Splitsville: Remarkable rookie receivers

Let’s start this week’s Splitsville by looking at the historically great rookie receiver class of '14. Last week, according to the NFL, nine rookies had at least 75 receiving yards, the most in a single week in NFL history. The list includes everyone on the list below except Odell Beckham (bye), Jordan Matthews, Allen Hurns, Jarvis Landry and TE Jace Amaro.

Amaro was put in there by the database and not by me, but let’s leave him in because I think this pace is more of a floor in the second half. Bryant is so clearly the leader because he’s only played two games and we pro-rate for 16. That’s not fair, I know, relative to some receiver like Donte Moncrief who was merely active other games while receiving negligible snap counts. I would rank them Benjamin, Watkins, Moncrief, Bryant, Beckham, Brown, Cooks, Matthews and Evans the rest of the way. But this is a nice group to choose from. Whoever is cheapest is probably the best play and my guess is that’s Brown.

I’ve liked Brown since the preseason based on feedback from Gil Brandt (legendary former Cowboys scout, inventor of the 40-yard dash, and NFL.com draft guru). And when you are compared by personnel men, including objective ones, to guys like Anquan Boldin and Marvin Harrison, you must to be rostered in every league.

Are these rookies facts or flukes? Rookie receivers with at least 60 catches and eight receiving TDs since the merger are Randy Moss, Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, Boldin, Bill Brooks, Cris Collinsworth, Harrison, Kevin Johnson and Keyshawn Johnson. There are a lot of hits there. Even Brooks and Kevin Johnson had good fantasy seasons following their rookie year. And Williams did too. So I’d bet on this class again, wherever the price is best. And don’t forget Jeff Janis, who is going to be as good as all of them and who is going to come out of nowhere next year for everyone except you, dear readers.

This is such an insane year for passing, which is obviously helping the rookie wide receivers and really everyone. But it’s all still relative. Here are the current scoring leaders: Andrew Luck (191), Peyton Manning (166), Aaron Rodgers (165), Philip Rivers (160), Russell Wilson (147), Jay Cutler (145), Ben Roethlisberger (142), Tom Brady (141), Matt Ryan (133), Drew Brees (128), Tony Romo (126), Matthew Stafford (126). There’s a top 12. But Luck, Rodgers, Rivers, Cutler, Brady and Stafford haven’t had byes, so adjust them accordingly in these rankings. It’s a tight grouping. And below this group, you have Eli Manning, Nick Foles, Cam Newton, Ryan Tannehill, Carson Palmer, who all are plug-and-play in my opinion. So if you trade for a quarterback, I think you’re nuts.

Now, I get that we in the industry roster less quarterbacks than civilians. People don’t know who to draft, they draft a quarterback. At least it’s a name. They also worry about quarterback injuries despite so many rules over decades being customized to prevent them. But that’s 17 quarterbacks who I have no problem with and it’s hard for me to believe you can’t roster one of them for free, every week, and even stream a few of them.

Finally a hat tip to maybe the best fantasy player ever relative to his position, Rob Gronkowski. On Sunday, he’ll look to post his 50th TD reception in his 59th game. That would tie Randy Moss for fewest games to 50 touchdowns since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Among tight ends, Gronk, of course, is in a league of his own. The fastest ever to 50 touchdowns today is Antonio Gates, who took 92 games to get there.

Note I hate scoring fumbles in our game. Are we trying to make a statement? Do we want our player running with two hands on the football? Not fighting for every yard? Fumbles are hardly ever careless. There are 11 guys on defense trying to cause them and sometimes they’re inevitable. And if we’re going to score them, why just not score “fumbles” instead of focusing on lost ones. What happens after a fumble is random. But for the record, DeMarco Murray’s touches per fumble is 46.4, which is 22nd of the 33 backs with the most carries. And how about yards per fumble? Then it’s one fumble every 259 yards, which is 18th of 33. He doesn’t really have a problem. He’s maybe one less fumble away from being good at holding on to the ball, too.

Finally, a note about league management. I advise having commissioner overrides so you can put at least one and at most two teams into the playoffs based only on points. So head-to-head decides most playoff spots but you don’t have to worry about the absurdity of your points leader missing the playoffs. Ideally the top scoring teams all make it. If we need to design formats to give this a little push, let’s do that.