2016 was a strange season

[JohnH19]

Three playoff teams gave up more points than they scored and one of the favorites in the NFC gave up over 400 but more than offset that by scoring 540. This is not the NFL I'm familiar with.

[JWL]

According to pro-football-reference's Play Index, 2016 leads in the category of "most wide receivers with 50 or more catches who averaged single digit yardage per catch".

When I ran this it included Jim Jensen, Reggie Bush, Dexter McCluster and Coby Fleener.

I eliminated them below to only show true wide receivers-

Code: Select all

1994- Ricky Sanders         67 catches       599 yards
2001- Peter Warrick         70 catches       667 yards
2002- Troy Brown            97 catches       890 yards
2005- Jabar Gaffney         55 catches       492 yards
2006- Eric Moulds           57 catches       557 yards
      Rod Smith             52 catches       512 yards
2008- T.J. Houshmandzadeh   92 catches       904 yards
2009- Andre Caldwell        51 catches       432 yards
2010- Wes Welker            86 catches       848 yards
      Danny Amendola        85 catches       689 yards
2011- Austin Collie         54 catches       514 yards
2012- Kendall Wright        64 catches       626 yards
2013- Ace Sanders           51 catches       484 yards
2014- Jarvis Landry         84 catches       758 yards
      James Jones           73 catches       666 yards
      Percy Harvin          51 catches       483 yards
2015- Golden Tate           90 catches       813 yards
      Tavon Austin          52 catches       473 yards
      Davante Adams         50 catches       483 yards
2016- Larry Fitzgerald     107 catches      1023 yards
      Anquan Boldin         67 catches       584 yards
      Tyreek Hill           61 catches       593 yards
      Tavon Austin          58 catches       509 yards
      Cordarrelle Patterson 52 catches       453 yards   

[Rupert Patrick]

In 2016 we saw a team (Carolina Panthers) lose ten times more games than they lost the previous season. I don't believe that has ever happened before.

Phillip Rivers led the league with only 21 interceptions.

Ezekiel Elliott was the first rookie to lead the NFL in rushing since Edgerrin James in 1999. I think he will probably be voted league MVP, with Earl Campbell being the last rookie to win a league MVP vote.

[BD Sullivan]

In 2016 we saw a team (Carolina Panthers) lose ten times more games than they lost the previous season. I don't believe that has ever happened before.

It was nine, 15-1 to 6-10

These teams matched that:

9 games
1964 Giants: 11-3 to 2-10-2
2002 Bears: 13-3 to 4-12

These teams were close:

8 games
1981 Patriots: 10-6 to 2-14
2011 Colts: 10-6 to 2-14
2015 Cowboys 12-4 to 4-12

[Rupert Patrick]

In 2016 we saw a team (Carolina Panthers) lose ten times more games than they lost the previous season. I don't believe that has ever happened before.

It was nine, 15-1 to 6-10

These teams matched that:

9 games
1964 Giants: 11-3 to 2-10-2
2002 Bears: 13-3 to 4-12

These teams were close:

8 games
1981 Patriots: 10-6 to 2-14
2011 Colts: 10-6 to 2-14
2015 Cowboys 12-4 to 4-12

In 2016, the Panthers lost nine more games than they lost in 2015, but their ratio of losses from 2016 to 2015 was 10-1. They lost ten times as many games in 2016 than they lost in 2015.

[Rupert Patrick]

According to pro-football-reference's Play Index, 2016 leads in the category of "most wide receivers with 50 or more catches who averaged single digit yardage per catch".

When I ran this it included Jim Jensen, Reggie Bush, Dexter McCluster and Coby Fleener.

I eliminated them below to only show true wide receivers-

Code: Select all

1994- Ricky Sanders         67 catches       599 yards
2001- Peter Warrick         70 catches       667 yards
2002- Troy Brown            97 catches       890 yards
2005- Jabar Gaffney         55 catches       492 yards
2006- Eric Moulds           57 catches       557 yards
      Rod Smith             52 catches       512 yards
2008- T.J. Houshmandzadeh   92 catches       904 yards
2009- Andre Caldwell        51 catches       432 yards
2010- Wes Welker            86 catches       848 yards
      Danny Amendola        85 catches       689 yards
2011- Austin Collie         54 catches       514 yards
2012- Kendall Wright        64 catches       626 yards
2013- Ace Sanders           51 catches       484 yards
2014- Jarvis Landry         84 catches       758 yards
      James Jones           73 catches       666 yards
      Percy Harvin          51 catches       483 yards
2015- Golden Tate           90 catches       813 yards
      Tavon Austin          52 catches       473 yards
      Davante Adams         50 catches       483 yards
2016- Larry Fitzgerald     107 catches      1023 yards
      Anquan Boldin         67 catches       584 yards
      Tyreek Hill           61 catches       593 yards
      Tavon Austin          58 catches       509 yards
      Cordarrelle Patterson 52 catches       453 yards   

It seems to have become a trend over the last 2-3 years, what do you attribute it to? It doesn't seem like a fluke to me.

[ChrisBabcock]

That Fitzgerald stat line looks bizarre. 107 catches yielding barely over 1000 yards.

[JWL]

It seems to have become a trend over the last 2-3 years, what do you attribute it to? It doesn't seem like a fluke to me.

There are more short passes to wide receivers these days. Three of this season's guys (Patterson, Hill, Austin) are what we might call "gadget" players. They catch many passes behind or at the line of scrimmage (extended handoffs, really) and are tasked with trying to make something special happen. Usually, and the yards per catch figure proves it, nothing special happens.

Fitzgerald and Boldin have lost speed but still have good hands. Boldin, who was slow (relatively speaking) in his prime, cannot outrun anyone anymore. He catches the ball, maybe gains a few yards and that is it.

Head coaches are more afraid of turnovers than ever before. Can't let the quarterback throw it deep too often.

3rd-and-long these days with many teams means having the quarterback throw short of the first down markers and hope the pass catcher breaks some tackles.

I don't like watching it and I don't like the statistics it causes.

[JuggernautJ]

On a local (San Francisco) note: the un- and re- retirement of Anthony Davis was a strange act to follow.

Davis played 7 games in 2014 and then retired for health reasons (partly concussion related).
After sitting out all of 2015 he attempted a comeback but failed to win a starting job. Another concussion and/or repeated games on the inactive list lead Davis to walk away from the game... again and(probably) finally.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/1764 ... -again-nfl

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/p ... viAn27.htm

[NWebster]

DPOY winners from each of the last 4 seasons missed a material chunk on time.

It feels like other than QB there were few standout performers across the league, Elliott and Johnson'said rushing seasons don't stand out historically, Antonio Brownot, Beckham, etc were quite what they were in the past few years. With the exception of passing yards leader Brees and passers-by rating leader Ryan, few historically good performances. Marshall Yanda may be the most impressive performer I watched aside from Ryan, Brady and late-season Rodgers (even Brees didn't impress the eye the way he used to).