Weekly Twitter Observations

Kevin OBrien

In Twitter Observations, we focus on some of the interesting tweets you may have missed. Twitter can be overwhelming with the amount of information that streams live, but it also proves to be one of the fastest and easiest ways to communicate. In 140 characters or less you can learn something about a player you may have never thought of from trends, stats or analysis. Let’s review some of the best tweets I’ve captured this week.

News

Tyreek Hill, WR KC

Kansas City head coach Andy Reid said during the winter meetings that he expects Tyreek Hill to become a bigger part of the Chiefs offense in 2017. With the departure of Jamaal Charles, I can envision Hill filling the receiving role Charles once had. Hill finished 2016 with 199 fantasy points in PPR, despite having the second fewest targets of the top 50 wide receivers last year with 83. The dynamic role Hill has filled also provided him with the most rushing attempts of the top 50 wide receivers, increasing his total PPR production.

The unfortunate part of Hill is twofold. First, you will have to pay up to draft him in a startup with his March DLF ADP at 53, ahead of Randall Cobb, Jamison Crowder and Jordan Matthews. The second, and a major issue for some people with Hill, is his domestic violence assault on his pregnant girlfriend, which he plead guilty and was given three years’ probation.

Understandably, some will be unable to draft, and more importantly struggle to root for a player with this past. While, I find his actions deplorable, I feel this is an individual person’s decision whether you can compartmentalize this or not. Personally, I can’t, because for me a part of fantasy is rooting for my players on Sunday. In Hill’s case, I will win with others. Everyone deserves a second chance, but in this situation it’s not my role to grant him one; it’s the Chiefs’.

David Johnson, RB ARI

Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians indicated this week that David Johnson is too young to be overused. NFL Research found this statistic where the leader in touches only rushed for 1,000 yards the next season. I felt “lead the NFL” was a bit specific, so I searched Pro Football Reference for running backs with 400 touches and 1,000 yard rushing seasons in back-to-back seasons. I found nine instances, of them, there were eight different running backs since 1980. Impressively, Emmitt Smith accomplished this feat twice, both in 1991-1992, and 1994-1995.

PlayerYearAgeRuAttRuYdsruYPCRuTDTouch
Eric Dickerson19832339018084.6418441
Eric Dickerson19842437921055.5514400
James Wilder19842640715443.7913492
James Wilder19852736513003.5610418
Emmitt Smith19912236515634.2812414
Emmitt Smith19922337317134.5918432
Emmitt Smith19942536814844.0321418
Emmitt Smith19952637717734.725439
Terrell Davis19972536917504.7415411
Terrell Davis19982639220085.1221417
Curtis Martin19982536912873.498412
Curtis Martin19992636714643.995412
Edgerrin James19992136915534.2113431
Edgerrin James20002238717094.4213450
Ricky Williams20022538318534.8416430
Ricky Williams20032639213723.59442
LaDainian Tomlinson20022337216834.5214451
LaDainian Tomlinson20032431316455.2613413

Stats

Josh Hermsmeyer – Writer, RotoViz

Josh has been doing incredible work with his Air Yards application providing great ways to review data. Check out his new app!

IDP

Tom Kislingbury – Writer, DLF

Tom has been posting some awesome defensive statistics, and I loved this one on the Buccaneers defense. Clearly since firing Raheem Morris in January of 2012, the defense has been improving in each season.

Fantasy News

The Fantasy Authority

The crew at The Fantasy Authority is running a promotion, with proceeds going to a great cause. One thing I’ve always loved about this fantasy community is that we can band together and contribute to the world around us, outside of our hobby.

With so much information on Twitter, there are so many great minds contributing great discussion, articles, and bits of data, truly a hot bed of fantasy goodness. I will be doing my best to capture the highlights of the week and mining it out in one place for you.

kevin obrien