Using yards per route run data to pinpoint wide receiver breakouts, sleepers, more
If you Google the phrase “yards per route run,” the results pervasively portray a level of confusion regarding the metric and its relevance. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase before and wondered why Fantasy football analysts obsess over it, placing so much emphasis on a player’s yard per route run rate.
Fantasy football is a hobby that allows NFL fans to deepen their connection to and love for the game of football. But really, Fantasy football exists as its own unique and sovereign space. It is rarely a reflection of real-life football. Fantasy football results reflect a player’s ability to compile whichever arbitrary stats that we as a group decide are worth points. A running back can catch a pass behind the line of scrimmage, trip over his feet, lose yardage, and still accrue Fantasy points.
Your Fantasy football league – whether it rewards one, half, or no points per reception, whether it allows you to guess which kicker might send that beautiful oblong ball through the uprights on any given week, whether you’re playing to win big money or bragging right over your buddies – whatever your Fantasy football experience may be, it exists separate from the game that we watch on Sundays. Real-life football is described by statistics. Fantasy football is produced solely from statistics. By nature, the Fantasy football community tends to be a bit obsessive about analytics.
Over time, a collective attempt to perfect the process of predicting player statistical outcomes has led to a number of “made up” analytics that illuminates potential future Fantasy value. Some prove to carry a strong correlation to Fantasy production, while others settle in as cool descriptors of what we’re seeing on the field.
A select few of these “made up” stats actually prove to be more predictive of future Fantasy points than a player’s past Fantasy point totals! You guessed it, yards per route run is one of those stats. It’s time to get on board with the glorious yard per route run movement and win some Fantasy football championships.
I invite you to consider approaching Fantasy football through a per-route lens. It’s not just yards per route run, there’s more! We have access to all sorts of awesome per-route data – targets per route run, yards per route run, and even first downs per route run – and I believe that this information is the next wave of improving Fantasy football analysis. It would be my honor and joy to help you learn more about how to apply it and accomplish all of your wildest Fantasy football dreams.
