With the regular season concluded, it’s a good time to take a look at how quarterbacks arrayed in varying statistical categories. It was a good year for rookies hitting the ground running and these statistical looks reveal more than just category totals. Let’s take a look at how they fared per play. A minimum of 200 passes were considered.
2024 Fantasy Points
Burrow led the NFL with 4,918 passing yards and 43 touchdowns. It was a career year for him and Lamar Jackson continued his hot streak since OC Todd Monken finally found the key to unlock his potential. It was a a year of newness since only four of those quarterbacks above were also in the Top-10 of 2023 (Jackson, Allen, Hurts, Goff). Patrick Mahomes as a fantasy difference-maker has taken a major hit.
Let’s move on to other measurements to see the top leaders from 2024. It’s a way to target rising stars who could perform even better this upcoming season.
Passes per touchdown
Baker Mayfield loses his offensive coordinator of Liam Cohen (Jacksonville head coach), so he’ll have to learn yet another offense. Lamar Jackson coupled with Derrick Henry for the top rushing offense, but that also meant on the occasion he would throw to the endzone, the defense was still tracking down Henry.
Passes per interception
The more passes per interception, the more error-free the quarterbacking. Justin Herbert may have had a young and shaky set of receivers to start the season, but he dominated this metric with only three interceptions on the season. Lamar Jackson was next with just four interceptions. Notable was Caleb Williams who ranked No. 3 despite struggling behind a weak offensive line. Far better than any other rookie quarterback, even Jayden Daniels (53).
Passes per sack
The surprise here is that Deshaun Watson (CLE) and Jalen Hurts (PHI) had what was considered to be above average offensive lines. The Eagles line was considered Top-3 if not the best. And yet they were more often sacked than almost anyone. Hurts propensity to run may have been involved. Caleb Williams was beaten up regularly. This is also a measurement of holding on to the ball for too long, so three rookies is not that shocking.
Yards per completion
Like the deep ball? Seems to come more often from the running quarterbacks that keep the play alive long enough for the receivers to get down the field. Richardson is slated to start again this season, but his problem wasn’t length of completions but his accuracy instead. Not a ton of difference in this metric.
Plays per rush
Those rookie quarterbacks look more likely to bolt than most quarterbacks, but still not as often as Jalen Hurts who didn’t reach four passing plays without taking off on a run. The top rushers were all younger players other than Hurts and Allen. Today’s NFL is kinder to rushing quarterbacks and they show up well in fantasy stats.
Yards per rush
Mostly young quarterbacks here, but encouraging that Drake Maye’s 54 runs over 13 games offered the top mark in the metric. Baker Mayfield only rushed 60 times but performed well when he did. But again, youth be served when looking for a rushing quarterback. Jalen Hurts ran a position-high 150 times but only averaged 4.2 yards, but that includes plenty of tush-pushes to hold down his average.
50-Yard completions
Distance touchdowns are always over-valued in fantasy scoring because they do not happen often or reliably. What is interesting is that the rookie Jayden Daniels (5) led the entire NFL and his receiving corps was limited to Terry McLaurin and… pretty much no one. Jordan Love also excelled at this metric despite not having a clear No. 1 receiver.
