,368 yards just twice in his career.
Sam Darnold threw 17 passes that were turnover-worthy the first nine weeks, the most in football. Over his final four games, he hit on 64 percent of his passes while throwing for six scores and just one pick. On the road last season he threw for five scores and eight picks while averaging a terrible 179 passing yards an outing. In four games against the AFC East, he threw two touchdowns while being picked off seven times.
Joe Flacco has averaged just 7.5 passing yards per attempt the last three years on passes to a receiver that was open by three yards. That’s the worst rate in football. Last season, on passes of at least 20-air yards, he was last in the league with a completion rate of 30.8 percent.
Nick Foles in non-Jeff Fisher seasons: 64 percent completion rate, 7.4 YPA and a 95.2 QB Rating. Over the last two years, amongst the 46 QBs who have taken 500 snaps, he ranks 21st in the Pro Football Focus rankings system. Foles also has 35 passing scores and 26 interceptions his last 34 regular season games. The last three seasons he’s produced a weekly fantasy point total that ranked in the top-15 that week just twice. He has never appeared in more than 13 regular season games.
Jared Goff has thrown an average of 30 touchdown passes against 10 picks the last two years. Last year in 13 victories he threw six picks. In three losses, he threw for six picks. He actually threw for 12.7 more yards in the three loses than in the victories. Goff threw six picks in five December while completing just 58.9 percent of his passes. He threw for 23 scores against two picks in the red zone. He threw 10 picks on 352 passing attempts out of the shotgun and just two picks on 209 snaps taken under center. Finally, it should be noted that an average home game for Goff last season was 342 yards and 2.75 touchdown passes while on the road he was at a mere 244 and 1.25.
Lamar Jackson didn’t pass well, but because of all the running, he averaged 0.84 points per dropback, the most in football (DraftKings scoring). Patrick Mahomes was second at 0.72. Jackson, in seven games as a starter, threw for five touchdown passes while averaging a pathetic 159.1 yards an outing. All season long he threw one touchdown pass in the first half. One hundred and eighteen of his 170 passes were out of the shotgun. Jackson averaged 17 carries and 79.4 yards a game as a runner while filling the starting role. That’s simply not sustainable for a 16-game season.
Case Keenum led football with 37 dropped passes. Patrick Mahomes (32), Andrew Luck (32) and Blake Bortles (31) were all over 30 as well. Mitch Trubisky had just 10 drops, Deshaun Watson 11 and Jameis Winston 12.
Andrew Luck threw a touchdown on 44 percent of his attempts inside the 10-yard line. Luck also set a record with 239-straight drop backs without being sacked. Luck posted 60 percent of his passing yards through the air, the third highest mark in football. The last three seasons he’s played 15 games, Luck has thrown for at least 31 scores each season while averaging 36.7 touchdown passes a season. He was picked off five times at home but 10 times on the road last season. He threw 23 passing scores his first eight games and 16 the final eight. In four games against the NFC, he threw for just five scores.
Patrick Mahomes produced the most points by a QB in fantasy history. He edged out the effort of Peyton Manning in 2013 by a handful of points (four points per passing score), even though Peyton threw for five more scores (55). The reason is that Mahomes ran for 303 more yards and one more rushing score (two to one). Mahomes had a touchdown rate of 8.6 percent, the seventh best ever. He also became the third player ever to toss 50 touchdowns (Peyton Manning, Tom Brady). Using ESPN scoring, Mahomes had at least 15 points in all 16 games he played. The only other QB to ever do that was Brady in 2011. Also at ESPN, 59 percent of the teams that owned Mahomes made the playoffs. Mahomes threw for 21 touchdowns on first down, more than Eli Manning and Matthew Stafford tossed all season in all situations. Mahomes had the most picks in football on plays that took 2.6 or more seconds to release the ball with 11 which was tied by Andrew Luck. Both men had one more pick than Jared Goff and Josh Allen.
Eli Manning threw for 200-yards 13 times last season. He threw for three touchdown passes twice last season. He didn’t have one game where he did both. Manning had a 66.0 percent completion rate (his previous best was 63.1 percent), the mark would have been 74.9 percent if none of his passes were dropped. Eli was picked 11 times, his lowest mark in nine years, a period of time in which he averaged 17.1 picks a season.
Marcus Mariota stinks. His last 29 games he’s thrown 24 touchdowns while being picked off 23 times. Per 16 games the last two years he’s at 2,880 passing yards and 12 touchdown passes, ergo, he stinks.
Baker Mayfield broke the rookie touchdown record (27) in just 14 games. His total of 266.1 passing yards a game was a rookie record. He was 10th in yards per attempt despite the fact that six percent of his passes were dropped (the second highest percentage in baseball). He was also second in football in Red Zone Passer Rating at 113.7. Mayfield produced the 10th most fantasy points in games that Freddie Kitchen was in charge of the offense.
Cam Newton had a 67.9 percent completion rate, a career best. He started the season with 15 scores and four picks through eight games. The second half of the season he threw nine scores and was picked off nine times. He also carried the ball just 28 times his last six outings. Newton had four rushing scores on the year, his lowest mark ever. Newton averaged 4.8 YPC, below his 5.2 career mark. His 7.2 carries per game were just below his 7.6 career mark. Newton threw for 24 scores last season, a moderate mark but still a three-year high. He’s failed to throw for 3,600 yards each of the past three years and hasn’t thrown for 4,000 yards since 2011. Matthew Stafford stunk last year but he threw for 3,777 yards.
Dak Prescott is the first player in league history to throw for 20 scores, while rushing for five scores, in each of his first three seasons. He is also the only QB to ever have at least 30 wins and 25 or fewer interceptions his first three seasons. Still, Prescott has thrown 23, 22 and 22 scores in his three seasons. Andy Dalton had 21 passing scores last season in 11 outings. Dak’s fantasy value has really been kept aloft by his running, as he’s done an end zone dance six times in each of his three seasons as a ball carrier. Prescott is also averaging a mere 492 pass attempts and 3,625 yards a season. Last year, 15 QBs threw the ball more than that, including Dak at 526, while 17 men threw for that many yards (Dak at 3,885). His fantasy value has really been driven by his legs.
Philip Rivers threw for at least two touchdown passes in 13-of-16 games in ‘18. That included 12-straight such efforts to start the season. He ran for seven yards… on the season (his rushing yard high in four seasons is 10). Each of the last six seasons Rivers has thrown at least 28 passing scores, and in that time he’s averaged 31 passing scores a season. He’s also thrown for at least 4,286 yards in each of the six years with an average effort of 4,460.8 yards. That’s a 6-year average with 4,461 and 31. Big Ben has done that just twice in his career, and Rivers has averaged that the last six years.
Aaron Rodgers led football last season with 58 passes thrown away. No one else had more than 40 (Jared Goff). At the other end of the spectrum, Andrew Luck threw 10 passes away. That’s 48 fewer toss-aways than Rodgers, three a game, and a massive number. With all those throwaways, Rodgers posted the second-worst completion percentage when under pressure at a terrible 37.7 percent. On plays that took 2.6 seconds or more to throw the ball, Rodgers threw 15 scores and just one pick. After throwing 40 sores in 2016, Rodgers has tossed just 41 scores in 23 games. The last two years he has 41 touchdown passes while Patrick Mahomes threw 50 scores last year. Still, Rodgers never beats himself and threw a remarkable two picks last season in 597 pass attempts. The resulting 0.3 interception rate was the best of all-time for a single season. His 1.5 percent career mark is also the best ever.
Ben Roethlisberger threw the ball for 5,129 yards (seventh most ever) on 675 pass attempts (fourth-most ever) last season. Big Ben also threw for a career-best 34 touchdown passes. The Steelers threw the ball on 66 percent of their passes in ’18 when the game score was within a touchdown, the highest rate in football. Big Ben got rid of the ball quicker than anyone last season with an average time to throw of 2.47 seconds, microseconds ahead of Philip Rivers and Drew Brees. The last three years Ben has thrown at least 28 scores, but he also led the NFL with 16 picks last season and he’s averaging 14.8 interceptions the last four years even though he’s averaged just 14.3 games played.
Josh Rosen had a mere 80.9 QB Rating when operating out of a clean pocket last season, a poor mark. Can’t solely blame him of course as the offense was all sorts of messed up. Rosen was under pressure on 40 percent of his dropback, the seventh highest rate in football.
Matt Ryan produced the 14th most points in a season by a QB last year as he threw for 4,924 yards, 35 scores and seven interceptions. He also had three rushing scores. Ryan was the only QB to score at least 19 points in each game during Weeks 14-17 (ESPN scoring). Ryan had 27 scores and just three picks with a clean pocket last season. Each of the last eight years, Ryan has thrown at least 4,000 yards of passes while averaging 4,582 yards. The last four seasons he’s also averaged 28.6 touchdown passes a campaign. Two of the last three years Ryan has thrown at least 35 touchdown passes. Drew Brees has thrown 35 touchdown passes twice in six years. Back to the yardage mark. How many seasons of 4,582 yards does Andrew Luck have? Two. What about Aaron Rodgers? The answer is one. Matt Ryan is the Rodney Dangerfield of quarterbacks.
Matthew Stafford failed to throw for 4,000 yards for the first time in eight years. He also had a six-year low with 21 touchdown passes. Still, he completed at least 65-percent of his passes for a fourth straight year which ain’t all that bad for a guy who averaged a 59.6 percent mark his first five years in the league.
Mitch Trubisky led all QBs with a 104.1 QB Rating on short pass attempt (nine yards or less). Trubisky had a league-worst 11 picks with a clean pocket and that means his TD/INT ratio was a mere 1.91 with a clean pocket, a poor number. His season was all over the place. At home, he has 19 touchdown passes in eight games. In six games on the road, he had five. In 11 victories last season he averaged 218.5 yards an outing through the air. In three losses he threw for 273.3 yards. His last seven games he averaged 201.3 yards per game with nine passing scores. That means his first seven games he threw for 15 touchdowns and 259.1 yards. Remove that one stellar effort against the Bucs and Trubisky threw for a 13-game average of 220.6 yards, 1.38 scores and 0.92 picks a game. If he does that over 16-games we’re at 3,530-22-15. Keep that in mind when you hear stories about him arriving. 
Deshaun Watson had an 88.2 QB Rating when under pressure to lead the league (he was under pressure on 281 dropbacks, the most in football). Here’s the rest of the top-5: Dak Prescott 87.1, Matt Ryan 86.3, Russell Wilson 86.2 and Jameis Winston 84.9. At the bottom of the spectrum – Josh Rosen (38.1), Sam Darnold (39.7), Josh Allen (47.4), Cam Newton (48.3) and Joe Flacco (51.9). Watson saw his per game point total drop from 24.1 points down to 20.7 in year two. However, Watson and Newton are the only QBs to average at least 20 points per game in each of their first two seasons in the league. Through 22 career games, Watson is second only to Newton in overall fantasy points. Watson led all QBs last season with 99 fantasy points in Weeks 14-17 (ESPN scoring).
Carson Wentz has appeared in just 24 games the last two years. Still, if you give him his career pace per game, and 16 games played, you end up with 4,061 passing yards, 28 passing scores and 11 picks. Only three QBs threw for 4,100 yards, with 28 scores and 11 or fewer picks in 2018 (Brady, Cousins, Ryan). He’s still looking for his first 4,000-yard season but it should be noted that after tossing 14 picks as a rookie he has thrown just 14 interceptions the last two years.
Russell Wilson was second in football with 33 completions on passed of at least 20-yards in the air (Patrick Mahomes led the way with 44). Of those 33 completions, Wilson was picked just one time while throwing 15 touchdowns to tie Mahomes and Big Ben for the league lead. Wilson also led football with 10 touchdown passes while under pressure, and he was picked off just three times. Wilson led football with a 119.2 QB Rating on pass plays that took 2.6 seconds or more, followed by Matt Ryan (108.6) and Drew Brees (108.0).
Jameis Winston had the worst completion rate in the NFC on deep passes (20 or more yards downfield) at 32.6 percent. Winston was also last amongst 30 qualifiers with just 62 passing attempts on play action (Jared Goff led the way with 203 such pass attempts). Winston threw for a career-best 272 yards a game last season, but he also had a career-worst 3.7 interception percentage with 14 picks in just 11 outings. He also fumbled the ball seven times which, amazingly, is a three year low after seasons of 10 and 15. For his career, he’s averaged 1.52 touchdown passes to interceptions.
